By RICHIE HALL
WESTFIELD – Fishers boys basketball coach Garrett Winegar said that his team talks every day about defense being its identity.
“I don’t know if they believe that yet, but hopefully they’re starting to, because tonight they showed that when they’re engaged, they can be a good defensive team,” said Winegar.
The Tigers likely made believers out of themselves Thursday night at The Rock. Fishers played solid defense in the latter parts of its game with Westfield, and that helped the Tigers pull away in the fourth quarter for a 57-52 win over the host Shamrocks in an all-county and Hoosier Crossroads Conference game.
Westfield’s offense came out hot in the first quarter, making eight of 13 shot attempts for a 20-15 lead by the end of the period. Five different Shamrocks players scored, with Braden Smith getting seven of those points, including a three-point play and a floater towards the end of the quarter.
Lucas Prewitt scored five points for Fishers in that first quarter.
“We just really came out slow in the first, didn’t play well,” said Winegar. “I didn’t think it was a lack of effort or a lack of being engaged. I just thought we made some mental errors and dug ourselves a little hole. And from there, we pretty much played an even game for three quarters after we dug a little hole.”
The Tigers quickly cut Westfield’s lead to 20-19 early in the second quarter with a layin by Bryce Williams and a putback from Matt Brewer. Westfield responded with a 6-0 run; Nic Depasquale, Cam Haffner and Matthew Penley all made layins to get the ‘Rocks back up 26-19.
That was the pattern for the middle quarters of the game. Westfield would always stay a basket or two ahead, but Fishers kept within striking distance. The Shamrocks turned a 28-26 late second-quarter lead into a 34-26 third-quarter lead with two free throws from Penley at the 1:19 mark of the second, then Haffner and Braden Smith opened the third with baskets.
Braden Smith scored off a steal later to keep the ‘Rocks ahead 38-30 midway through the second. A 3-pointer by Sean Millsaps got the Tigers within 40-38, but Penley finished the third with a layin, and Haffner’s triple put Westfield ahead 45-38 to start the fourth.
After that, Fishers’ defense took over, not allowing the Shamrocks another basket. The Tigers went on an 11-1 run, started by a three-point play by Myles Stringer. Minutes later, Stringer threw in a 3 to get Fishers within one. Then Millsaps took over: His layin gave the Tigers a 47-46 lead, and he followed that up with two free throws for a 49-46 advantage.
Fishers would not trail again. Simmons later connected on an and-1 to give Fishers a 54-49 lead with 25.1 seconds left. A pair of free throws from Depasquale kept Westfield within 55-52 seconds later, but the ‘Rocks had to foul, and Williams clinched the games with his own pair of foul shots.
“Our guys never quit,” said Winegar. “We’ve been in this situation a couple times where we’ve either had a lead and haven’t been able to close, or we’ve been down a little bit and we’ve kind of folded. Tonight, they never quit. They kept coming, making big shots, bringing the effort on defense and I think that’s where we won the game.”
Simmons finished the game with 15 points and eight rebounds, while Millsaps scored 10 points. Braden Smith had 14 points and five rebounds for Westfield, with Penley also scoring 14 and Haffner adding 10.
The Tigers are now on top of the HCC standings with a 3-1 record and are 8-4 overall. Fishers continues a busy stretch of games tonight by hosting Carmel in a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
Westfield is 4-2 in the conference and 11-4 overall. The Shamrocks are back in action Tuesday at Harrison.
FISHERS 57, WESTFIELD 52
Fishers FG FT TP PF
Myles Stringer 2-3 1-1 6 5
Bryce Williams 3-5 2-3 9 4
Charlie Smith 1-4 5-8 7 1
Jeffrey Simmons 5-8 5-5 15 4
Lucas Prewitt 3-8 0-0 8 3
Sean Millsaps 2-5 2-2 10 1
Matt Brewer 1-1 0-0 2 1
Aidan Zimmer 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 17-34 15-19 57 19
Fishers 3-point shooting (7-18) Prewitt 2-7, Millsaps 2-3, Williams 2-3, Stringer 1-1, Smith 0-2, Simmons 0-2.
Fishers rebounds (18) Simmons 8, Millsaps 3, Prewitt 3, Williams 2, Stringer 1, Brewer 1.
Westfield FG FT TP PF
Braden Smith 5-12 4-5 14 3
Benji Welch 1-2 2-4 5 1
Matthew Penley 5-6 4-6 14 5
Cam Haffner 4-10 0-0 10 1
Nic Depasquale 2-5 3-6 7 3
Trey Dorton 0-1 0-0 0 2
Luke Van Dyke 1-1 0-0 2 0
Luke Naas 0-0 0-0 0 1
Kai Butterworth 0-0 0-0 0 1
Totals 18-37 13-21 52 17
Westfield 3-point shooting (2-10) Haffner 2-4, Smith 0-4, Welch 0-1, Dorton 0-1.
Westfield rebounds (16) Smith 5, Penley 4, Haffner 3, Depasquale 2, Welch 1, Butterworth 1.
Score by Quarters
Fishers 15 11 12 19 – 57
Westfield 20 10 12 10 – 52