Holiday Classic: Eagles are held at bay by Cougars

Dec. 31—INDIANAPOLIS — It’s been a bit of a roller coaster for the Zionsville boys basketball team so far this season, with some big wins and some tough losses.

Just as it appeared that they were on the right track, some of their problems from earlier in the year resurfaced.

The Eagles were unable to get off the field in the second period and could not come back on Bloomington North Thursday at the Holiday Classic held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. They lost 45-43.

J.R. Howell, Zionsville’s head coach, stated that they were 5-of-19 at 2 and 0-of-5 at 3 in the second period. “We also had seven turnovers, but we cannot shoot like that in close games and still expect to win.”

Despite their shooting problems, the Eagles still managed to force overtime and win in the final minutes of the game.

Bloomington North led by seven at one point in the fourth quarter. However, Zionsville regained control of the game at free throw line. Logan Imes hit two and Drew Snively scored three to bring Zionsville within 44-41.

With 1:24 remaining, a Snively layup cut the lead to 1. After Bloomington North had split two free throws, the Eagles still had a few chances in the final seconds.

With 28.9 seconds remaining, Imes missed a contested layup. The Eagles had one more chance after a 15 second delay. But Snively’s three-pointer for victory wouldn’t fall.

Howell said that Drew had been performing well all game, and that this play was meant to give us a lot more good looks. “It was one the looks we came up with, and Logan made an excellent decision and passed and unfortunately the shot did not fall.”

The Eagles’ loss to the Reds dropped them to 6-4 and ended their three game winning streak.

They had won six of their seven previous games, but they fell into shooting woes during a 0-2 season.

Howell stated that “the shots weren’t falling” and reminded him a lot of the Carmel game at the beginning of the year. It’s one of those things. It was 10 days. You know there will be some rust but it wasn’t that bad. We will learn from it. We hope to shoot better in the next game.

Snively led the team scoring 17 points. She was 7 of 10 from the field.

Nick Richart scored seven points for Imes, while Nick Richart added 10 rebounds and had seven points.

Zionsville is traveling to Brebeuf on Friday.

Howell stated that they just want to return and find the areas where they can improve. “It has been an up-and down year, but it’s okay with where we’re at it. While there are some things that we need to fix, we must also make sure we get ready for next week.

Will Willems, the Lebanon Reporter’s sports editor, is Will Willems. Follow him @Will_Willems.