Thursday night in boys varsity basketball on WRBI, Batesville established an early lead against host Shelbyville then hung on to beat the Golden Bears 53-47.
The Bulldogs led by as many as 13 in the first half and held a 27-17 advantage at intermission. BHS pounded the ball inside during the second quarter where Cole Werner scored 10 of his 12, first-half points. Aidan Asher led the Bears at the break with five.
Shelbyville got as close as five during the third quarter, but Batesville was up seven at the stop, 39-32.
With help of the deep ball, the Bears went on an 8-1 run to open the fourth and closed the gap to 41-40. But Batesville countered with a pair of treys from Thomas Raver and Cody Mohr to gain a bit of breathing room at 47-41. BHS went on to win by six.
Batesville got a game-high 21 points from Werner plus seven from Raver. Luke Brinkman put in 14 for Shelbyville and teammate Jakob Heaton scored 11.
The Golden Bears hit nine triples on the night to keep the game interesting. Brinkman and Heaton buried three bombs each. However, Batesville had the better game inside and got to the line more frequently to outscore the hosts 12-4. BHS also limited its mistakes with just seven turnovers compared to Shelbyville’s 13.
Batesville lost 60-39 in the JV game as Shelbyville had a really strong second half outscoring the Bulldogs 42-15. For the Dogs, Conner Drake scored 17 and Gage Pohlman had six.
We thank Shelbyville AD Jenny Demuth-Hensely for the accommodations and hospitality along with coaches Aaron Garrett and John Hartnett, Jr. for their information.