“They turned it up a notch and we didn’t answer. Before you knew it, it was all but over,” said Central head coach Scott Leighty. “We just weren’t turning and hustling to get back. We were kind of just standing there.”

Rossville senior point guard James Baker ran the Hornet offense in Rajon Rondo-like fashion, just missing a triple-double with 14 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

Baker was also a perfect 7 of 7 shooting from the field.

Rossville (8-4, 4-0 HHC) clinched a share of the Hoosier Heartland Conference title, its first since the 2000-01 season. It will play Sheridan on Feb. 9 with a chance to win it outright.

Going into Friday night’s county and conference showdown, Baker said the Hornets knew the opportunity to get fast break points would be there.

“We really wanted to come into this game and work on offense, get some shots going and get on the break,” Baker said. “We wanted to get some points up.

“Our shooters and bigs ran the floor and we found them on the break.”

Rossville’s two leading scorers, Brandon Tonsoni and Austin Miller, also found their rhythm with Miller scoring 23 points and Tonsoni 20. Tonsoni was 6 of 8 from 3-point land, and Miller wasn’t far behind, making 3 of 6 attempts from downtown.

“They’ve been struggling in practice with threes,” said Rossville head coach Dave Mosson. “We preach so much about getting the ball to the rim that we try to do that now, which is good, but they need to pull up and shoot threes once in awhile. Most of them shot in rhythm within the context of our offense. It was nice to see them go in.”

Rossville was missing its third-leading scorer and top rebounder, Ethan Brenneman, who was out with an illness.

Central (1-10, 1-2 HHC) looked like it would compete with Rossville early, when a Lane McCoy 3-pointer gave the Bulldogs a 7-6 lead. From there, the avalanche swarmed swiftly and efficiently down on the visitors.

The Hornets ended the first quarter on a 19-0 run, and a Miller 3-pointer to kick off the second quarter gave Rossville a 28-7 lead.

“We wanted to stay within our defensive principles,” Mosson said. “We didn’t want to get out of position. I was happy with the way we played half-court defense from start to finish.”

Baker had quite the first quarter – eight points, six rebounds, three assists and one steal.

Central called three timeouts in the first quarter to try and stop Rossville’s run.

“We talked about being patient, especially when they started running on us. A missed shot led to a lay-up on the other end and you can’t stay in a game long doing that,” Leighty said.

Jake Burton broke up the run with a free throw, but the Hornets then strung together a 10-0 run to lead 38-8 with five minutes left in the half.

Rossville then put together another 10-0 run – backed by 3-pointers from Miller and Tonsoni – to lead 52-14 with 31 seconds left in the half.

“We really played well on defense, rebounded and got after it on the break,” Baker said.

The Hornets’ largest lead of the game – 53 points – came early in the fourth quarter, when a Baker lay-up made the score 77-24.

“I don’t like games like this because you’re expected to win and sometimes you get out of your tendencies. The kids did a good job being focused that way (Friday),” Mosson said. “I don’t want to embarrass anybody so we try to control that a bit. I know the student section was chanting for a hundred (points). We got to play some young kids, and that’s what you want to do once in awhile because eventually they’re going to be playing varsity.”

Michael Gregorash was also in double figures for Rossville with 13 points on 6 of 7 shooting.

Brittain O’Neal came off the bench to lead Central with 13 points. McCoy scored nine points, Reece Mennen six points, and Burton and Cole Simmons had five points each.

Rossville 89, Clinton Central 42

At Rossville

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Clinton Central 7 9 8 18 - 42

Rossville 25 27 23 14 - 89

Clinton Central (1-10, 1-2 HHC) 42

Adams 1-3 0-0 2, McCoy 4-8 0-0 9, Burton 1-4 3-4 5, Mennen 3-7 0-0 6, Simmons 2-8 1-6 5, Crum 0-2 2-2 2, Burns 0-1 0-0 0, O’Neal 5-8 0-0 13, Rawlings 0-1 0-0 0, Reynolds 0-1 0-0 0, Smith 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 16-44 6-12 42.

Rossville (8-5, 4-0 HHC) 89

Gregorash 6-7 1-2 13, Meyers 1-8 1-2 3, Baker 7-7 0-0 14, Miller 9-14 2-2 23, Tonsoni 7-12 0-0 20, Howard 3-4 1-1 7, Myers 1-4 0-0 2, Wilson 0-1 0-2 0, Bordner 1-1 1-2 3, Davis 0-1 3-4 4, Beery 0-1 1-2 1, Beard 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 35-59 10-17 89.

3-point field goals: CC 4-8 (O’Neal 3-4, McCoy 1-2, Burton 0-2), RV 9-18 (Tonsoni 6-8, Miller 3-6, Meyers 0-1, Myers 0-3). Rebounds: CC 22 (Burton, Mennen 3), RV 35 (Baker 7, Tonsoni 6). Assists: CC 6 (Burton 3), RV 18 (Baker 8). Steals: CC 3 (3 with 1), RV 12 (Tonsoni 3). Blocks: CC 1 (Rawlings 1), RV 3 (Meyers 2). Turnovers: CC 19, RV 10. Total fouls: CC 17, RV 13.

SCOTT COUSINS/scousins@ftimes.com

Dribble-drive

Rossville senior Austin Miller attempts to dribble past Clinton Central’s Brittain O’Neal in Friday night’s Hoosier Heartland Conference contest. Miller led all scorers with 23 points.

SCOTT COUSINS/scousins@ftimes.com

Howard

Rossville’s Clayton Howard (with ball) scored seven points off the bench in the Hornets’ 89-42 victory over Clinton Central on Friday night.