Two of Greenfield-Central’s smallest players on the roster came up big Saturday night at William L. Garrett Gymnasium.

Brady Johnson came off the bench to hit back-to-back three-pointers early in the second quarter and Boston Willard hit another 3 off an inbound play with two minutes left to seal the Cougars’ 49-44 victory over Shelbyville.

The two guards combined for 20 points on a night when leading scorer Braylon Mullins struggled and Class 4A, No. 7 Greenfield-Central improved to a program record 15-0 to start the season.

“We had a couple turnovers that really hurt us and in the second half when we were cutting that lead, we had turnovers that really hurt us,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett. “We knew this team thrives on turnovers. They score a lot of points off turnovers and that’s what couldn’t happen tonight and it affected us right at the time we didn’t need them.”

Mullins, who averages 27 points per game, made just 4 of 14 shots Saturday night but the Golden Bears could not capitalize. Damon Badgley hit a 3 with 61 seconds left in the opening quarter to cut the Cougars’ lead to 8-7.

Following a Willard offensive rebound and score, Johnson, who averages just 2 ppg, hit two 3s within 80 seconds of each other to extend Greenfield-Central’s lead to 16-7.

Shelbyville answered with a 9-2 run but never got the lead. Willard hit a short jumper in the final seconds of the first half for a 20-16 advantage.

Mullins, a junior, scored nine of his season-low 14 points in the third quarter as the Cougars opened up a double-digit lead.

The Golden Bears got within five points in the fourth quarter when Willard hit a 3 that ended another 9-2 run. From there, the Cougars made 6 of 8 free throws to get the Hoosier Heritage Conference victory to remain atop the conference standings at 5-0.

“The one (shot) that really hurt us was when Willard hit the 3 in the corner when we cut (the lead) to five,” said Hartnett. “We gave up a wide open 3 in the corner that we lost communication on and no one picked him up. He hit a big 3.”

Caden Claxton led Shelbyville (9-6, 1-4 HHC) with 12 points and five rebounds. Mar Nicholson finished with 11 points. Badgley and Kohen Myers each had eight points.

Shelbyville shot 46% from the field in the loss but hit just 6 of 13 free throws which proved tough to overcome in a 5-point loss.

“The free throws we shot tonight really affected us,” said Hartnett.

In the junior varsity game, Shelbyville outscored Greenfield-Central 19-4 in the final quarter to earn a 52-31 victory. Gavin Reed led the Golden Bears (10-5) with 14 points. Brody Runnebohm finished with 13 points.

Shelbyville has two games this week, hosting Class 3A, No. 8 Indian Creek (11-3) Thursday and traveling Friday to Speedway (5-6).

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