Shelbyville collects HHC win at Class 4A, No. 14 Pendleton Heights

PENDLETON -- Not even a top-15 ranked team backed by the Purdue Brass Band could stop a Shelbyville squad playing with confidence.

A 12-2 run over the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth created a double-digit lead that the Golden Bears extended out to a 62-42 victory Saturday at Class 4A, No. 14 Pendleton Heights.

“First off, the Purdue band being here and yelling every time we had the basketball was pretty awesome. Our guys loved it,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett Jr. “This team builds off of confidence. We had a 4-point lead at the half and we weren’t shooting well but we told the boys that once we see one go in they will start falling. We can’t go away from what we normally do.

“We got tough and hit shots and hit free throws and finished the game out.”

Mar Nicholson (photo) finished with a game-high 18 points and had eight rebounds to improve Shelbyville to 12-3 this season and 3-1 against Hoosier Heritage Conference foes.

Caden Claxton (main photo) missed his first four 3-point attempts then hit four straight to finish with 14 points. He also had seven rebounds and five assists despite fighting an illness.

“Caden wasn’t feeling well this morning at the shoot around. He looked a little tired,” said Hartnett. “He did an excellent job coming out where you couldn’t really tell (he wasn’t feeling well) except the first part of the game where he was a little winded. He fought back hard in the second half and finished with 14 and four 3s. He got tough and did what he needed to do for his team.”

Damon Badgley (photo) finished with 13 points. Brody Runnebohm had eight points and seven rebounds.

Joe Estes led the Arabians (5-8, 0-3 HHC) with 12 points. Evan Mozingo had 11. Pendleton Heights played without its leading scorer, Cooper Sims (19.5 ppg), in the second half after suffering an apparent knee injury in the second quarter.

Shelbyville, winners of seven of its last eight, scored the first seven points Saturday night much to the dismay of the visiting Purdue Brass Band, who performed all game and cheered for the Arabians.

An Estes corner 3 gave Pendleton Heights a 15-14 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Just after two minutes into the second quarter, Shelbyville regained the lead with an 8-0 run all from Nicholson. The Golden Bears never trailed again.

With Sims out and Estes and Mozingo on the bench late in the third quarter, Shelbyville scored the final seven points of the quarter to create the first double-digit lead of the contest.

That lead grew to 16 with a Claxton 3 and a Nicholson drive and score.

“We got in our offense we were running at the end of quarter and we executed it perfect,” said Hartnett.

With the win, Shelbyville put itself into position to get back atop the HHC standings on Saturday at Class 4A, No. 3 Greenfield-Central (11-2, 4-0 HHC).

Before Shelbyville can focus on UConn-bound Braylon Mullins and the Cougars, there is a road trip Tuesday to Franklin (4-7) for a game that has been postponed twice this month due to inclement weather.

Pendleton Heights won the junior varsity game, 51-41. Austin Martzall led the Golden Bears with 10 points. Cooper Thoman finished with nine.

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