Shelbyville suffers first loss of season to Class 3A, No. 1 Greensburg

Class 3A, No. 1 Greensburg used Tuesday's game at William L. Garrett Gymnasium as a test run for a potential semistate championship game in February in the same venue.

The powerful Pirates had four players score in double figures and used a smothering defensive game plan that limited Shelbyville to just 13% shooting from the field for a 65-12 victory.

Leah West, a Belmont University commit, scored a game-high 17 points and had five rebounds and two blocked shots.

Mylie Wilkison scored 15 points. Aly Powers had 11 points and five rebounds while Claire Larrison had a double-double with 11 points and 16 rebounds.

West, Greensburg’s six-foot, one-inch senior center, won the opening tip and Larrison immediately slashed to the rim for a quick score. The 5-10 sophomore added four more points in the quarter and pulled down five rebounds while the Pirates, now 4-0 and ranked No. 13 in the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association’s state poll that does not consider school size, extended the lead to 11-0.

“We have a lot of juniors that have never played varsity before, so this was their third varsity game and we’ve played Morristown and Waldron so we haven’t seen this kind of pressure,” said Shelbyville head coach Becca Hoefler.

Shelbyville (2-1) missed its first eight shot attempts before Savannah Collins scored in the lane with 1:41 to go in the quarter. It would be the only points the Golden Bears scored in the first half.

As if dealing with the Pirates’ defense was not challenging enough, Shelbyville lost starting guard Hannah Baker, the team’s captain, to a left ankle injury in the second quarter’s opening 20 seconds. She did not return to the game.

“I felt like we were in the flow of the game, then when Hannah went down … she is our leader and our captain and she is the only one that knows how to play at that speed right now,” said Hoefler. “That really hurt us.”

Collins took on a bigger role in the second half without Baker in the lineup and scored six of her team-high eight points and grabbed two rebounds.

The schedule will not allow the Golden Bears to dwell on the loss. Shelbyville is at Southwestern (1-3) Friday for a varsity-only contest that tips off at 6 p.m.

The Spartans will honor the girls basketball program’s regional championship teams from 2012 and 2013 at the game.

“We just move on,” said Hoefler with the idea that Baker may not be available Friday night. “This was a high caliber team and what we learned is this is what the best of the best look like. That is the progress we need to make to be competitive against this group. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a new day and we are going to worry about Southwestern.”

Shelbyville’s junior varsity improved to 2-0 Tuesday with a 42-31victory over Greensburg.

Melia Cartwright led the Golden Bears with 13 points. Brigid McKenney had seven points. Kiah Pandoli finished with five points.

Jaylin Thorton and Kahlen Adams each scored nine points to lead the Pirates.

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