Sectionals
2017
DUBOIS COUNTY, INDIANA MONDAY, FEB. 27, 2017 SECTION B
The Herald
PAGE 2 ■ SECTIONAL
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
ALISHA JUCEVIC/THE HERALD
Jasper junior Justin Persohn fired a 3-pointer in last Tuesday’s win over North Daviess in which Persohn sank three 3s on the night and the Wildcats hit 11 3s for the game. Jasper connected on 91 3-pointers last season but has turned the perimeter shot into more of a weapon this year, hitting 147 3s and shooting 37 percent behind the arc.
Power Of
3
The 3-point shot came to high school basketball 30 years ago. When it first arrived, few realized how dramatically it would change the game. These days, just about everyone is a threat to shoot.
By BRENDAN PERKINS bperkins@dcherald.com Justin Persohn glanced down for a split-second, and he liked where he stood. When Persohn gathered a pass in the corner of Jasper’s regular-season finale last week against North Daviess, the Wildcat junior took a peek down to see if both feet were beyond the 3-point stripe. Affirmative. Persohn then fired, a routine the Cats have completed 401 times this season. A clean swish. Three points for Persohn, and another little window into how the 3-point line has revolutionized the game of basketball over the past three decades. In that game last Tuesday, Jasper launched 22 shots from the 3-point line, hitting 11. Almost 58 percent of the Wildcats’ shot attempts came beyond the arc. More than half of Jasper’s 60 total points came via the 3-pointer. This marks the 30th year of the 3-point line in high school basketball, and Jasper is among the teams commemorating the anniversary accordingly as 36 percent of its points have been scored beyond that 19 feet, 9-inch stripe and practically everyone on the squad — guards to post players — has the green light to shoot from a distance. The allure of the 3-point shot does seem to hit a certain pleasure center, too, feeding into an inborn human desire to want a little more. Three counts more than two, after all. Anyone who’s played the game likes that simple math. “It sounds funny because it’s only one more point, but boy, it’s really made a difference,” said Gene Boehman, a former longtime assistant coach in Forest Park’s program. Boehman recalls that when the 3-point line was approved for high school basketball in 1987, he went home that very day and measured a 19foot, 9-inch arc to draw on the court at his family’s house. “My wife came home and said, ‘What is that?’ I thought I was in some kind of trouble,” Boehman joked. Gene reassured her by filling her in on the new rule — and by explaining how it would profit their two sons, both guards who later played in Forest Park’s high school program. Beyond his own family, “the vast majority of the kids loved it” when the 3-point arc arrived, Boehman recalls. Other traditional coaches bristled at it. When Jasper head coach John Goebel was playing at Evansville Mater Dei in the mid-tolate ’80s, shooting from 20 feet out was practically an act that you’d have to attend confession for. “It was still kind of a sin to shoot from that far
out. There was some confusion about how to use the shot,” Goebel said. “I don’t think there was ever any expectation from a lot of the old-school coaches that we would be shooting as many 3s as we do today. It’s become such an important part of the game, and I don’t know that people saw that coming early on. I thought people were afraid of it and didn’t know when and how much to use it. It was just something that wasn’t used very often even though it was available, at least in the program I was in.” Meanwhile, Scott Yarbrough was pulling the trigger more freely. A junior at Jasper in 1987-88 in the first year of the 3-point line, Yarbrough splashed 39 3s for the season. A teammate, Mike Bell, hit 38 3s. But beyond those two, Jasper’s other players combined to hit three 3s all season. Contrast that with this year’s Wildcats, who’ve had seven players connect on seven or more 3s. Plus, it’s no longer passé for big men to step out and shoot 3s; in fact, it’s a necessary part of the skill set. “You see it in Jasper’s offense this year — (Eric) Nordhoff will do that, post up and step out (and shoot 3s), Persohn will post up and then step out. Back when we played, you’d have one or two guys that could shoot the 3,” said Yarbrough, a former assistant with the basketball program who still does commentary for the TV replays of Jasper games. “Now, you can stick five guys out there that can shoot the 3. You go in and watch any kids play a pickup game, they want to stop behind that line and shoot the ball.” Yarbrough recalled how his high school team’s offense used to revolve around jump shots at the elbows of the lane, and now, “there’s many coaches that will say, ‘You’re either behind this (3-point) line, or you’re taking the ball to the hole,’” Yarbrough said. More and more, that once-fashionable 15-foot jumper is becoming a dinosaur. “I don’t think initially people thought it was going to revolutionize how people played,” said Jasper assistant coach Jason Ahlbrand, who likewise was playing high school ball at JHS when the 3-point arc was added. “I think you see a lot of motion offense a thing of the past. You look at a college game in the ’80s, you probably had 90 percent of them running motion offense. I think as the years went by, and kids start shooting (the 3) younger, they feel comfortable out there shooting it, and offenses have evolved to more of a spread type, ball screen, pull-and-kick offense.” See THREE on Page 20
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 3
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PAGE 4 ■ SECTIONAL
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
WILDCATS Win The Sectional!
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THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 5
SECTIONAL HISTORY
YEAR WINNER RUNNER-UP HOST SCHOOL SCORE 1925 Huntingburg Orleans Jasper 23-21 1926 Huntingburg Winslow Jasper 23-14 1927 Huntingburg Winslow Huntingburg 37-29 1928 Spurgeon Petersburg Petersburg 24-15 1929 Spurgeon Holland Jasper 20-13 1930 Huntingburg Holland Huntingburg 21-12 1931 Stendal Jasper Petersburg 45-30 1932 Stendal Jasper Jasper 24-20 1933 Jasper Ireland Huntingburg 41-7 1934 Jasper Huntingburg Petersburg 23-7 1935 Huntingburg Jasper Jasper 28-13 1936 Jasper Holland Huntingburg 36-24 1937 Huntingburg Jasper Petersburg 40-34 1938 Jasper Huntingburg Jasper 30-25 1939 Stendal Jasper Huntingburg 37-35 1940 Huntingburg Petersburg Petersburg 36-22 1941 Winslow Holland Jasper 25-19 1942 Jasper Spurgeon Jasper 49-33 1943 Jasper Winslow Jasper 32-28 1944 Jasper Spurgeon Jasper 50-43 1945 Jasper Holland Jasper 61-30 1946 Jasper Spurgeon Jasper 51-41 1947 Jasper Huntingburg Jasper 36-27 1948 Jasper Spurgeon Jasper 51-49 1949 Jasper Winslow Jasper 48-39 1950 Winslow Jasper Jasper 64-46 1951 Winslow Jasper Jasper 49-42 1952 Jasper Spurgeon Huntingburg 52-47 1953 Holland Huntingburg Huntingburg 49-46 1954 Winslow French Lick Huntingburg 67-53 1955 Huntingburg Holland Huntingburg 55-50 1956 Jasper Winslow Huntingburg 73-69* 1957 Jasper West Baden Huntingburg 77-68 1958 Springs Valley Huntingburg Huntingburg 66-41 1959 Huntingburg Springs Valley Huntingburg 41-39 1960 Jasper Winslow Huntingburg 84-38 1961 Jasper Winslow Huntingburg 85-58 1962 Jasper Ireland Huntingburg 59-51 1963 Ireland Springs Valley Huntingburg 20-19 1964 Springs Valley Ferdinand Huntingburg 77-74** 1965 Springs Valley Huntingburg Huntingburg 72-65 1966 Springs Valley Jasper Huntingburg 59-57** 1967 Holland Jasper Huntingburg 62-52 1968 Holland Ferdinand Huntingburg 57-53 1969 Springs Valley Holland Huntingburg 54-34 1970 Huntingburg Holland Huntingburg 55-53 1971 Jasper Dubois Huntingburg 86-65 1972 Jasper Forest Park Huntingburg 61-53 1973 Jasper Southridge Southridge 47-46 1974 Jasper Perry Central Southridge 73-49 1975 Jasper Forest Park Southridge 75-74*** 1976 Southridge Forest Park Southridge 57-45 1977 Northeast Dubois Jasper Southridge 60-55* 1978 Perry Central Jasper Southridge 56-55 1979 Southridge Northeast Dubois Southridge 46-44 1980 Southridge Northeast Dubois Southridge 55-45 1981 Jasper Southridge Southridge 69-68 1982 Southridge Forest Park Southridge 48-44 1983 Southridge Jasper Southridge 63-53 1984 Northeast Dubois Southridge Southridge 49-36 1985 Southridge Forest Park Southridge 57-37 1986 Southridge Jasper Southridge 55-53 1987 Southridge Northeast Dubois Southridge 42-41 1988 Northeast Dubois Jasper Southridge 52-39 1989 Jasper Southridge Southridge 49-37 1990 Forest Park Jasper Southridge 55-42 1991 Southridge Northeast Dubois Southridge 47-36 1992 Southridge Forest Park Southridge 55-40 1993 Forest Park Pike Central Southridge 46-40 1994 Southridge Forest Park Southridge 46-34 1995 Jasper Southridge Southridge 70-51 1996 Jasper Northeast Dubois Southridge 61-43 1997 Pike Central Southridge Southridge 67-56 1998 Gibson Southern Pike Central Washington 63-47 Evansville Bosse Evansville Memorial Boonville 72-71* South Spencer Evansville Mater Dei Southridge 69-68 Cannelton Northeast Dubois Tecumseh 70-61 1999 Gibson Southern Pike Central Washington 64-53 Heritage Hills Boonville Boonville 58-53 Evansville Mater Dei Perry Central Southridge 62-56 Tecumseh Cannelton Tecumseh 66-42 2000 Princeton Vincennes Lincoln Washington 61-46 Evansville Mater Dei Evansville Bosse Boonville 86-60 Paoli Tell City Southridge 73-69 Northeast Dubois Springs Valley Orleans 71-46 2001 Jasper Vincennes Lincoln Washington 71-69* Evansville Mater Dei Heritage Hills Boonville 72-59 Crawford County Tell City Southridge 65-64 Northeast Dubois Orleans W. Washington 61-30 2002 Jasper Pike Central Washington 66-39 Gibson Southern Heritage Hills Boonville 53-43 Crawford County Southridge Southridge 50-46 Tecumseh Evansville Day Wood Memorial 64-52 2003 Sullivan Vincennes Lincoln Washington 38-37 Heritage Hills Gibson Southern Boonville 38-36 Forest Park Crawford County Southridge 59-45 Tecumseh Evansville Day Tecumseh 48-37
YEAR WINNER RUNNER-UP HOST SCHOOL SCORE 2004 Vincennes Lincoln Washington Washington 64-54 Evansville Mater Dei Heritage Hills Boonville 59-55 Forest Park North Posey Southridge 64-42 Orleans Crothersville W. Washington 45-33 2005 Washington Vincennes Lincoln Washington 83-60 Evansville Mater Dei Boonville Boonville 47-38 Forest Park Southridge Southridge 61-46 Orleans Northeast Dubois Springs Valley 42-40* 2006 Washington Vincennes Lincoln Washington 63-53 Evansville Mater Dei Evansville Bosse Boonville 66-64 Forest Park South Spencer Southridge 50-37 Orleans Northeast Dubois Orleans 67-44 2007 Washington Vincennes Lincoln Washington 71-63 Evansville Bosse Evansville Memorial Boonville 56-54 Southridge Tell City Southridge 42-41 Orleans West Washington W. Washington 70-43 2008 Washington Vincennes Lincoln Washington 76-49 Evansville Mater Dei Tell City Southridge 54-41 Orleans Springs Valley Springs Valley 32-24 2009 Washington Vincennes Lincoln Southridge 42-34 Forest Park Evansville Mater Dei Boonville 69-60 Northeast Dubois Orleans Orleans 40-39 2010 Washington Jasper Washington 43-30 Forest Park Evansville Mater Dei Southridge 66-44 Northeast Dubois Orleans Springs Valley 44-42** 2011 Washington Southridge Southridge 47-36 Forest Park North Posey Boonville 43-41 Trinity Lutheran Orleans Orleans 53-40 2012 Vincennes Lincoln Jasper Washington 56-41 Forest Park Evansville Mater Dei Southridge 73-51 Orleans Northeast Dubois Orleans 61-47 2013 Vincennes Lincoln Jasper Washington 48-25 Perry Central Evansville Mater Dei Southridge 56-54 Northeast Dubois Tecumseh Wood Memorial 69-60* 2014 Jasper Heritage Hills Southridge 69-52 Perry Central Evansville Mater Dei Boonville 67-64 Northeast Dubois Tecumseh Tecumseh 55-45 2015 Vincennes Lincoln Washington Washington 50-40 Evansville Mater Dei Forest Park Southridge 69-64 Wood Memorial Evansville Day Wood Memorial 49-39 2016 Pike Central Jasper Southridge 49-47 Evansville Bosse Heritage Hills Boonville 68-36 South Spencer Forest Park Jasper 59-43 Wood Memorial Tecumseh Tecumseh 61-48 * overtime * double overtime *** triple overtime
■■ HOW THEY’VE FARED ALL-TIME IN THE SECTIONAL School Yrs. Won Lost Pct. Titles Jasper 100 162 69 .701 31 Southridge 44 44 32 .579 12 Forest Park 45 49 35 .583 10 Northeast Dubois 40 39 31 .557 9 Heritage Hills 44 46 35 .568 9 Note: Jasper first competed in IHSAA state tournament play in 1914. In the 103 seasons from 1914 through 2016, there were three occasions where the Wildcats did not compete in sectional play. In 1914, there was no sectional round in the tournament; the Wildcats lost their first game of state tournament play to Cutler. Then in 1917 and 1918, Jasper did not participate in the sectional because its coach, Raymond Cunningham, left to serve in the U.S. Military during World War I. ■■ SECTIONAL TITLES WON BY DEFUNCT SCHOOLS Dale (11), Huntingburg (10), Holland (3), Ireland (1) ■■ OTHER POSTSEASON TITLES School Regional Jasper 14 Southridge 2 Forest Park 5 Northeast Dubois 3 Heritage Hills 0
Semistate 1 2 3 0 0
■■ STATE CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERS School Overall Single-Class Marion 8 6 Muncie Central 8 8 Washington 7 3 Frankfort 4 4 Indpls. Park Tudor 4 0 Lawrence North 4 1 Anderson 3 3 Bloomington South 3 1 Carmel 3 1 Evansville Bosse 3 3 Franklin 3 3 Indpls. Crispus Attucks 3 3 Lafayette Ctrl. Catholic 3 0 Lafayette Jeff 3 3 Lebanon 3 3 Martinsville 3 3 Pike 3 0
State 1 0 2 0 0 Multi-Class 2 0 4 0 4 3 0 2 2 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3
Last Title 2016 1988 2011 1939 2015 2006 1946 2011 2013 1962 1922 1959 2003 1964 1918 1933 2003
PAGE 6 ■ SECTIONAL
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Class 3A
@ the Hatchet House, Washington Jasper Wildcats Record: 16-6 Coach: John Goebel (132-93 in 10th season at Jasper; 218-130 in 15 seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Washington (16-6), 6 p.m. Tuesday Postseason history: 31 sectionals, 14 regionals, 1 semistate, 1 state title Probable starters: G T.D. Nottingham (5-9 Sr.); G Austin Simmers (5-10 Jr.); G Andrew Schmitt (6-0 Sr.); G Justin Persohn (6-3 Jr.); F Eric Nordhoff (6-2 Jr.) Team tidbits: Jasper shoots 75 percent at the free throw line, a 7-point improvement
Southridge Raiders Record: 5-18 Coach: Ted O’Brien (28-40 in third season at Southridge; 41-49 in four seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Vincennes Lincoln (8-15), 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Postseason history: 12 sectionals, 2 regionals, 2 semistates Probable starters: G Ross Eckert (6-1 Sr.); G Jayce Harter (5-11 Jr.); G Logan Seger (5-11 Soph.); G/F Harrison Steckler (6-2 Sr.); C Jaden Hayes (6-5 Soph.) Team tidbits: The Raiders have dropped
Pike Central Chargers Record: 12-11 Coach: Jason Roach (44-28 in third season) Opponent: vs. Jasper (16-6) or Washington (16-6), 6 p.m. Friday Postseason history: 2 sectionals, 1 regional Probable starters: G Trey Wornica (6-1 Sr.); G Colton White (5-10 Sr.); G Kaleb Claridge (5-11 Jr.); F Gabe Elliott (6-5 Sr.); F Bryant Nalley (6-5 Jr.) Team tidbits: Pike Central needs one more victory to secure back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since a run of
TOURNEY REWIND: 2007 Southridge brothers Brad Roesner (10) and Brett Roesner (2) ignited the celebration after finishing a 42-41 triumph over Tell City in the 2007 sectional championship, the last title won by the Raiders. Brad Roesner scored 1,046 career points, and he and Brett still rank in Southridge’s top 10 in career scoring. Brett Roesner is an assistant coach for this year’s Raider squad.
from last year’s 68 percent mark. Nottingham buries 80 percent at the stripe, Nordhoff hits 77 percent and Reece Milligan (Soph., G) has hit 11-of-12 on the season. ... The Wildcats have gone without a title in their last 11 sectionals played at Washington. Their last championship at the Hatchet House came in 2002. Keep an eye on: The 3-point line. The Wildcats average almost seven made 3s per game but hit just 5-of-19 in the regularseason setback to Washington. Moment to remember: The Cats toppled Class 2A No. 1 Barr-Reeve 59-49 on Feb. 2 as Nottingham passed 1,000 points for his career. Starting with that game, Jasper went 6-1 in February.
Washington Hatchets
their sectional opener six of the last eight years. ... Southridge shoots 41 percent from the floor, but Hayes is boosting that mark by hitting 59 percent of his shots. He has four double-doubles this season. Keep an eye on: Sustaining a high level. One rocky quarter has been Southridge’s undoing in several losses this season. The Raiders will need a consistent effort in their opener against Vincennes Lincoln, who they’re 0-7 against all-time. Moment to remember: With Steckler piling up 25 points and Braden Harding (Sr., G) sinking four 3-pointers, the Raiders upended eventual Pocket Athletic Conference champ North Posey 63-56 on Feb. 7 to halt a seven-game skid.
Vincennes Lincoln Alices
five straight from 1994-95 to 1998-99. ... Elliott exceeded 1,000 points for his career late in the season and scores 12.6 ppg as one of four Chargers averaging in double figures. Nalley tallies 13.3 ppg with White scoring 11.8 and Wornica averaging 10. Keep an eye on: Playing to potential. The Chargers have four starters back from last year’s sectional champion squad, and their season record belies their talent. They’ve lost 11 games but have been in each one — just one of their losses came by a double-digit margin. Moment to remember: White’s pull-up 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Chargers a 51-50 win over sectional foe Vincennes Lincoln on Feb. 4
Princeton Tigers
Record: 16-6 Coach: Gene Miiller (204-81 in 12th season at Washington; 672-309 in 42 seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Jasper (16-6), 6 p.m. Tuesday Postseason history: 46 sectionals, 20 regionals, 6 semistates, 7 state titles Probable starters: G Matthew Stephens (6-1 Sr.); G Tyson Wright (5-9 Soph.); G Billy Fleetwood (5-10 Jr.); F Jacob Overton (6-2 Sr.); F Gage Latham (6-2 Jr.) Team tidbits: After a 2-5 start to the season, Washington is 14-1 since, losing only
Record: 8-15 Coach: Josh Thompson (8-15 in 1st season at Lincoln; 91-146 in 10 seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Southridge (5-18), 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Postseason history: 71 sectionals, 20 regionals, 4 semistates, 2 state titles Probable starters: G Grant Oexmann (6-0 Sr.); G Spencer Corrona (5-11 Soph.); F Tate Schuckman (6-3 Jr.); F Caden Kotter (6-5 Jr.); C Jalen Cardinal (6-5 Soph.) Team tidbits: Lincoln last failed to reach a double-digit win total in 2007-08. That year,
Record: 10-13 Coach: Ryan Haywood (51-91 in sixth season) Opponent: vs. Southridge (5-18) or Vincennes Lincoln (8-15), 7:30 p.m. Friday Postseason history: 33 sectionals, 7 regionals, 3 semistates, 1 state title Probable starters: G Rylin Stough (6-1 Jr.); G Stephan Wilkerson (6-2 Soph.); F Nick Albin (6-1 Jr.); F Zach Dove (6-5 Soph.); C Matt Dove (6-9 Soph.) Team tidbits: Princeton collected just four wins combined over the last two seasons
to Bloomfield. Coinciding with the revival was the return of Stephens, who missed the first seven games with a suspension. ... Stephens averages 14.2 points, and Overton tallies 20.2 ppg and is the 13th player in Washington history to surpass 1,000 points. Keep an eye on: Rebounds. The Hatchets aren’t big, but they out-boarded Jasper 3214 in the regular season with Overton and Latham combining for 17 rebounds. Moment to remember: Washington finished an undefeated run to the Big Eight Conference crown by knocking off a 25-win Mount Carmel team 58-57 two weeks ago in Illinois. Fleetwood won it by hitting two free throws with 1.7 seconds remaining.
the Alices won five regular-season contests before winning twice to reach the sectional final. ... Oexmann scores 11.8 ppg with backup from Schuckman (8.7) and Kotter (8.5). ... Lincoln features a set of brothers with Spencer and Sam Corrona, plus a pair of cousins in Schuckman and Cardinal. Keep an eye on: Brayden Seger. The junior has averaged 11.3 points per game off the bench over Lincoln’s last six contests. Moment to remember: Kotter’s running heave from a few steps inside halfcourt banked and dropped through to give Lincoln a 45-44 win over rival Jasper on Jan. 6 at Alice Arena. The Alices have also scored road wins over a pair of strong 2A foes in Linton and South Knox.
but is on the upswing behind an all-sophomore-and-junior starting lineup. The Tigers give up 57.5 ppg but have trimmed that from 62.8 last season and 67.4 the year before. ... Since going 29-0 and winning the state title in 2009, the Tigers haven’t won a sectional and reached the final just once. Keep an eye on: The finish. Regular-season games against sectional foes Jasper, Washington, Vincennes Lincoln and Pike Central were all decided by six or fewer points. Moment to remember: Princeton had lost 23 consecutive road games dating back more than two seasons until the Tigers dumped that slump in style Dec. 3 at Pike Central. Stough tossed in a three-quartercourt shot for a 64-63 victory.
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 7
Jasper’s T.D. Nottingham, who swiped possession from Northeast Dubois in a game last month, is the team leader in steals for a Wildcat squad that’s pared down its defensive allowance from 56 points in the season’s first 11 games to 51.2 over the last 11 contests. TEGAN JOHNSTON THE HERALD
Cats add more giddyup, desire to reformed ‘D’ By WYATT L. STAYNER wstayner@dcherald.com Every once in a while, Eric Nordhoff finds himself in an unenviable position at Jasper boys basketball practice. Sometimes the junior forward will be caught in a one-on-one drill against Elliot Prange or maybe T.D. Nottingham. If not one of those, two it could Austin Simmers, Andrew Schmitt or Reece Milligan. While the 6-foot-2 Nordhoff has a few inches on those five Wildcat guards, it can sometimes just be plain tough to match up with their speed. “I know when we do a one-onone drill and I go on defense or offense against them, I know that it’s going to be hard to get that first step,” Nordhoff said. Maybe speed doesn’t literally kill, but it sure has left a fair amount of Wildcat opponents in the dust this season as Jasper skated to its most regular-season wins since the 2003-04 season. That result could be termed surprising after the Cats lost seven seniors
off last year’s squad— some of whom were taller than the current crop of Cats and anchored the team’s interior defense. Yet whether switching to Prange a guard-oriented offense that relies on more perimeter shooting and dribble penetration, or changing to a manto-man full-court press instead of the zone pressure Jasper had relied on the last few seasons, adaptation has been the key to not only surviving, but thriving for this year’s Cats. Well before the Wildcats debuted in November, coach John Goebel knew changes were on the horizon. “You start thinking about (strategic changes) when you start looking ahead,” Goebel said. “Even during the year to the next year, who you have coming back.
It’s usually over the summer when you start sizing up what you have. This year we knew we didn’t have a lot of height, but we knew we had quickMilligan ness. We wanted to find an offense and a defense that would jell with that.” While the offense’s changes might attract more attention, Jasper’s defense has developed a reputation this season for being especially pesky. The Wildcats have scooped up 60 more steals this season than last season and have created 32 more turnovers. Goebel said he thinks those steals have led to more easy buckets than most seasons. “You have guys like Elliot Prange and Tyler Nottingham and Reece Milligan. They’re three of the fastest kids who I’ve ever had,” Goebel said, as Milligan and
Prange have both been state finals qualifiers in track. “Then you have guys like Austin Simmers and Andrew Schmitt, who have good lateral speed and anticipate and react well. We have a combination of quick reactors and opencourt runners, and it’s obviously been a good asset for us.” Goebel added the Wildcats are still using the same man-toman defensive principles as last season, while only really utilizing a full zone in the Barr-Reeve and Floyd Central games. However, the full-court press is where things have changed the most. Instead of a trapping zone press, the Cats are utilizing more of a manto-man coverage this winter. Nordhoff said that’s one area where Jasper has improved most over the course of the season. With most of the players in Jasper’s rotation new to the varsity scene this season, Nordhoff said the pressure defense has been one of the learning curves for those players. Prange also noted Jasper just has some guys who love to defend. In the first 11 games, the
Cats gave up 56 points per game, but in the last 11 games they’re surrendering 51.2 per contest. “This team has a lot of quickness and hustlers,” Prange said. “We get motivated to get steals ... We always work hard on defense. Not many teams care about defense as much as we do.” Goebel is just as quick to attribute Jasper’s defensive growth to factors outside of the team’s speed. He said the Cats have grabbed more 50-50 balls as the season has progressed. To play good defense, Goebel said players have to want to play defense, which he said includes a mixture of mental fortitude and desire — which are as important as athletic ability. “It’s more of an emotion and a thought process whereas you can’t just rely on your physical ability. You have to be determined,” Goebel said. “You’ve got to have quickness and react well, but you’ve also got to have some of the intangibles like determination and you’ve got to be tough and have some guts, and we’ve had some of that this year.”
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PAGE 8 ■ SECTIONAL
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
TEGAN JOHNSTON/THE HERALD
Southridge’s Braden Harding, left, leads the Raiders in assists and steals and is the fourth-leading scorer, though he has come off the bench for much of the season as the Raiders repositioned the senior to a reserve capacity to cash in on the vigor he brings coming off the bench.
The volume is back for Southridge’s energizer By MICHAEL HUGHES mhughes@dcherald.com When Braden Harding is playing well, you can’t miss seeing him. He’s flying over the court to disrupt passing lanes and diving on the floor after loose balls defensively, plus firing from behind the arc and creating second chances offensively. You can’t miss hearing him, either. The screams from the Southridge senior come a couple times a game and typically signal the start of a Raider run. “I think it started in football this year and transferred over to basketball,” Harding said. “When something big happens or something important happens in the game it gets me pumped up.” In Southridge’s recent onepoint loss to Loogootee, the Harding howl arrived after Jaden Hayes finished through contact to cut the deficit to 51-40 late in the third quarter and started a Southridge comeback, during which Harding scored five points and pulled down
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four rebounds. A week before it was the same story, with Harding powering his team back against North Posey, including the assist on Hayes’ layup to force overtime. Harding scored 15 points after halftime in the 63-56 win. For Raider coach Ted O’Brien, that’s the version of Harding that gives Southridge (5-18) the best chance in this week’s Class 3A sectional in Washington starting with Tuesday night’s opener against Vincennes Lincoln (8-15). But it’s the version of Harding that was missing before the last couple weeks. Around the middle of the season, O’Brien made some changes to his starting lineup, swapping experience for youth. That meant Harding was relegated to a role off the bench. “He didn’t have a bad attitude about it, but it was affecting his play,” O’Brien said. “We had some honest conversations about it, and he’s a great kid. An absolute awesome kid, and he understood where I was coming from and what he needed to do for this team
going forward.” Still, the reassigned role took its toll on Harding. The lighthearted kid O’Brien usually sees bouncing around the hallways at school with a smile on his face was gone, and without that, his play suffered. But over the course of the past couple weeks, the highenergy version of Harding has returned. “When I first wasn’t starting it was tough getting used to,” Harding said. “But now that I’m coming off the bench I like it more because it gets me pumped up and gets me motivated when I go out there. It’s a better fit.” Throughout his coaching career, O’Brien said he typically hasn’t started his best lineup, but rather the one that fits together the most cohesively. That’s also led to the creation of what Harding’s role has transformed into — a capable scorer off the bench who can infuse energy and shift the direction of the game at a moment’s notice. O’Brien said Harding has
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bought in fully to what the coach wants and has become one of the most productive Raiders, with team-high totals in assists (39) and steals (23) while scoring 4.7 points per contest. It’s no coincidence that’s aligned with the return of the more outgoing Harding who’s celebrating at every turn. “I was never the biggest kid in high school — I’m still not — but now that I’m finally getting my chance to play with these guys and we have a chance to come back it gets me amped up,” Harding said. “If I do it, then it gets the crowd amped up, the team amped up and it seems like we play a lot better.” Harding admits not all those outbursts are genuine. Some are, but others come when he feels his team needs a shot of energy. But once it starts, O’Brien said others
on the court take notice. All of the sudden, Ross Eckert and Logan Seger start celebrating with a little more fervor, and soon after that, all of the Raiders are believing. That’s been required a lot throughout a season in which Southridge started 0-6 and has claimed back-to-back wins only once. “It’s hard to keep that mindset all the time, but at the same time there’s a lot of those games we could have or should have won,” Harding said. “If it comes down to a sectional game — me, Ross and Harry (Steckler) — we don’t want that to be our last game,” Harding continued. “We’re going to do everything in our power to get those guys thinking we can win again and come back.”
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THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 9
Hoops a shared passion in Pats’ familial bonds By WYATT L. STAYNER wstayner@dcherald.com The Becher brothers’ lives are approaching some kind of “Hoosiers” status. Actually, scratch that. Maybe it’s not really similar to “Hoosiers.” And maybe this isn’t exclusive to Murray and Mitchel Becher. A chunk of the Mitchel Becher Heritage Hills boys basketball team has been a part of some kind of mythical Indiana basketball daydream. The Becher brothers played in a barn growMurray Becher ing up and still do. Guard Grant Doyle is half-brothers with former Patriot standout and 1,000-point scorer Tony Butcher. Freshman Simon Scherry is following in Doyle the footsteps of his brother, Sam, who once also played point guard as Simon does. Then there’s Carter Meunier, who is succeeding older brother Alec in a much different way. The 5-foot-11 Alec, who graduated last season, played shooting guard while Carter is anchoring the Patriot frontline as a junior this season. “I’ve got better genes, I guess. I don’t know,” Carter joked about their size differential. Regardless of what you want to focus on — growth spurts or the Becher barn — there’s one constant for the Pats: It’s been a family affair this season. Six players on this year’s varsity roster had older brothers who came before them in the Patriot program. “After you start thinking about all the guys who have come through, there’s some very strong bloodlines in Santa Claus, Lin-
coln City, Chrisney, Gentryville, you know, wherever,” coach Nate Hawkins said. “All of Spencer County here, really. It’s neat to see that.” There’s a few commonalties that each of the current Patriots share with their older sibling or siblings who’ve also played at Heritage Hills. Each player looked up to their brother. Each player learned a thing or two about basketball from their brother. And each player has a significant amount of pride to be following in their brother’s footsteps. Last season, Carter was able to start with Alec on varsity, which he said was “pretty awesome and kind of a dream come true because I always wanted to start with my brother.” You can pencil a couple of the Becher brothers in that category as well. Mason Becher (a 2016 Heritage Hills graduate) was able to play with Mitchel last season, and if only for a brief spell, Murray and Mitchel played together this year. An injury has kept Mitchel out for nearly all season, which has made the year rough, as Mitchel said he’d like to be making plays with Murray. “It’s been hard to just watch the team, especially in the losses where I could do something and make a difference,” Mitchel said. “And even on the wins, you want to be a part of it, but it’s just hard to be there and watch your team celebrate and you don’t feel like you did anything to help them.” Mitchel’s knee surgery has stopped him from being able to compete in what he terms a “brotherly rivalry” with Murray, who’s leading the Pats in scoring at 14 points per game. “We have this competition where you want to be better than your brother. It’s always been like that,” Mitchel said. “I’m glad he’s doing good this season, but I hope to come back next season and help him a lot.” Many of those Becher brother competitions took place in the family barn, which isn’t for raising livestock, but appears to be a decent basketball training ground. The barn features a half basketball court with the 3-point line. When Mason visits home from Oakland City University, where he plays baseball, he might “bring out the old shot,” as Mitchel said. Those Becher competitions can get pretty heated, and occasionally, a short cooling-off period has been needed, Mitchel said. All
TOURNEY REWIND: 1997 Heritage Hills players and coaches had their championship hats ready to wear as the final seconds ticked away in the Patriots’ 17-point takedown of Boonville in the 1997 sectional championship. That year was the final season for the oneclass tournament in Indiana. The Patriots have collected two sectional titles in the class basketball era, with the last coming in 2003.
Heritage Hills junior Carter Meunier has handled duties in the post this winter for the Patriots after starting alongside his brother Alec last season in Alec’s senior year. Six players on this year’s Patriot team are younger siblings of older brothers who’ve played in the Patriot program. SARAH SHAW THE HERALD
brotherly squabbles aside, Mason and Mitchel are, in many ways, why Murray is playing basketball. “I’ve always looked up to them,” Murray said. “I’ve always wanted to be like them.” Murray added that he’s learned about hard work from his older brothers and that’s a sentiment shared by Doyle, who grew up watching Butcher. “Yeah, he was pretty good,” Doyle said. “He had a really good work ethic. He just loved the game. He never would just mess around. Every time he had a basketball, he would just be going hard, working out. That was his love, basketball.”
Butcher would sometimes take Doyle to the Heritage Hills gym on Sunday afternoons to shoot around, and Doyle said being around Butcher and the Patriot team growing up better prepared him for his career in high school basketball. Now that he’s on the court, Doyle said he’s given some fans déjà vu every once in a while, which is compounded by the fact Butcher and Doyle share physical similarities. “I’ve had people tell me some of the moves I do, it reminds them of him,” Doyle said. “He was a role model for me.” That nostalgia isn’t exclusive
to Doyle. Mitchel Becher and his brothers came to Heritage Hills games as youngsters and would sit behind the bench. Now they’re part of the action and like to pay it forward when they encounter excited young fans. After all, you never know who the next Patriot siblings might be. “I remember we’d sit behind the team over here and come to every game,” Mitchel said. “It would be awesome to have a player give you a high-five or something, and we’re right here now and you’ve got to do the same thing for all the little kids. It makes you feel good.”
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THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Members of the Jasper boys basketball team are, from left, first row: Austin Simmers, Johnny Bounds, Elliot Prange, TD Nottingham, Andrew Schmitt and Jackson Kabrick. Second row: Josh Weidenbenner, Eric Nordhoff, Jared Englert, Ben Elliott, Justin Persohn and Reece Milligan.
Members of the Forest Park boys basketball team are, from left, first row: Reid Steffe, Elliott Rothgerber, Daniel Lusk, Blake Mohr, Garrison Tretter and Trever Zink. Second row: Isaac Uebelhor, Noah Fleck, Collin Hochgesang, Sam Englert, Aaron Hurst and Braydon Voegerl.
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 11
Members of the Southridge boys basketball team are, from left, first row: Noah Goeppner, Justin Lammers, Colin Smith, Jayce Harter, Logan Seger and Carson Mundy. Second row: Matthew Price, Ross Eckert, Harrison Steckler, Jaden Hayes, Braden Harding and Jacob Masterson.
Members of the Northeast Dubois boys basketball team are, from left, first row: Brandon Merkel, Alan Kerstiens, Logan Dodd, Alex Harder, Reece Bauer and Marshall Knies. Second row: Owen Fuhrman, Reece Helming, Griffen Bauer, Scott Betz and Chase Riecker. Not pictured: Sidney Schott.
PAGE 12 ■ SECTIONAL
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Jasper Wildcats
Student managers for Jasper are, from left: Kale Burke and Trevor Weisman.
Members of the Jasper boys basketball coaching staff are, from left, first row: Cameron Harris, Adam Schwartz and Caleb Begle. Second row: Eric Dall, John Goebel, Jason Ahlbrand and Jeremy Wolf.
Members of the Jasper cheerleading squad are from left, first row: Emily Patterson, Brynn Sermersheim, Olivia Ariens, Zoe Biggs and Olivia Biggs. Second row: Hailey Hurst, Emma Cave, Grace Werner and Jessica Mehringer.
SEASON RESULTS (16-6) OPPONENT W/L SCORE EVANSVILLE HARRISON L 72-65 at Mount Carmel L 59-47 at Evansville Memorial W 53-50 BEDFORD N. LAWRENCE W 57-54 at Southridge W 54-30 vs. Forest Park W 60-49 at Evansville Central W 51-44 at Vincennes Lincoln L 45-44 at Mount Vernon W 71-61 at Washington L 57-43 SOUTHRIDGE W 57-52
OPPONENT W/L SCORE FOREST PARK W 57-46 BOONVILLE W 69-59 at Northeast Dubois W 58-37 NEW ALBANY L 72-31 BARR-REEVE W 59-49 at Heritage Hills W 54-39 at Evansville Mater Dei W 62-56 PRINCETON W 55-52 at Floyd Central L 54-52, OT PIKE CENTRAL W 55-51 NORTH DAVIESS W 60-48
STATISTICS PLAYER T.D. Nottingham Justin Persohn Jared Englert Austin Simmers Eric Nordhoff Elliot Prange Andrew Schmitt Reece Milligan Johnny Bounds Ben Elliott Jackson Kabrick Josh Weidenbenner
G PTS HI AVG FG 3PT FT-FTA 22 384 28 17.5 118 49 99-123 22 203 22 9.2 72 30 29-38 13 102 14 7.8 44 3 11-18 22 164 20 7.5 55 25 29-42 21 98 16 4.7 37 7 17-22 22 91 9 4.1 27 7 30-43 20 82 17 4.1 26 18 12-16 22 71 10 3.2 26 8 11-12 21 17 4 0.8 7 0 3-7 4 2 2 0.5 1 0 0-0 3 0 0 0.0 0 0 0-0 1 0 0 0.0 0 0 0-0
Forest Park Rangers
Jeff Litherland is the head boys basketball coach for Forest Park. Not pictured from the rest of the Ranger coaching staff are David Welp, Phil Winkler, Jordan Johnson and Brian Partenheimer.
Members of the Forest Park cheerleading squad are, from left, first row: Kari Begle, Morgan Uebelhor and Auria Wilson. Second row: Makenna Chumbley, Riley Prechtel and Dana Hoffman.
SEASON RESULTS (15-9) OPPONENT W/L SCORE at Crawford County W 57-55 at Tell City L 55-53 at Loogootee L 49-45 WASHINGTON W 49-33 vs. Northeast Dubois W 58-53 vs. Jasper L 60-49 vs. Pl. Ridge Park (Ky.) L 69-56 vs. Louisville Moore (Ky.) L 62-60 vs. Carroll County (Ky.) W 64-52 vs. Fox Creek (Ky.) W 69-33 at Perry Central W 59-50 SOUTH SPENCER W 62-46
OPPONENT W/L SCORE at North Posey L 60-57 at Jasper L 57-46 at Tecumseh W 58-46 SOUTHRIDGE W 49-35 EV. MATER DEI W 56-35 BARR-REEVE L 61-54, OT WOOD MEMORIAL W 65-55 HERITAGE HILLS L 41-32 at Boonville W 45-35 at Pike Central W 68-59 at Gibson Southern W 63-46 NORTHEAST DUBOIS W 49-27
STATISTICS PLAYER Sam Englert Trever Zink Collin Hochgesang Noah Fleck Daniel Lusk Elliott Rothgerber Reid Steffe Blake Mohr Isaac Uebelhor Aaron Hurst Garrison Tretter Braydon Voegerl Noah Hawkins
G 23 24 24 23 23 24 22 23 12 11 17 6 1
PTS HI 373 27 234 25 204 20 171 15 152 22 89 16 34 9 33 9 10 2 9 3 10 2 3 2 3 3
AVG FG 3PT FT-FTA 16.3 130 0 113-153 10.0 67 35 65-78 8.6 75 26 28-42 7.6 60 4 47-71 6.6 56 5 35-57 3.7 24 3 38-57 1.5 12 8 2-4 1.4 15 0 3-8 0.8 2 0 6-8 0.8 4 0 1-2 0.6 5 0 0-1 0.5 0 0 3-4 3.0 1 1 0-0
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 13
Southridge Raiders
Student managers for the Southridge boys basketball team are, from left, Chase Stetter and Jenna Broeker. Not pictured: Noah Stetter and Ashley Sutton. Member of the Southridge boys coaching staff are, from left, Larry Altstadt, Ted O’Brien and TJ Montgomery. Not pictured: Steve O’Brien and Brett Roesner.
Members of the Southridge cheerleading squad are, from left, first row: Vanessa Avalos and Joscelyn Blanchard. Second row: Megan Buechler, Bailee Fisher, Justin Reed, Kyndall Seidl and Jenna Brock.
SEASON RESULTS (5-18) OPPONENT W/L SCORE at Washington L 63-47 at Corydon Central L 62-54 at Tell City L 38-32 PIKE CENTRAL L 62-39 JASPER L 54-30 NORTHEAST DUBOIS L 51-45 NORTH DAVIESS W 50-46 vs. Guerin Catholic L 51-37 vs. Eastern Greene L 57-35 vs. North Knox W 44-40 TECUMSEH W 52-38 NORTHEAST DUBOIS L 49-48
STATISTICS
OPPONENT W/L SCORE at Perry Central L 53-42 at Jasper L 57-52 HERITAGE HILLS L 59-45 PAOLI L 48-44 at Forest Park L 49-35 GIBSON SOUTHERN L 59-37 NORTH POSEY W 6 3-56, OT at Wood Memorial L 53-37 at South Spencer L 69-55 LOOGOOTEE L 62-61 BOONVILLE W 56-54
PLAYER Jaden Hayes Harrison Steckler Jayce Harter Braden Harding Ross Eckert Matthew Price Logan Seger Colin Smith Jacob Masterson Justin Lammers Garrett Voegerl
G PTS HI AVG FG 3PT FT-FTA 23 287 22 12.5 124 1 38-69 23 252 25 11.0 88 13 63-94 23 166 15 7.2 55 34 22-39 23 107 15 4.7 34 21 18-26 23 89 12 3.9 30 8 21-30 19 69 11 3.6 24 13 8-12 23 48 10 2.1 17 5 9-14 2 2 2 1.0 0 0 2-2 16 15 5 0.9 6 3 0-0 6 2 2 0.3 1 0 0-0 3 0 0 0.0 0 0 0-0
Northeast Dubois Jeeps
Student managers for the Northeast Dubois boys basketball team are, from left: Kortney Quinn, Tyla Rasche and Clare Mangin.
Members of the Northeast Dubois coaching staff are, from left: Seth Matheis, Cody Ziegler, Terry Friedman and Travis Schroering. Members of the Northeast Dubois cheerleading squad are, from left, first row: Mackenzie Zehr, Gabbi Schepers, La’Kiegha Fawks and Hunter Thewes. Second row: Hannah Schepers, Lauren Lorey, Victoria Rohde, Kristin Blessinger, Jordan Bauer and MaKena Everman. Not pictured: Paige Knies.
SEASON RESULTS (11-11) OPPONENT at Pike Central TELL CITY WASH. CATHOLIC at Heritage Hills ORLEANS at Tecumseh vs. Forest Park at Southridge at Barr-Reeve SOUTH KNOX at Southridge
W/L SCORE L 66-49 W 34-29 W 54-15 L 43-36 W 41-34 W 56-47 L 58-53 W 51-45 L 47-27 L 45-27 W 49-48
OPPONENT PAOLI at Vincennes Rivet at Springs Valley JASPER WOOD MEMORIAL NORTH KNOX NORTH DAVIESS at Perry Central at Shoals LOOGOOTEE at Forest Park
STATISTICS W/L SCORE L 60-51 W 49-41 L 56-52 L 58-37 L 64-59, OT W 74-67 W 44-36 L 61-56 W 56-46 W 58-56 L 27-49
PLAYER Alan Kerstiens Alex Harder Logan Dodd Reece Bauer Griffen Bauer Brandon Merkel Chase Riecker Scott Betz Sidney Schott Owen Fuhrman Marshall Knies Reece Helming
G PTS HI AVG FG 3PT FT-FTA 22 244 22 11.1 89 36 30-38 13 128 24 9.9 48 16 16-27 22 176 15 8.0 59 20 38-55 21 162 21 7.7 47 2 66-86 19 128 16 6.7 42 0 44-75 21 84 13 4.0 29 5 21-42 22 56 10 2.5 20 1 15-25 14 47 10 3.4 12 0 23-32 11 5 2 1.0 2 0 1-2 10 6 3 0.7 2 2 0-0 12 3 2 0.3 1 0 1-3 8 1 1 0.1 0 0 1-2
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THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Class 3A
@ Pioneer Stadium, Boonville Heritage Hills Patriots Record: 15-8 Coach: Nate Hawkins (15-8 in first season at Heritage Hills; 79-34 in five seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Mount Vernon (5-18) or Boonville (3-20), 6 p.m. CST Friday Postseason history: 9 sectionals Probable starters: G Cade Jones (5-11 Soph.); G Dalton Selvidge (5-11 Sr.); G Grant Doyle (6-0 Sr.); G Murray Becher (6-2 Fr.); F Carter Meunier (6-6 Jr.) Team tidbits: The Patriots’ 15-8 record is the inverse of the 8-15 mark they accrued in last year’s regular season. That’s already
Boonville Pioneers Record: 3-20 Coach: Steve Altstadt (87-183 in 12th season at Boonville; 124-237 in 16 seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Mount Vernon (5-18), 6 p.m. CST Tuesday Postseason history: 24 sectionals, 2 regionals Probable starters: G Ben Meier (5-11 Soph.); G Ross Kirkland (6-0 Soph.); F Nick Smith (6-3 Fr.); F Lane Miller (6-4 Sr.); F Glen Rouch (6-5 Jr.) Team tidbits: Boonville was 0-5 during the regular season against fellow sectional
Mount Vernon Wildcats Record: 5-18 Coach: Marc Hostetter (51-91 in sixth season) Opponent: vs. Boonville (3-20), 6 p.m. CST Tuesday Postseason history: 6 sectionals Probable starters: G Blake Jackson (6-0 Sr.); G Collin Jackson (5-8 Sr.); G Tanner Curtis (Sr.); F Walker Paris (6-2 Sr.); F Austin McDurman (6-1 Sr.) Team tidbits: Blake Jackson and Paris guide Mount Vernon with 13.6 and 13.3 ppg, respectively. The Wildcats start five seniors but shoot just 38 percent from the floor
tied for the second-best improvement from the prior season in program history. The Pats had a seven-win improvement from 1995-96 to 1996-97. They leaped from five wins to 15 between 1974-75 and 197576. ... The Pats give up 50.3 ppg, the best defensive mark in the sectional. Keep an eye on: The Pats’ leaders being able to convert at their usual rate. Becher, Meunier and Selvidge all shoot better than 51 percent on the season, and Selvidge makes 44 percent of his 3-pointers. Moment to remember: The Patriots collected three straight victories (including an overtime dismissal of South Spencer) in the post-Christmas PSC Holiday Classic to win the event for the first time in 12 years.
Gibson Southern Titans
foes, including a 101-51 defeat to Evansville Bosse. ... Rouch averages around 20 points and the junior already passed 1,000 for his career after pouring in 33 in last week’s loss to Tell City. ... Miller, a standout pitcher who has committed to play baseball at Indiana University, scores 9 ppg, as does Meier. Keep an eye on: Getting over the hump. Outside of about five blowout losses, the Pioneers have been competitive in most other games, losing 10 contests by 10 or fewer points. Moment to remember: Boonville lost a 12-point lead late to Vincennes Lincoln but nicked the Alices 54-53 earlier this month for their only conference win this season.
Evansville Bosse Bulldogs
as a team. ... Mount Vernon was 0-11 this season in true road games. The Wildcats did slip past first-round sectional opponent Boonville 53-49 in early December. That was the second-fewest points Mount Vernon allowed this season; the Cats surrender 64.2 ppg and have allowed opponents to score 60 ppg or better in 12 straight seasons. Keep an eye on: A potential postseason breakthrough. The Wildcats have exited the sectional in their opening-round game 17 of the last 19 years. They have a winnable opener this time. Moment to remember: With a 22-16 flurry in the final quarter, Mount Vernon topped county rival North Posey 54-48 in the season’s second game.
Evansville Memorial Tigers
Record: 15-8 Coach: Kyle Runyan (35-35 in third season at Gibson Southern; 55-105 in seven seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Evansville Bosse (15-7), 7:30 p.m. CST Tuesday Postseason history: 4 sectionals, 2 regionals Probable starters: G Chandler McKee (5-9 Sr.); G Alec Martin (6-1 Jr.); G Nicholas Maurer (6-1 Jr.); F Dawson Witte (6-3 Soph.); F Wes Obermeier (6-7 Jr.) Team tidbits: The Titans have been ousted in their first sectional game six years run-
Record: 15-7 Coach: Shane Burkhart (139-82 in ninth season) Opponent: vs. Gibson Southern (15-8), 7:30 p.m. CST Tuesday Postseason history: 29 sectionals, 16 regionals, 7 semistates, 3 state titles Probable starters: G Mehki Lairy (5-8 Jr.); G Jaylen Chinn (6-0 Jr.); F Jaidon Hunter (6-3 Sr.); F/C Javi Langley (6-5 Sr.); F/C Nicely Tsianguebeni (6-4 Sr.) Team tidbits: Bosse unleashed 101 points on Boonville and 103 on Ohio foe Cincinnati Hughes, and the Bulldogs’ mark of 77.7
Record: 13-9 Coach: Rick Wilgus (190142 in 15th season at Memorial; 382-385 in 35 seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Gibson Southern (15-8) or Ev. Bosse (15-7), 7:30 p.m. CST Friday Postseason history: 10 sectionals, 5 regionals Probable starters: G Dylan Penn (6-1 Jr.); G Michael Lindauer (6-3 Soph.); G Branson Combs (6-2 Soph.); F Logan Douglas (6-2 Sr.); F Sam Devault (6-9 Soph.) Team tidbits: Memorial scores 66.3 ppg with the inside-outside duo of Devault (13.6 ppg)
ning. A first-round clash with Bosse does the Titans no favors, but they’ve already earned their most wins since the 2003-04 season. ... Obermeier (18 ppg, 7.2 rpg) shoots 58 percent from the floor, and every other Titan starter scores 8 ppg or better, including McKee (10.9) and Martin (10.7). Keep an eye on: Which Titans show up. They’ve logged some solid wins, including a 10-point takedown of Evansville Memorial and road wins at Heritage Hills and Vincennes Lincoln. But the Titans have also been thumped in recent lopsided defeats to Tell City, Wood Memorial and Forest Park. Moment to remember: Friday’s 68-56 win over North Posey gave the Titans a share of the PAC title along with the Vikings.
ppg makes them the state’s third-highest scoring team. Vincennes Lincoln is the only team to hold Bosse under 60. ... Six of Bosse’s losses were to Class 4A opponents, with the other coming to Owensboro. Keep an eye on: Pretty much everyone for the Bulldogs. Lairy (20.3 ppg) has devastating quickness, Chinn (12.4) and Langley (11.7) are more catalysts in a high-octane Bulldog system, and Bosse makes nearly eight 3-pointers per game and shoots 42 percent behind the arc. Moment to remember: While it wasn’t a win, Bosse’s 72-63 defeat at 2016 Class 4A state champ New Albany near Christmas signaled that the Bulldogs can hang with any team in any class.
and Penn (18.0). ... Pat Graham, the 1989 Indiana Mr. Basketball who played at IU, is an assistant for Memorial; his son Cade (Fr., G) scores 4 ppg off the Tiger bench. Keep an eye on: Being Bosse kryptonite, if the Bulldogs advance to face Memorial in the semifinals. The Tigers have given Bosse trouble in the sectional the last few years, including last year when they had the Dogs beat before letting a huge lead slip. In the regular season, Memorial trailed Bosse by just six after three quarters and lost by 15. Moment to remember: With Combs (25), Penn (21) and Devault (21) all racking up better than 20 points, the Tigers outraced Harrison 83-81 in double OT to reach the finals of the midseason SIAC Tourney.
Heritage Hills Patriots
Members of the Heritage Hills boys basketball coaching staff are, from left: John Becher, Dillion Gregory, Nate Hawkins and Josh Wetzel.
Student managers for the Heritage Hills boys basketball team are, from left: Zach Bulleit, Sydney Rube, Shaylynn Smith, Reagan Lashley and Jordan Schaefer.
Members of the Heritage Hills cheerleading squad are, from left, first row: Peyton Roedel, Kayley Marchand, Taylor West, Brianna Townsend, Rachel Winner and Hailey Ruxer. Second row: Sierra Schipp, Emily Frakes, Whitney Ward, Makynsie Bancroft and Karlie Tischendorf.
SEASON RESULTS (15-8) OPPONENT W/L SCORE NORTH HARRISON W 60-50 at Evansville Day W 55-38 NORTHEAST DUBOIS W 43-36 at North Posey L 76-57 HANCOCK COUNTY (Ky.) L 44-42, 2OT at Mount Vernon W 60-51 EV. MEMORIAL L 62-60, OT SOUTH SPENCER W 68-62, OT IND. MATH & SCIENCE W 62-50 CORYDON CENTRAL W 64-57 GIBSON SOUTHERN L 63-53 at Washington L 67-42
OPPONENT W/L SCORE PIKE CENTRAL W 47-45 at Tecumseh W 66-45 at Southridge W 59-45 at Evansville Mater Dei L 49-47 SOUTH SPENCER L 53-52 at Boonville W 55-49 JASPER L 54-39 at Forest Park W 41-32 TELL CITY W 41-40 at Princeton W 47-44 PERRY CENTRAL W 66-46
STATISTICS PLAYER Murray Becher Dalton Selvidge Carter Meunier J.D. Hoover Cade Jones Grant Doyle Gabe Hitz Simon Scherry Carson Leibering Grahm Turner Mitchel Becher Dylan Begle
G 23 23 23 22 23 23 21 19 20 7 1 1
PTS HI 322 23 294 24 211 22 112 10 109 10 97 12 36 6 26 5 8 4 2 2 9 9 0 0
AVG FG 14.0 119 12.8 109 9.2 84 5.1 40 4.7 40 4.2 34 1.7 12 1.4 8 0.4 3 0.3 1 9.0 3 0.0 0
3PT FT-FTA 5 79-96 48 28-40 0 43-74 5 27-33 10 19-29 12 17-26 0 12-23 4 6-8 0 2-2 0 0-1 1 2-2 0 0-0
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 15
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PAGE 16 ■ SECTIONAL
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Rangers find grit from Welp’s wicked workouts By WYATT L. STAYNER wstayner@dcherald.com Just from Forest Park coach Jeff Litherland’s reaction, you can tell how tough the workouts are. Ever since joining the Ranger staff three years ago, assistant coach David Welp has instituted an offseason summer exercise program for those who Rothgerber aren’t afraid to tackle it or aren’t busy training for fall sports. For right now, Litherland falls squarely in the notquite-ready category. “Absolutely not,” LithLusk erland said of joining the workout. “I’ve seen them and I’ve thought about doing them, but there’s no way I can make it through that.” Ranger sophomore Elliott Rothgerber said Welp’s workouts make you feel “pretty wore out and sore, like you don’t really want to do anything.” In the mornings, players will practice on shooting and ballhandling for about an hour before switching up and focusing on strength and cardio training, which is mostly
Forest Park varsity assistant coach David Welp, right, has helped keep the Rangers whipped into shape with an offseason summer workout schedule that incorporates highintensity intervals and CrossFit disciplines. As much as physical endurance, the Rangers agree the workouts have helped them develop mental fortitude along with it. ALISHA JUCEVIC THE HERALD
based off CrossFit workouts. “I wanted our guys to compete at the highest level, so to do that they need to be in good physical shape,” said Welp, who started for Forest Park’s state championship teams in 2005 and ’06. Daniel Lusk was another training regular over the summer and he hates burpees and squats, so that part of the routine was tough. As Lusk recalled, he’d get really “sore for a while and then it goes away and you do it again.” While
the training left its mark with pain — good pain — one of the most lasting effects from those workouts might be a resilience that’s allowed Forest Park (15-9) to reel off wins in eight of its last 10 games after starting the year 2-5 and sitting 7-7 at midseason. “It just makes you tougher, ready for anything that comes your way,” Lusk explained. Some of the circuits are essentially “workouts that take 10 minutes, but it’s 10 minutes of ab-
solute physical work. Then you’ve got to repeat that over and over for two or three rounds,” Welp said. “It’s good team-building, because we do a lot of team exercises where they team up in groups of three and they’re helping each other and competing and pushing each other and wanting to do their best because it’s a grind,” Welp continued. “Every day it’s a grind.” Add injuries and sickness and a rough start to that seasonal grind, and it can be easy for things to
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THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 17
Class 2A
@ Huntingburg Memorial Gymnasium Forest Park Rangers Record: 15-9 Coach: Jeff Litherland (65-40 in fifth season) Opponent: vs. Perry Central (7-16), 8 p.m. Tuesday Postseason history: 10 sectionals, 5 regionals, 3 semistates, 2 state titles Probable starters: G Daniel Lusk (6-1 Jr.); G Trever Zink (5-11 Jr.); G/F Noah Fleck (6-2 Jr.); F Collin Hochgesang (6-5 Jr.); F Sam Englert (6-4 Jr.) Team tidbits: Lusk (33) and Zink (31) are the team leaders in steals for a Ranger team that gives up 48.9 ppg. That’s the
Ev. Mater Dei Wildcats Record: 9-13 Coach: Kurt Wildeman (124-110 in 10th season) Opponent: vs. North Posey (11-12), 6:30 p.m. Tuesday Postseason history: 10 sectionals, 5 regionals, 2 semistates, 1 state title Probable starters: G Jules Weinzapfel (6-2 Jr.); G/F Luke Eppler (6-1 Jr.); F Sam Fulton (6-4 Jr.); F Kyle Norman (6-3 Sr.); F Logan Carter (6-9 Soph.) Team tidbits: Fulton tallies almost 13 ppg as Mater Dei’s only returning starter from a year ago. The Wildcats absorbed their share
Tell City Marksmen Record: 13-10 Coach: Matt Lynch (13-10 in first season) Opponent: vs. Forest Park (15-9) or Perry Central (7-16), 8 p.m. Friday Postseason history: 34 sectionals, 5 regionals, 1 semistate Probable starters: G Tretter Lyons (5-10 Soph.); G Devon Blake (5-10 Soph.); G Trent Arnold (6-2 Soph.); F Dustin Hunt (6-2 Soph.); C Braeden Beard (6-5 Soph.) Team tidbits: Beard averages a double-double (18 points, 12 rebounds). ... Tell City’s roster is composed of 10 sophomores
program’s best defensive average since the 2012 sectional champion squad allowed 48.6 ppg. ... Forest Park is 10-0 all-time in sectional games against first-round foe Perry Central. Keep an eye on: The Ranger guards. Forest Park tends to go as Lusk and Zink go, and a more-aggressive Lusk recently notched a career-best 22 points against Pike Central while Zink has buried a team-high 35 3-pointers and has connected on 90 treys for his career. Moment to remember: Within the month of February that included wins over Wood Memorial, Pike Central and Gibson Southern, the Rangers also crushed sectional rival Mater Dei 56-35.
Perry Central Commodores
of hits this season in the SIAC, going winless in seven games though they did knock off North in the midseason SIAC tourney. ... The Cats have won at least one postseason game in 18 of the last 19 years. The only first-round exit in that span was in 2011 to South Spencer. ... Mater Dei averages 50.3 ppg after tallying 63 ppg a year ago. Keep an eye on: Mater Dei’s offensive threat off the bench. Connor Ricketts (Sr., G) is the team’s second-leading scorer at 9 ppg and does most his damage from behind the 3-point arc. Moment to remember: The Wildcats got a tiebreaking bucket with 3.2 seconds left to finish a 49-47 rally past Heritage Hills on Jan. 27.
North Posey Vikings
and two freshmen. The Marksmen have no seniors or juniors in the program. Despite that, they’re in the midst of their best season since going 16-7 in 2007-08. ... Tell City last won a sectional in 1993, though North Posey (last title in 1966) is the sectional team with the longest drought. Keep an eye on: Tell City’s defensive revival. In its last eight sectional losses, Tell City allowed an average of 72.4 points. This season, the Marksmen allow 45.3 ppg, a 12-point improvement from last year. Moment to remember: The Marksmen nicked Mater Dei 32-30 on the road for their first win over the Wildcats in nine years, and they also tied for third in the PAC after tying for last place in 2015-16.
South Spencer Rebels
Record: 7-16 Coach: Matt Carter (117114 in 11th season) Opponent: vs. Forest Park (15-9), 8 p.m. Tuesday Postseason history: 4 sectionals Probable starters: G Ty Mullis (5-9 Jr.); G Luke Hubert (5-11 Sr.); F Kage Kiplinger (6-0 Jr.); F Levi Hubert (6-1 Soph.); F Luke Bishop (6-4 Jr.) Team tidbits: Perry Central went just 1-10 during the regular season against Class 2A opponents. ... Carter has had a hand in three of Perry Central’s four sectional titles
Record: 11-12 Coach: Heath Howington (48-71 in fifth season) Opponent: vs. Evansville Mater Dei (9-13), 6:30 p.m. Tuesday Postseason history: 1 sectional Probable starters: G Jacob Sanford (5-10 Jr.); G David Bender (5-10 Jr.); G Josiah Ricketts (5-10 Fr.); G/F Ethan Morlock (6-0 Sr.); F Noah Scheller (6-2 Sr.) Team tidbits: North Posey lost seven of its first eight games but is 10-5 in the 2017 sector of its schedule. ... Just a freshman,
Record: 10-12 Coach: David Kruse (10-12 in first season) Opponent: vs. North Posey (11-12) or Evansville Mater Dei (9-13), 6:30 p.m. Friday Postseason history: 9 sectionals, 3 regionals Probable starters: G Dylan Kelly (5-9 Jr.); G Matthew Embry (6-2 Sr.); G Caleb Helms (5-10 Sr.); F Jaylen Taylor (6-0 Jr.); F Will Cox (6-4 Sr.) Team tidbits: After ending an 18-year sectional drought last March, South Spencer has its sixth different head coach in the
in program history; he coached the Commodores to sectional titles in 2013 and ’14 and scored almost 29 ppg (second-highest average in the state) as a player on the 1997 championship team. Keep an eye on: Luke Hubert. He hit up Forest Park for 19 points in the regular-season clash, leads the Commodores at 11.7 ppg and also tops the squad in assists (39) and steals (36). Don’t foul Hubert — he hits 80 percent at the foul line — but the Commodores are 62 percent free throw shooters as a team. Moment to remember: It arrived in the first game of the season as Perry Central took down county neighbor Tell City 66-59 in overtime behind Kiplinger’s 18 points.
Ricketts is the second-highest scorer in the sectional (17.9 ppg). He’s buried 60 3-pointers and shoots 41 percent behind the arc. The Vikings feature an even more prolific threat beyond the arc in Sanford (14.4 ppg), who’s splashed 69 treys and connects on 49 percent of his 3s. Keep an eye on: Surviving the opener. The Vikings have lost their sectional opener 15 of the last 19 years. They’ve dropped nine in a row to first-round foe Mater Dei. Moment to remember: A road win at Tell City on Feb. 18 clinched a share of the conference title for the Vikings, who ended up sharing it with Gibson Southern. It’s the fourth PAC crown for the Vikings in program history; three have been shared titles.
last eight seasons. ... Embry (14 ppg), Kelly (13) and Cox (9) are the offensive pacesetters for the Rebels, who lost in the regular season to both potential Friday opponents, Mater Dei (50-36) and North Posey (74-69). Keep an eye on: Assembling momentum. For the Rebels to grab back-to-back sectional titles for the first time since taking four straight from 1993 to ’96, they’ll have to win two games consecutively — which they’ve done just twice this season. They do enter the sectional on a three-game win streak. Moment to remember: After falling to county enemy Heritage Hills in overtime in a December tournament, the Rebels clipped the Patriots 53-52 a month later with Kelly racking up 31 points.
Rangers (Concluded from Page 16) On top of that, Forest Park can gain inspiration from the long days a few of their coaches work. Litherland along with Jordan Johnson and Brian Partenheimer all work jobs outside the school system. For Litherland and Partenheimer, who both have three kids and work in sales, that means some weird hours to get everything done. Partenheimer might have to make a sales trek at 5 a.m. in the morning, only to follow that up with a basketball practice at 3 p.m. before then taking one of his kids to practice. “I’m traveling a lot, driving 1,200 miles a week, so it’s a lot of time commitment,” said Partenheimer, who volunteers with the team. “This is something that you have to be at every day,” Litherland added. “At 3 o’clock we have basketball practice, and there’s days I go in early and there’s nights I work after practice so I’ll be up at midnight doing my emails or a scouting report.” In some ways, the biggest strides Forest Park has made
this season have come because of discussions between the staff and players, as well as just the maturation of teenagers, Partenheimer and Litherland explained. Sometimes the talks that spur that development are about basketball and sometimes they aren’t. “We’ve had a lot of stuff go on this season,” Litherland said. “All the coaches have been through high school, and if somebody loses a girlfriend, they think it’s the end of the world. Or they’ve got to do a chore, they think it’s the end of the world. We’re like, ‘C’mon, guys. That’s nothing. The real world is really tough.’” Exhausting as the daily routine can be for Litherland, though, it sure seems like the Ranger coach would recommend his path. “I always hate when the season is over because, in my job being in sales, I put up with a lot of stuff throughout the day and then at 3 o’clock I know that, ‘Hey, I’m going to come to practice and cut up with these guys,” Litherland said. “We’re just very proud of them and we love all of them and what they do.”
TOURNEY REWIND: 1990 When Forest Park captured the school’s first boys basketball sectional title in the school’s 19-year history in 1990, a wild celebration ensued. At left, Forest Park junior Kory Klem (10) was caught in the melee as fans spilled onto the Huntingburg Memorial Gymnasium floor after the Rangers beat Jasper. The Ranger team later took its celebration to the streets of Ferdinand and was greeted by an exuberant, street-clogging crowd that blocked the highway to one lane as the party lasted into the early morning.
PAGE 18 ■ SECTIONAL
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Jeeps restock punch in paint
Northeast Dubois junior Griffen Bauer (45) has emerged over the second half of the season to help the Jeeps compensate for losing a pair of post players, as Keigan Meyer moved out of state in the offseason and Scott Betz has been recently sidelined with a shoulder injury. Chase Riecker has likewise offered some frontline reinforcement for the Jeeps.
By MICHAEL HUGHES mhughes@dcherald.com Griffen Bauer still remembers that nervous feeling. After a summer spent preparing for a supporting role on this year’s Northeast Dubois boys basketball team, the junior center’s preconceptions flipped when he heard the news Keigan Riecker Meyer was moving to North Carolina. Meyer led the Jeeps in scoring in rebounding the year before as a sophomore, and now Bauer was tasked with replacing him. “Griffen was the next logical step,” Jeep coach Terry Friedman said. “We had seen glimpses from Griffen that he was very capable of filling that role but we just weren’t sure. Once he got in there and once he became The Man for us inside, he’s stepped
ALISHA JUCEVIC THE HERALD
up and become very consistent for us.” That consistency wasn’t immediate, however. Back in November, Friedman decided his new man in the middle needed a little encouragement, so he stopped practice to chat with Bauer. The potential was clear, with a frame that had grown to 6-foot-4 combined with an athleticism that could help him govern the paint. The problem was, Bauer had no idea. “Griffen, you’re better than you’re showing,” Friedman remembers saying. “You’re a better basketball player than what you’re
letting people know you are. You need to let out and let it go.” Since that conversation, Friedman said Bauer has reached that potential and blossomed past whatever was holding him back — whether that was a lack of belief in his abilities or those skills still developing. “When that finally came together for him he’s become a solid player for us,” Friedman said. “He has a really good nose for the ball, and he’s quick off his feet so that makes him a threat inside.” Junior Chase Riecker said in the season’s first game, a 66-49 loss against Pike Central, Bauer
looked tight and missed a bevy of opportunities around the rim. “I forget what game it was after that, but he scored 10 points, hit a lot of layups and his confidence just built from that and made him a lot better player,” Riecker said. Riecker’s had a front-row seat to Bauer’s development, since the junior accustomed to playing on the perimeter was forced into a starting frontcourt role of his own after Scott Betz suffered a shoulder injury in January that has sidelined him the last month. Together, the two have formed a pesky interior tandem for the
Jeeps heading into this week’s Class 1A sectional at Wood Memorial, which starts Tuesday night when Northeast Dubois (11-11) faces Cannelton (2-20) in the first round. “It’s fun to play with Chase because Chase has more energy than everyone else on the court,” Bauer said. “He scares people with how much energy he has.” The 6-foot-1 Riecker operates without the size of Bauer, but with same general mindset and goal — frustrate the opponent to the See PAINT on Page 19
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SECTIONAL ■ PAGE 19
Class 1A
@ Wood Memorial High School Northeast Dubois Jeeps Record: 11-11 Coach: Terry Friedman (125-128 in 11th season) Opponent: vs. Cannelton (2-20), 8 p.m. EST Tuesday Postseason history: 9 sectionals, 3 regionals Probable starters: G Alan Kerstiens (6-2 Jr.); G Logan Dodd (5-11 Soph.); G Reece Bauer (5-10 Fr.); F Chase Riecker (6-1 Jr.); F Griffen Bauer (6-4 Jr.) Team tidbits: The Jeeps finished the season with a double-digit win total for the first time since winning 14 games in 2011-12.
Wood Memorial Trojans Record: 18-5 Coach: Kevin Menke (18-5 in first season) Opponent: vs. Springs Valley (14-9), 6:30 p.m. EST Tuesday Postseason history: 7 sectionals Probable starters: G Tyler Fleisher (6-4 Sr.); G Tristan Vickers (5-11 Sr.); G Paxon Bartley (6-3 Soph.); F Lathan Falls (6-4 Jr.); F Walker Nurrenbern (6-3 Jr.) Team tidbits: Bartley, Nurrenbern, Falls and Fleisher have all started since their freshman year, though Falls missed last
Tecumseh Braves Record: 6-16 Coach: Kevin Oxley (305282 in 25th season) Opponent: vs. Northeast Dubois (11-11) or Cannelton (2-20), 8 p.m. EST Friday Postseason history: 12 sectionals, 2 regionals, 1 semistate, 1 state title Probable starters: G Carson White (5-6 Jr.); G Jon Jenkins (5-10 Sr.); G Steven Molinet (5-9 Soph.); F Tanner Brammeier (6-2 Jr.); F Woody Brucken (6-0 Soph.) Team tidbits: In the class basketball era, Tecumseh has gathered 12 sectional titles.
Three times since 2010, the Jeeps have captured a sectional title when winning fewer than 10 games in the regular season. ... The Jeeps have five players averaging better than 6.7 ppg — Kerstiens (11.1), Alex Harder (9.9), Dodd (8.0), Reece Bauer (7.7) and Griffen Bauer (6.7). Keep an eye on: Turnovers and free throws. The Jeeps are better in both categories this season, averaging 11.6 turnovers per game and 66 percent at the foul line, where Kerstiens (79 percent) and Reece Bauer (77 percent) are the most accurate. Moment to remember: The Jeeps closed on a high note in their final home game, tripping up Class 1A No. 10 Loogootee 5856 on Griffen Bauer’s two late free throws.
Cannelton Bulldogs
season with a knee injury. ... Bartley’s father Johnnie and sister Chloe both earned a state championship over the weekend as Johnnie coaches the Wood Memorial girls, who throttled Union City 68-43 with Chloe amassing eight points and 10 rebounds. Keep an eye on: Wood Memorial’s backcourt, which can cause big-time mismatches at the 1A level. Fleisher is a 6-4 point guard who’s rail-thin but athletic, and the 6-3 Bartley has a nose for getting to the bucket. Moment to remember: The Trojans swept the season against their bigger-school Gibson County rivals, topping Princeton twice and hammering Gibson Southern 64-38 with Nurrenbern pumping in 23 points.
Springs Valley Blackhawks
In that same span, only Lafayette Central Catholic (18) and Pike (14) have won more sectionals statewide. Tecumseh’s last title came in 2010. ... White scores almost 10 ppg and Brammeier averages 8.2 ppg behind Molinet, who tallies 12.7 ppg. Keep an eye on: Tecumseh should get a lift from Aaron Beard, who missed most of the season with an injury but returned within the last few weeks. He’s already made his presence felt, drilling a 3-pointer with eight seconds left to beat Perry Central 65-64. Moment to remember: Half of the Braves’ wins arrived in a seven-day stretch Jan. 27 to Feb. 2 versus Vincennes Rivet, Washington Catholic and Evansville Day. The wins came by an average of almost 25 points.
Evansville Day Eagles
Record: 2-20 Coach: Michael Snyder (7-61 in third season) Opponent: vs. Northeast Dubois (11-11), 8 p.m. EST Tuesday Postseason history: 6 sectionals Probable starters: G Dakota Davis (5-11 Soph.); G Chris Maffia (5-10 Jr.); F Rafe Garrett (6-2 Fr.); F Jacob Pearey (6-1 Sr.); F/C Ethan Melton (6-5 Jr.) Team tidbits: Cannelton is 1-3 all-time against first-round opponent Northeast Dubois. The first meeting between the
Record: 14-9 Coach: Michel Leitzman (14-9 in first season; 29-42 in three seasons overall) Opponent: vs. Wood Memorial (18-5), 6:30 p.m. EST Tuesday Postseason history: 12 sectionals, 2 regionals, 1 semistate Probable starters: G Zach Carnes (5-8 Jr.); G Chase Crecelius (6-0 Sr.); G/F O’Brien Selby (6-0 Sr.); G/F Josh Weddle (6-1 Sr.); F Braden Whitaker (6-3 Jr.) Team tidbits: Valley is amid one of its best
Record: 10-12 Coach: Austin Brooks (10-12 in first season) Opponent: vs. Wood Memorial (18-5) or Springs Valley (14-9), 6:30 p.m. EST Friday Postseason history: 1 sectional Probable starters: G Humaad Khan (5-9 Sr.); G Trey Waller (5-11 Sr.); G Alijah Stewart (6-0 Fr.); F Sam Springer (6-3 Sr.); F Noah Huppman (6-7 Fr.) Team tidbits: After the retirement of 19-year coach Kelly Ballard, Brooks has stepped in as he’s the only Day School
TOURNEY REWIND: 1977
schools came in the 1998 sectional final, won 70-61 by Cannelton. Since that 1998 sectional title, the Bulldogs haven’t had a winning season and have totaled two wins in sectional play. ... Cannelton beat Madison Christian, a non-IHSAA school, by 15 points and edged Bloomington Lighthouse 41-39 for its other victory. Keep an eye on: Finding buckets inside with Pearey (11.1 ppg) and Garrett (10.8). The two also combine for 13.4 rebounds per game and will need to carry the load for a team that scores 41.8 ppg. Moment to remember: Late free throws from the freshman Garrett allowed Cannelton to finish that win over Lighthouse on Jan. 7 for the Dogs’ first win of the season.
seasons in decades under the guidance of Leitzman, who started on Brownstown Central’s 2009 state runner-up team and coached two years at Medora before shifting to Valley. ... The Blackhawks have their highest win total since a 14-win campaign in 2003-04. Whitaker scores 13.3 ppg, followed by Selby (11.8) and Weddle (8.0). Keep an eye on: Defense has been a liability in losses as Valley has given up nearly 66 ppg in those games. That’ll be tested against first-round foe Wood Memorial, which can score at all five positions. Moment to remember: After 30 straight losses to Orleans dating back 16 seasons, Valley ended the futility against its nextdoor rival with a 55-53 overtime win Dec. 2.
alumnus to ever play Division I basketball. He played at the University of Southern Illinois and Ancilla College. One of his assistants is Jeremy Willis, the school’s career scoring leader at 1,899 points. ... The Eagles went 3-1 to close the regular season, putting up 81 points on Washington Catholic and 105 on Dugger Union. Keep an eye on: Khan and Waller can keep the Eagles in games — they combined for 30 points in last year’s sectional semifinals when the Eagles took eventual sectional champ Wood Memorial to overtime. Moment to remember: The Eagles collected a solid road win Dec. 10 with a 59-51 takedown of a North Posey team that won its conference title.
Paint (Concluded from Page 18)
With a throng of Northeast Dubois fans celebrating below, Jeep player Mike Archer snipped down the net after Northeast Dubois outfought Jasper 60-55 in overtime to win the 1977 sectional championship. It was the first sectional title for Northeast Dubois, which followed that with close victories over Crawford County (42-37) and Washington (64-61) in the regional and a 66-64 takedown of Evansville Central in the semistate opener. The Jeeps’ run to the Elite Eight of the single-class tourney ended in a 14-point defeat to Terre Haute South in the semistate final.
point he starts making mistakes. That’s done primarily with hustle plays. For Riecker, that’s sneaking around bigger players to swipe rebounds, as he ranks second on the team with 64 total boards. It means crashing the offensive glass as hard as possible for Bauer, who totals six rebounds per game, with 36 percent of his rebounds coming on the offensive end. “That’s the funnest part of the game, whenever you try to go in and get rebounds because it aggravates them that you’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Bauer said. “They’re supposed to be getting the defensive rebound and I like getting the offensive rebound.” “He’s physical in the post, and when you crash the offensive boards the way he does, that can irritate the opponent,” Friedman added. “Nobody likes to get shown up under their own basket and Griffen’s pretty good at doing that.” Riecker isn’t bad himself. There’s been games this season where the junior said he’s been
able to sense the opponent’s frustration gradually rise until eventually, those rebounds start turning into trips to the free throw line for the Jeeps. “We go at them all the time,” Riecker said. “It’s kind of a mind game. You try to get them frustrated and maybe they foul you the next time you get an offensive rebound.” Riecker also said once he starts rebounding the ball, he’s found an overall defensive improvement follows. Eventually, it trickles down to his offensive game. Bauer’s the same way, saying he’s never too focused on his scoring. If it comes it will happen naturally, Bauer said, and there’s plenty of Jeeps on the perimeter capable of shouldering the scoring load. Still, that doesn’t mean Bauer and Riecker aren’t more than capable of hurting teams in areas that extend beyond rebounding. “I think we’ve grown a lot since the beginning of the year, obviously,” Riecker said. “Griffen, he’s gotten a lot better the last few games and I’ve been there too. When we play aggressive we can help our team out significantly.”
PAGE 20 ■ SECTIONAL
THE HERALD ■ MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
Members of the Heritage Hills boys basketball team are, from left, first row: Grant Doyle, Cade Jones, Carson Leibering, Dalton Selvidge and Grahm Turner. Second row: JD Hoover, Carter Meunier, Gabe Hitz, Murray Becher and Mitchel Becher. Not pictured: Simon Scherry.
Three (Concluded from Page 2) Defense has evolved along with it, and Yarbrough noted how fewer teams play zone now compared to his day, to better account for threats lurking on the perimeter. “You have to respect that shot, because it can hurt you more,” Boehman said. He should know. Boehman was one of the couple thousand witnesses to the 1993 sectional opener between Forest Park and Jasper that’ll forever go down as one of the most legendary postseason contests locally. You probably know the premise: Scott Rolen’s 3-point bombs versus the unflinching free throw marksmanship of Boehman’s son, Bob, in front of more than 6,000 at a sold-out Huntingburg Memorial Gymnasium. Here’s a refresher on the numbers: Rolen drilled 10 3-pointers, including seven in the final 4:48. Jasper almost blotted out an 18-point deficit in the final quarter, were it not for Boehman sinking 16-of-16 free throws in the final period. There were 47 points scored in the last 2:48 of Forest Park’s 85-80 triumph. “I can still remember it — every time (Rolen) shot, it was one of those deals you knew it was going in,” Gene Boehman recalled. “He took probably two steps inside halfcourt and he shot the ball, and I’m thinking, ‘Thank God he finally took a bad shot.’ And he hit nothing but net. One was way over by our bench. The kid fouled him, knocked him into our bench, and he still hit the 3. “To this day, I’ve never seen anything like that.” When teams can trump 2s with 3s the way Rolen did, it’s become trickier to determine the right time to call off the dogs with a seemingly secure lead, Goebel said. To Goebel, the 3-pointer introduces another complicated
layer to his job as a coach when it comes to situational basketball. For example, when someone like Jasper senior T.D. Nottingham — a 38 percent 3-point shooter for his career — finds himself unguarded beyond the arc with his team shielding an eight-point lead with under two minutes left in the game? Shoot or don’t shoot? “You can send confusing messages as a coach sometimes. If he misses it, it’s a bad shot. If he hits it, it’s a good shot,” Goebel said. (Nottingham’s decision to shoot in that scenario in the North Daviess game wound up being a good one, as he buried Jasper’s 11th trey of the night.) “Sometimes kids don’t always know if they should pull the trigger or not. Trying to decide what a good shot is and isn’t has definitely become more difficult, especially in end-of-game situations.” Another wrinkle is breaking shooters of bad habits, which Steve O’Brien has witnessed coaching basketball for more than two decades ranging from the grade-school level to varsity girls to the JV boys team O’Brien currently coaches at Southridge. For example, O’Brien said, kids fall in love with shooting 3s when they first pick up the game at a young age. But lacking strength, they tend to heave it up from their hip. Sometimes the habits stick and at an older age shooters aren’t releasing 3-pointers from the correct shooting pocket. Still, people like O’Brien and Boehman who’ve been around to see basketball with and without the 3-point line feel like the game is better with it, by and large. “I think it made the game more exciting. The paint was getting so packed, and it stretched the floor quite a bit, and I think it’s made the game more exciting,” O’Brien said. “It’s just the negative part about it, these kids
get out here at too young an age and develop bad habits.” The ones who do master the 3-point craft have carved a niche for themselves. Yarbrough figures a guy like Matt Roth, Indiana University’s 3-point specialist from a few years ago, probably wouldn’t have been a Division I basketball player without the 3-point line. In his career so far at Purdue, Boilermaker sophomore guard Ryan Cline has hit 81 3s — and a grand total of 10 shots inside the arc. Ahlbrand points out that in the NBA, “there’s not many dominant post players in the game” like the era of Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, while the guy with the most popularselling jersey for the last three years running is Golden State’s 3-point sniper, Stephen Curry. The NBA incorporated the 3-point arc in 1979-80, eight years before it came to the high school level, and back then many people dismissed it as a gimmick. Good luck finding anyone these days who views it as such. “We shoot the 3 ball pretty well, and a lot of games you can tell the difference — even in stretches of the game — you can tell when we’re not shooting well versus when we are shooting well, how much it impacts our offense,” Nottingham said. “For our team this year, the game would probably be a whole lot tougher because of how much we like to space the floor and how much we really use that 3-point shot to our advantage.” It’s become a best friend of Nottingham, who’s hit 137 3s as part of his 1,098-point career total; he’d likely still be chasing the millennial mark if there were no 3-point shot. O’Brien saw his uncle Danny pile up 38 points for Southridge in a 1973 game and knows the total would’ve been further inflated with the 3-point line. Boehman says the same of
Larry Bird, as he once watched the Indiana State star score 42 in a game at Evansville. The feeling is similar about 1981 JHS grad Mike Ballenger, the program’s second-leading scorer (1,433 points) who could hit from anywhere and might be a couple hundred points higher if those deep 2s counted for an extra point.
Basketball without a 3-point arc — seems like a wildly exotic concept now, considering how it’s reshaped the game the last 30 years. “I’ve never seen a rule change a game like that,” Boehman said. “You’d be hard-pressed to find one that’s changed as much as the 3-point shot.”
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