In the 98th Annual Boys Ripley County Tournament basketball championship Saturday, Class 1A-No. 9 Jac-Cen-Del defeated big brother Batesville 58-46 for the Eagles first title since 2007.
Coach Clint Bohaman’s boys jumped out to a 15-5 lead, but the host Bulldogs raced back to take a 25-24 edge at halftime.
At intermission, Jac’s Cody Simon had seven points and Ryan Wilson scored six. Coach Aaron Garrett’s Batesville bunch saw Cody Mohr hit four triples on his way to 14 points.
Three-point shooting was a key stat throughout the game. In the first half, the Canines canned 5-of-10 three balls while the Birds bagged 4-of-7. Jac-Cen-Del stayed consistent from distance in the second half hitting 3-of-5 trifectas while Batesville missed all five attempts..
With a 30-all tie in the middle of quarter three, JCD started to create some separation and held a 40-34 advantage with a quarter to go. The Osgood guys further stretched the spread in the fourth and went on to win by 12.
Five different Eagles scored in double figures and all five made the Ripley County All-Tournament Team: MVP Caleb Simon scored 14, Wyatt Day and Ryan Wilson both posted 12 while Justin Swinney and Matt Dickman netted 10 each.
Batesville’s Cody Mohr, Cade Kaiser and Thomas Raver also made All-Ripley County. Mohr and Kaiser led BHS in the title game with 15 and nine points respectively.
In addition to the long ball, the other big stat was rebounding where Jac-Cen-Del had a 24-15 advantage including 8-2 on the offensive end.
In the earlier consolation game, South Ripley got off to a slow start but surpassed Milan and beat the Indians 60-39.
Coach Randy Combs’ crew from Milan jumped out to a 9-0 lead. But South Ripley scored 13 of the next 15 points to hold a 13-11 advantage at stop number one. By halftime, coach Tyler Theising’s team from Versailles was up 33-22.
Ripley was led by Nick Schwarte with 11 points and Blaine Ward with six. Caiden Yorn had five at the break for the Indians.
Milan rallied to get within five during the third quarter, but South Ripley regained control and pulled ahead 46-32 at the end of the period. The Raiders went on to win by 21.
The Green and White was led by Nick Schwarte’s 20 points who was an All-County selection. Teammates Blake Volz and Blaine Ward followed with 11 and nine. The Black and Gold’s Kohen Rinear also made the Ripley County team with 14 points on the final night. Fellow Indian Caiden Yorn had seven.
Three-point shooting was also a key metric in the consolation game. Ripley shot well throughout the contest making 56 percent from the arc. Milan went cold from 19′-9″ in the second half converting just 1-of-14.
We thank Batesville AD Bryan Helvie for the accommodations and hospitality. We also thank coaches Randy Combs, Tyler Theising, Aaron Garrett and Clint Bohman for the information they supplied.