4th Grade Wins DRBL Tournament Championship
Owen Enneking and Cayden Drake both hit key free throws in the closing seconds to hold off the defending champions, Centerville by the score of 38-29 to claim the crown of DRBL Tournament Champions for the first time. The tournament began with 22 4th grade teams across Southeastern Indiana and the Bulldogs showed they were the cream of the crop. Coach Matt Enneking noted excellent team defense, superb togetherness on offense and tremendous focus, drive and leadership by the squad. Cayden Drake led the team in scoring with 10, Owen Enneking had 9, William Kuisel 8, Brayden Maple 4, Lincoln Garrett 3, Caleb Mohr 2 and Landon Raver.
In the semi-final contest, the Bulldogs cruised to a comfortable win over Greensburg 30-8 to advance to the title game. Lincoln Garrett, Cayden Drake and William Kuisel led another well-balanced team effort offensively with 6 each, followed by Brayden Maple with 5, Trenton Jordan 2, Landon Raver 2, Caleb Mohr 2, and Owen Enneking 1. Centerville defeated Eastern Hancock afterwards to set up a repeat showdown of last year’s championship contest.
The Bulldogs completed an undefeated campaign in the DRBL completion going (18-0) in league play and improving to (19-4) overall. The squad will be in action next weekend when they travel to Fishers, IN to compete in the Winter Festival against some of the best competition around the state.
Congratulations Bulldogs!
6th Grade Boys finish 3rd
The 6th Grade Bulldogs lost a tough one to Greensburg Blue 37-33 in the semi-finals of the Final Four on Sunday at the Tiernan Center at Richmond High School. With the game tied, at 33 a controversial call on a loose ball at mid-court placed the Pirates at the free throw line. After the Pirates made both free throws the Bulldogs called time out to set up a game winning play. The Bulldogs worked the play very well and had a good look 3 point shot from Sam Johnson with 3 seconds left to win the game that came up short sending the Bulldogs to the consolation contest against Connersville. Both teams struggled from the field with the Bulldogs shooting 36% to the Pirates 35%. The rebound battle was virtually even, but the deciding factors were in foul discrepancy with the Bulldogs being whistled for 19 fouls and the Pirates only 6. The Bulldogs have been solid all season getting to the free throw line where they typically make more than the opponent attempts, but on this day were outshot from the charity stripe 18-2. Chris Lewis led the team in scoring with 15, Sam Johnson tallied 10, Bradley Wirth 4 while Gus Prickel and Jonathan Buschle rounded out the scoring with 2 each. Grunkemeyer led the team with 4 rebounds and Prickel had 4 assists.
The youngsters had to put the tough loss immediately behind them as they turned around and played Connersville for the 3rd place contest. The Bulldogs led 14-12 at half-time, but quickly trailed for most of the second half until the closing seconds. With the score tied at 25, Jack Grunkemeyer rebounded a Bradley Wirth miss and laid it in with 8 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs forced a Spartan turnover on the in-bounds play and closed out the scoring at the free throw line. For the contest the team was led in scoring by Gus Prickel with 8, Chris Lewis 7, Johnathan Buschle 6, Sam Johnson 4, Jack Grunkemeyer 2 and Bradley Wirth 2. Grunkemeyer had 5 rebounds, while Brendan Heiser and Gus Prickel tallied 2 assists.
The 6th Grade record in DRBL play this season currently is (15-2) and overall (24-7) and will finish out DRBL play next Sunday at East Central Fieldhouse with games against North Decatur and Greensburg White that were postponed 2 weeks ago due to weather.
5th Grade Blue
Batesville Blue, 38, Rushville 8
Batesville Blue 24, East Central 13
The squad is now (13-8) on the season and will compete next weekend in the Winter Festival in Fishers.
5th Grade White
Jac-Cen-Del 23, Batesville White 19
East Central 15, Batesville White 12
The squad finishes the season (1-16)
Courtesy of Bulldogs Coach Paul Drake.