BY CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – Wednesday night’s loss to Class 4A No. 3 Westfield was still fresh on the minds of the Noblesville Millers as they took the court Friday night against another Hoosier Crossroads Conference opponent in Franklin Central.
The 4A No. 4 Millers took out their frustrations on the visiting Flashes and did it in a pretty convincing fashion with a 61-31 victory.
Noblesville got off to a hot start offensively, but it was defense that kept Franklin Central fully in check in the first quarter. Holding the Flashes down with a 17-3 first quarter and just three made free throws, the visitors would also be without a made field goal in the first eight minutes.
“We challenged the guys on our toughness after Westfield. Not that we didn’t play hard. We played really hard against Westfield, but there were multiple plays we felt like we could have made,” said Noblesville varsity assistant Jake Hoffman.
Hoffman filled in extremely well on Friday night for head coach Scott McClelland, who was sidelined at home with a case of the flu.
The Millers responded in a big way last night after just their second loss on Wednesday. Franklin Central spent more time at the free throw line in the second, but more importantly, finally made their first field goal with 2:37 left in the first half.
“Seeing on film what we talk about everyday was just our message. How do you respond from failure? Failure can be a good thing and I feel like that really motivated our guys for tonight, especially when your head coach isn’t here. That’s a whole another burden in itself to come together,” continued Hoffman.
Franklin Central outscored the Millers 10-7 in the second, but Noblesville was still able to keep the lead in double digits at 24-13 at halftime.
“Obviously, whenever you guard the way we guarded tonight, it makes everything a lot easier. The way we guarded early, I felt like our offense was easy. We took some quick shots and there’s a fine line of trusting our defense and we kept getting stops in the second. We played too fast and didn’t have great shot selection and it allowed them to have a run,” stated Hoffman.
The Flashes started the third on a 7-4 run to get it under 10 at 28-20, but that only fueled the Millers. Noblesville had a burst of energy and decided to run. Numerous fast break layups sandwiched a Baron Walker three and before Franklin Central could blink, the scoreboard read 39-23.
“The third quarter we kind of settled back into getting stops. I thought our execution against their press was huge. We decided that we were going to attack it and that’s what we did,” said Hoffman.
A 21-10 third quarter helped increase the lead to 45-23. Hunter Walston would score eight of his points in the frame, most of them on fast breaks. Aaron Fine also added six and Baron Walker five in the third to distance the Millers from the Flashes.
Keeping its foot on the gas, Noblesville continued to pour it on in the fourth on its way to a 61-31 rout of Franklin Central.
“We did a good job of sharing it. It didn’t really matter what we ran offensively, we had a great mindset to just attack and that made it really, really easy,” stated Hoffman.
Balance is just the way this Miller team operates. It doesn’t matter who scores and how much. Playing basketball as a team and together is what has helped produce 13 wins in 15 games thus far.
“It was great togetherness and just trusting the next guy. Certain guys probably didn’t play as well as they could have either offensively, but I thought we did a great job of having an attack for somebody else mindset. That’s a heck of a win for our guys and hopefully we can keep building on it,” said Hoffman.
Baron Walker led all scorers with a game-high 15 points and four rebounds. Walker also knocked down three from outside 5-for-9 overall. Hunter Walston had 13 points and grabbed four boards, shooting 6-of-9. Aaron Fine scored nine, snagged seven rebounds and dished out six assists. Justin Curry and Ryan Vetor each scored seven, with Aiden Brewer adding six with five rebounds.
Noblesville (13-2, 2-2 HCC) is off until Friday when it hosts Hamilton Southeastern in HCC play. The Royals were 42-35 winners at home over Zionsville last night.
NOBLESVILLE 61, FRANKLIN CENTRAL 31
Noblesville FG FT TP PF
Aaron Fine 4-12 1-2 9 2
Justin Curry 3-14 0-0 7 3
Aiden Brewer 3-3 0-0 6 1
Hunter Walston 6-9 0-1 13 1
Will Smits 1-3 0-0 2 1
Baron Walker 5-9 2-2 15 1
Luke Etchison 1-2 0-0 2 0
Ryan Vetor 3-3 0-0 7 2
Adam Fine 0-2 0-0 0 0
Totals 26-57 3-5 61 11
Score by Quarters
Franklin Central 3 10 10 8 – 31
Noblesville 17 7 21 16 – 61
Noblesville 3-point shooting (6-18) Walker 3-5, Curry 1-6, Walston 1-3, Vetor 1-1, Aa. Fine 0-2, Ad. Fine 0-1.
Noblesville rebounds (38) Aa. Fine 7, Curry 6, Brewer 5, Smits 5, Vetor 5, Walston 4, Walker 4, Etchison 2.