Ready, set, postseason.
After wrapping up the regular season Friday, all five Jackson County boys basketball teams are focused on sectionals.
Class 4A Sectional 15 at Seymour
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Seymour coach Tyler Phillips said he is looking forward to Tuesday night’s battle with Jennings County in the sold-out Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.
“These kids, I think, have earned the right to play in front of (a big crowd of 8,000). It’s going to be fun. We sold tickets for three hours, and we sold out,” he said.
It will be the third matchup of the season between the Owls (11-11) and Panthers (5-18). Seymour won the other meetings — 65-37 at home Dec. 16 and 68-60 on the road Feb. 6.
Phillips said his team needs to utilize its strengths.
“We’ve got to continue to do what we do,” he said. “Our style of play is not fancy. We’ve got to be deliberate offensively. We’ve got to take care of the ball, and we’ve got to outrebound the other team.
“Both times we played Jennings County, we were successful in all three of those categories,” he said. “We’ve just got to make sure that offensively, we don’t let them get in a flow and get comfortable.”
Ty McCory tops the Owls in scoring at 14.1 points per game. Alan Perry is next at 11.6, and Tiller Cummings is averaging 9.4. Cummings scored 23, Perry 19 and McCory 10 in the December game, while McCory had 27 and Perry 19 in the game at North Vernon.
“We’ve got to continue to take the right shots from the right people,” Phillips said. “We’ve got to continue to try to get Ty open. When we do what we do well, we’ve been successful. We’ve just got to worry about ourselves, and that will take care of itself.”
Defensively against the Panthers, Phillips said the Owls need to be alert.
“They are so capable offensively,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of weapons. Both Wilsons (Cody and Travis) can score. The little freshman, the (Landin) Hacker kid, set the school record for 3s. He went out against South Dearborn and hit nine 3s. He’s another kid they’ve got on the floor that can score the basketball.”
Limiting the Panthers to one shot and getting the rebound will be key, too, Phillips said.
“They shoot the ball so quick,” he said. “If they get 60 possessions and they shoot 50 percent, it’s going to be a high-scoring game, and that’s out of our comfort zone.”
Class 3A Sectional 30 at North Harrison
Brownstown Central topped Salem 53-43 in the season-opener.
The teams will meet again at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the North Harrison Sectional.
Braves coach Dave Benter said both teams have changed since that Nov. 28 game.
“We’re familiar with each other because we see each other so much during the summer, and we played them twice last year and in the first game this year,” he said. “Both teams have changed a lot. Both teams are playing much better than they were early in the year.
“Salem had a good core back, and their secondary players are playing much better,” he said. “Hunter Weedin, who I think is one of the best players in southern Indiana, got in foul trouble in our first game.”
Weedin scored only seven points in that game with Landon Suvek topping the Lions with 13 points, while Michael Boshears led the Braves with 17.
Boshears tops the Braves in scoring at 15.6 per game, and Cameron Luedeman is next at 12.1.
“For a lot of our guys, that was their first varsity game,” Benter said. “A lot of things have changed. Both teams are playing differently now. I think this will be the fourth straight sectional that we have played them.”
Both teams are 17-6 entering the sectional.
“Any time you play Salem, there are two things you have to do,” Benter said. “You have to handle their pressure. They do a great job in their press and half-court trap and pressuring the basketball. We’re not going to be able to turn the ball over. We’ve got to get good shots.
“The second thing, they are really effective rebounding. We’re going to have to rebound,” he said. “I think those are going to be two huge keys. We cannot let Weedin have a huge game. We’re going to have to limit him and the two guards they have back from last year, Xavier (Haendiges) and Landon. We’re going to have to do a good job on them.”
The Braves also will need to stop the Lions in transition, find them on the 3-point line and keep them out of the lane, Benter said.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re not committing silly fouls,” he said. “They are a good free throw shooting team, also. We’ve got make sure we get back and not let them get a full head of steam in transition where we put ourselves in a vulnerable position and we foul them.”
Offensively, Benter said the Braves need to hit their open shots.
“That’s a thing we’ve struggled with at times, and we’ve gotten much better the last month. We’re scoring the ball much better,” he said. “The improvement that this team has made from the first week of the season until now is incredible. Our guys have really committed to trying to get themselves better.”
Class A Sectional 62 at Edinburgh
In the regular season, the Medora-Shawe Memorial and Trinity Lutheran-Crothersville games were close.
The coaches are expecting more of the same in Tuesday’s Edinburgh Sectional games.
Medora (4-19) and Shawe (4-19) will open the sectional at 6 p.m., and Trinity Lutheran (7-16) meets Crothersville (15-7) in the second game.
Medora lost to Shawe 54-49 in the Nov. 21 season-opener.
Hornets coach Mark Morin said the keys to the game are defense and being able to contain Shawe’s front line of 6-foot-5 Schuyler Edwards and 6-3 Ethan Stuart.
“We’ve got to handle the two big kids,” Morin said. “The one kid (Stuart) that’s a sophomore, he just wore us out on the offensive rebounds. We’ve got to keep him off the boards. We’ve got to give them one shot.”
Morin said he wants his team to control the tempo.
“We’ve got to slow down,” he said. “When we make one mistake, we make four or five mistakes in a row, and we can’t do that. We’ve got to forget about the bad play and move on to the next play. We’d like to keep our turnovers under 20.”
Owen Sullivan leads the Hornets in scoring with 11.7 points per game, and J.D. Fish is next at 8.5. Sullivan scored 16 and Gavin Henson scored 10 in the earlier game against Shawe.
“We’ve got to find that third scorer because we scored 33 points (against Crothersville and Washington Catholic), and it’s hard to beat anybody with 33 points,” Morin said. “We need to have a good start.”
When Crothersville played at Trinity Lutheran on Jan. 26, the Tigers returned home with a 63-61 win.
“I’m looking for a real close game again, almost the same thing as before. Both teams are familiar with one another,” Cougars coach Brian Stuckwisch said.
“They’ve got a post player, Dylan Wilson, that works hard around the basket and is a good shooter,” he said. “(Logan) Brewer had a real good game on us before. We didn’t get him stopped. Josh Thomas is another key player. He has good vision on the court and gets the ball to the open guy. It is important to stop him. They also have role players that are not selfish and get the ball to the open guys at the right time.”
Brewer scored the winning basket against the Cougars and leads the Tigers in scoring at 16.9 points per game. Thomas scored 13, Lane Wienhorst 11 and Wilson 10 in the earlier game.
Tigers coach Greg Kilgore also looks for another close game.
“They are very well-coached,” he said. “Brian does a great job with them. We beat them on a last-second shot, but we were down nine at the half. We were very lucky to sneak out of there with a win.”
Kilgore said his players keeping the ball in front of them will be important because they allowed too much dribble penetration in the first meeting.
“You’ve always got to find (Jacob) Rowe out on the perimeter because he can get it going and shoot the ball really well,” he said. “They’ve got A.J. Goecker that can score, and they’ve got those two freshmen, (Jack) Marksberry and (Tyler) Goecker, that are both nice ball players, so they’ve got five or six kids that can hurt you, and you’ve got to be focused defensively.”
Kilgore said the Tigers need to be fundamentally sound on both ends of the floor.
“We’ve got to limit the turnovers, score baskets when they are available and make sure we play good defense,” he said. “I think defense is the key. When you play Trinity, you’ve got to play better defense than they do.”
Rowe led the Cougars against the Tigers with 19 points, Tyler Goecker scored 13, Trent Shoemaker 11 and Marksberry 10.
“We’ve got to play good defense in the paint,” Stuckwisch said. “The last time, we allowed too many points in the paint, and we’ve got to rebound better. The rebound numbers went to Crothersville (24-17). The start is very important. We don’t want to fall behind. We’ve got to do a better job on defense. Defense has been our Achilles’ heel. We’ve been working on it all year, and we’ve got to stay out of foul trouble.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Class 4A Sectional 15 at Seymour
Tuesday
Game 1: Bedford North Lawrence (14-8) vs. Floyd Central (22-1), 6 p.m.
Game 2: Seymour (11-11) vs. Jennings County (5-18), 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Game 3: Jeffersonville (20-3) vs. Winner of Game 1, 6 p.m.
Game 4: New Albany (21-1) vs. Winner of Game 2, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Game 5: Championship, 7:30 p.m.
Class 3A Sectional 30 at North Harrison
Tuesday
Game 1: Scottsburg (6-17) vs. Corydon Central (5-18), 7 p.m.
Wednesday
Game 2: North Harrison (15-8) vs. Charlestown (3-19), 6 p.m.
Game 3: Brownstown Central (17-6) vs. Salem (17-6), 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Game 4: Silver Creek (17-5) vs. Winner of Game 1, 6 p.m.
Game 5: Winner of Game 2 vs. Winner of Game 3, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Game 6: Championship, 7 p.m.
Class A Sectional 62 at Edinburgh
Tuesday
Game 1: Medora (4-19) vs. Shawe Memorial (4-19), 6 p.m.
Game 2: Trinity Lutheran (7-16) vs. Crothersville (15-8), 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Game 3: Edinburgh (15-8) vs. Winner of Game 1, 6 p.m.
Game 4: West Washington (8-15) vs. Winner of Game 2, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Game 5: Championship, 7:30 p.m.
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Probable starters” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Seymour
Ty McCory, Sr. (14.1)
Alan Perry, Sr. (11.6)
Tiller Cummings, Sr. (9.4)
Zach Moore, Sr. (5.8)
Eddie Louden, Sr. (3.8)
Brownstown Central
Cameron Luedeman, Sr. (12.1)
Michael Boshears, Jr. (15.6)
Braden Neal, Jr. (4.6)
Seth Borden, Jr. (6.0)
Ethan Wischmeier, Jr. (4.6)
Crothersville
Zane Elliott, Sr. (3.2)
Dylan Wilson, Sr. (13.6)
Noah Hoskins, Sr. (4.2)
Lane Wienhorst, Jr. (7.9)
Josh Thomas, So. (12.3)
Trinity Lutheran
Jacob Rowe, Sr. (15.0)
A.J. Goecker, Jr. (16.4)
Trent Shoemaker, So. (11.2)
Tyler Goecker, Fr. (9.7)
Jack Marksberry, Fr. (6.6)
Medora
Gavin Henson, Sr. (5.8)
Owen Sullivan, Jr. (11.6)
J.D. Fish, Jr. (8.5)
Skylar Jones, Jr. (3.1)
Jayvin Spurgeon, So. (2.0)
[sc:pullout-text-end]