Shelbyville's stellar response to Delta's big run secured HHC victory

The toughest team will survive Class 3A, Sectional 28 at Shelbyville’s William L. Garrett Gymnasium beginning March 4.

On Friday, the Golden Bears showed some grit to get past a pesky Delta team that was nearly left for dead but came roaring back to take its first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter.

However, the Eagles never scored again as Shelbyville scored the final 10 points of the Hoosier Heritage Conference contest in a 48-41 victory.

The win secured a fourth-place finish in the HHC standings at 4-3 and improved the squad to 17-5 – the program’s most regular season victories since 2016-2017 (18-7).

“It shows we are able to compose ourselves and calm ourselves down when things don’t go right,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett after the game when asked about the environment.

Mar Nicholson (photo) and Caden Claxton each scored 15 points to lead Shelbyville, who secured its two seniors – Damon Badgley and Kenny Owens – a victory on Senior Night.

Nicholson did not score in the opening quarter but had eight points and two rebounds in the second to help the Golden Bears extend their lead to 27-17 at halftime.

Claxton (photo) scored seven points in the third quarter to get the lead to 13 points twice but Delta found life with a 6-0 run that cut the lead to 34-27 and another 6-0 run to finish the quarter and bring the deficit to 38-33.

The Eagles (14-6, 3-4 HHC) scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter punctuated by a Jordan Furney long step-back three-pointer with 6:37 to go. That gave Delta its first lead, 41-38.

Shelbyville called timeout and regrouped. Delta went to a box-and-1 defense with freshman Ryan Lynch staying attached to Claxton. That brought a more physical element to the game that neither teams’ fan base liked.

The environment in Garrett Gymnasium went into full “sectional mode.”

“We had a couple turnovers and they hit some big shots,” said Hartnett. “We kind of let the moment take over. We kind of panicked a little bit so I called that timeout and let them know we were tough enough to win this game. You were up seven to 10 points the whole ball game and you fold one time and they come back and take the lead.

“It worked because the guys came out and played with that look in their eyes that I haven’t seen very often. When they get that look, they turn ruthless going to get rebounds, boxing out and attacking the glass.”

Brody Runnebohm drove the lane and scored to cut the Delta lead to 41-40. Cole Schene found room to score under the basket with 4:23 left and the Golden Bears were back in the lead for good.

Nicholson scored off his own missed shot. He added a free throw 90 seconds later and the lead was four, 45-41.

Claxton made 1 of 2 free throws at the 53-second mark and Nicholson got an easy basket following a Delta miss to set the final score.

The Eagles shot 38% from the field in the loss but made just 7 of 25 3s (28%) and 2 of 9 free throws (22%).

Furney led his team with 15 points and four rebounds. Bronson Edwards finished with 12 points.

Shelbyville shot 46% from the field and outrebounded the Eagles 25-15.

“One of the first things I told the guys when I got in the lockerroom was that this is what a sectional environment feels like,” said Hartnett. “The crowd was going crazy, especially when Delta made that run. They were getting loud. It was hard to communicate with some of the guys to tell them what we were going to run, especially when they went box-and-1 in the second half.

“We knew it was coming. We had an original offense set up we wanted to run against it and then we found a couple things that looked better and kept the floor more spread against it. The atmosphere was great. I really hope it is like that at sectional time.”

Delta won the junior varsity game, 56-35. Chase Phillips topped the Eagles with 19 points.

Jasper Hahn and Nick Fischer each had eight points for Shelbyville (6-12).

The Golden Bears finish the regular-season schedule away from home this week. They are at Seymour (14-6), 12-1 since starting 2-5, Tuesday and close Thursday at Batesville (13-8), a winner in nine of its last 10 games.

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