Trayce Jackson-Davis has been battling a case of mononucleosis the past three weeks, but he didn’t let that slow him down Thursday night.
Jackson-Davis, widely regarded as one of the state’s top juniors and the son of former Indiana Pacers player Dale Davis, scored 30 points and grabbed nine rebounds to celebrate his 18th birthday and lead Center Grove to a 58-41 win at Columbus North in the regular-season finale for both teams.
“Trayce Jackson-Davis was too big and too strong for us tonight,” North coach Paul Ferguson said. “We just didn’t have a consistent answer inside for how to stop him. I was really pleased with the effort of my guys. I thought we defended well, we walled up, we rotated well. He’s just a great player, and he made a lot of tough shots.”
The 6-foot-9 Jackson-Davis scored 11 points in the first quarter, and the Trojans (16-6) made seven of their first shots from the field, including all three 3-pointers, to take a 20-15 lead after one period. Jaylen Flemmons scored 10 of his team-high 13 points in the quarter to keep the Bull Dogs (13-10) in the game.
Things turned sour in the second quarter for North. Center Grove scored the first eight points of the period and held the Bull Dogs to three points in the quarter to build a 33-18 halftime lead.
“Offensively, in the second quarter, we missed too many shots,” Ferguson said. “A couple of them in the second and third quarters were good looks. With Trayce Jackson-Davis guarding block-to-block, there wasn’t a lot of real estate available inside the paint, and we needed some of those 3s to go down.”
Blake Barker added 11 points for the North, which finished 1 of 9 from 3-point range and 16 of 42 overall from the field.
“I think we took away a lot of what Columbus North likes to run,” Center Grove coach Zach Hahn said. “They have a good team. They have good players that continue to grind and drive. The second half, I got a little worried when they scored four or five layups to start the half, but we kind of weathered the storm, and we got back to our principles and defensively, that’s why we won the game.”
The Bull Dogs got back to within 39-29 in the closing seconds of the third quarter. But the Trojans’ Lucas Doyle scored on a putback at the buzzer, and Jackson-Davis scored on a putback eight seconds into the fourth quarter to push the lead back to 14.
Center Grove grabbed 11 offensive rebounds in its 29-20 advantage on the boards. Trey Vincent, Barker and Flemmons each grabbed five rebounds for North.
