For the first time since 2015, Jac-Cen-Del is a boys basketball sectional champion. Saturday night at 1A-60 hosted by Southwestern Shelbyville, the Eagles defeated a determined Hauser squad to win 61-46.
Only four times in program history, have the JCD boys won the Ripley County Tournament, the ORVC championship and a sectional in the same season. The other three occurrences were 1969, 1992 and 2007.
Hauser entered this game as a 19-point statistical underdog and also lost to Jac in Osgood by 24 three weeks earlier. But the Jets came ready to play, and the final game was actually much closer than the 15-point differential indicated.
As heard on WRBI, coach Clint Bohman’s boys rocked the first quarter by a count of 20-8. Then facing a 13-point deficit in the second, coach Brent Keck’s Jets put together a 14-2 run to get within one at the half, 26-25.
Matt Dickman’s eight points led the Nesters after two stanzas. Justin Swinney and Caleb Simon both scored five. For the club from Hope, Koby Johnson poured in 15 points.
In the third, Hauser took its only lead on the first of three triples in the period by Eli Miller. But Jac’s Devin Grieshop helped get the advantage back for Team Osgood with eight quarter points. JCD held a 42-40 edge heading into the fourth.
That final eight minutes was all Jac-Cen-Del. Grieshop continued to hit some big shots and teammate Wyatt Day put the game away with 7-of-8 free throw shooting down the stretch. The Eagles celebrated a 61-46 victory and cut down the nets for the first time in seven years.
Grieshop finished with a game-high 18 points, 14 of which came in the second half. He also had five rebounds and four assists. Day had 13 points with nine deposited during the last 16 minutes. He collected eight boards and four assists. Simon put in 12 points and grabbed five rebounds, Dickman tallied 10 points plus logged six caroms, and Swinney scored eight points and had a half-dozen rebounds as well.
For Hauser, Johnson never scored in the second half but still led the Jets with 15 points. Bates netted 13 and Miller booked 11.
Jac-Cen-Del had a plus-eight advantage on the glass (36-28) and was minus-four in turnovers (9-13). JCD hit 21-of-53 from the field. Hauser was 18-of-51. The Eagles outscored the Jets at the stripe 13-5 (13/18 compared to 5/8).
Tenth ranked Jac-Cen-Del is now 20-5 and heads to the Martinsville Regional this Saturday to play No. 8 Bloomfield in the second semifinal. The Cardinals are 20-4.
That game will be preceded by a pair of Indianapolis schools, No. 9 Lutheran with an 18-5 record and 14th ranked Metropolitan which is a very, very deceptive 13-12.
WRBI will have live coverage of the Eagles in Martinsville. Pregame show will be at 11:35 am with a tipoff at noon. Should Jac-Cen-Del win, we will also carry the championship with a 7:35 pregame prior to the 8 pm start.
We thank Southwestern Shelbyville AD Brady Days and staff for the accommodations and always outstanding tournament hospitality. We also thank coach Bohman for the information he supplied and time in our postgame.