Golden Bears go 2-0 to reach semifinal round of Bob Wettig Tournament

RICHMOND – Shelbyville was one of four teams to remain unbeaten on the first day of the Bob Wettig Tournament.

The Golden Bears defeated North Decatur, 74-36, Thursday afternoon at Earlham College then topped Indianapolis Shortridge, 63-54, Thursday night at the Tiernan Center at Richmond High School.

By going 2-0, Shelbyville (8-2) will face Richmond (4-5) at 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Tiernan Center with the winner advancing to the 8 p.m. championship game of the 16-team holiday tournament.

A loss to the Red Devils would put Shelbyville in the third-place game at 6:30 p.m.

The only other unbeatens in Richmond are Class 4A, No. 13 Ben Davis (6-2) and Class 2A, No. 2 Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (6-0). Those two teams meet at 12:30 p.m. Friday at Earlham College.

“It’s always easier when you get to watch the teams in person, which we get to do right now,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett Jr. after the Shortridge victory that was followed by the Richmond-Heritage Christian contest. “That last game was pretty hard to scout for because all we’ve seen is scout film on them. Now, we get to watch two teams and see the personnel and size and strength of them. We can start dissecting what we want to do against them.”

To reach the championship game, Shelbyville will need to continue to shoot well, especially from the three-point arc. The Golden Bears shot 54% from the field in the two wins (50 for 92) and 53% from the arc (18 for 34) in two different gymnasiums.

Shelbyville struggled to match Shortridge’s energy early and got outrebounded in the opening quarter 12-4.

As the Golden Bears settled in, runs of 7-0, 5-0 and 7-0 helped them take a 32-26 lead at halftime.

And just as Shelbyville buried North Decatur early with a flurry of 3s, the same thing happened in the third quarter Thursday night.

Brody Runnebohm, Caden Claxton and Damon Badgley combined to hit five 3s in the third quarter to give their team a 48-38 lead going into the final quarter.

“As long as we can get guys open, I am comfortable with any of my guys shooting wide open 3s,” said Hartnett.

Claxton (photo) scored just three points in the first half then hit 5-of-7 shots in the second half to lead the Golden Bears in scoring with 17 points.

Mar Nicholson and Badgley each finished with 14. Nicholson had a team-high nine rebounds.

Elijah Wilson finished with a game-high 23 points for Shortridge (4-6). No other Blue Devil reached double digits.

Shelbyville 74, North Decatur 36

The Golden Bears needed just over two minutes to build a double-digit lead over the Chargers and then never relinquished it in a dominant performance in their Wettig Tournament opener played at the Drurey Performance Center at Earlham College.

Runnebohm, Badgley and Claxton combined to make Shelbyville’s first four 3-point attempts as Shelbyville raced out to a 12-2 lead with 5:50 left in the opening quarter.

The Golden Bears produced identical shooting quarters in the first half, making 8 of 12 shots (67%) in each 8-minute span to build a 42-27 lead at halftime. That same trio scored the first 11 points of the third quarter to extend the lead to 53-27.

Shelbyville shot 58% from the field and 60% from the 3-point arc to produce a season-high in points scored.

“Our goal in this game was to get off to a hot start, and we hit some 3s to start the game,” said Hartnett after the win. “We wanted to give some of our guys some minutes to rest because this is a long tournament.

“We wanted to take it one game at a time and this was phase one. It’s not easy to play a game in the afternoon then come back this evening and get all riled up to play again.”

Claxton led Shelbyville with 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists while spending significant minutes on the bench in anticipation of a second game.

Badgley (photo) finished with 13 points and three assists. Runnebohm had 10 points and three rebounds. Nicholson took just four shots and scored eight points while adding seven rebounds and three blocks.

Logan O’Dell and Xander Jones each scored eight points to lead North Decatur (3-6), who returned to the Earlham College court later Thursday and defeated Phalen Academy, 77-64.

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