Terre Haute North rallies late to win Martinsville sectional, 44-39

Terre Haute North rallied from a tight, low-scoring game to take the Class 4A Martinsville Sectional, outscoring Bloomington South 12-4 in the final 2:24 to escape with a 44-39 win in Martinsville on Saturday. The No. 7 Patriots, now 23-3 in the Herald-Times box score, punched a ticket to regionals with the victory.

The game was a slog through three-point droughts and contested paint work: Terre Haute North made just 1 of 12 from beyond the arc while Bloomington South hit 4 of 17. North’s line finished at 15-33 from the field and 13-18 at the free-throw line; South was 15-40 and 5-8 from the stripe. Quarter-by-quarter, the score read North 13 | 10 | 5 | 16 — 44 and Bloomington South 13 | 11 | 9 | 6 — 39.

Individual scoring mirrored the game’s low totals. For Terre Haute North, Brady Klopfenstein led with 8 points on 4-9 shooting, Renn added 7 with 2-5 from the floor and 3-4 at the line, and Cam Fennell tallied 6 points all at the free-throw line, going 6-6 after a 0-2 night from the field. Trai Brown was perfect from the floor at 3-3 for 6 points, Hammond had 6 (3-5), Loyd hit 1-2 and 4-4 at the line for 6, and G. Woelfle scored 5 on 2-7 shooting. North’s totals, verbatim from the Herald-Times box: Hammond f 3-5 0-2 6, Klopfenstein f 4-9 0-0 8, Fennell g 0-2 6-6 6, G.Woelfle g 2-7 0-2 5, Renn g 2-5 3-4 7, Loyd 1-2 4-4 6, Brown 3-3 0-0 6.

Bloomington South leaned on Duncan Combs and Matthew Tierney to keep pace. Combs finished 7-16 for a game-high 17 points, Tierney went 5-7 for 12, Clark added 5, Lukes 3, and Max Surdam had 2 points and 2-4 at the free-throw line. South’s team totals were 15-40 and 5-8 for 39 points. After the loss, Panthers coach JR Holmes summed up his view: "I thought we outplayed them. We had them in position for us to win the game. And I really think we should have won the game. We just gave it to them. You can sugarcoat it all you want, but we gave it to them. I think we played out butts off. They average 70 points and we held them under 40, basically. They just didn't convert the last three minutes."

Rebounding and turnovers were tight; North grabbed 22 rebounds with Fennell and Loyd posting four each, South had 24 with Combs collecting seven and Tierney six. Turnovers were nearly even, 10 for North and 11 for South, and team fouls finished North 14, South 15.

The Patriots came into Martinsville off a 78-39 semifinal win over Bloomington North on March 6. MaxPreps lists the March 7 victory as the program’s 21st consecutive win and also shows the North record at 23-3. Tribune-Star photo captions and Joe Garza images captured the celebration, with Trai Brown, Cam Fennell and Brady Klopfenstein cutting pieces of the net after the title clincher. Tribune-Star also reports Terre Haute North will face Columbus North on March 14 at the Greencastle Regional.