Shelbyville Lady Golden Bears Basketball

The Lady Bears played 5 games on June 25th and went 3-2 for 4th place out of 16 teams. The easiest win was in the first game against 3A Salem. The Bears won 58-16. In the second game, the Bears won by 20 over Batesville - also a 3A school. Salem and Batesville both had losing records last year. The competition started heating up in the 3rd game against 2A South Putnam who went undefeated last year before losing in the Regional. They ended up rated 3rd in 2A in the coaches poll. They lost 3 seniors but still have top 100 candidate Jessica Canary a 6' guard. The Bears were able to stop Canary and went on for a 20 point win. Next up was Bloomington South who ended up 10th in the 4A coaches poll and are lead by #32 Megan Payton a senior who consistently scored with her penetration moves. The Bears lost by 16. In the last game of the day, the Bears played Evansville Memorial. Memorial was 20-4 last year in 3A and lost to state runner up Corydon in the Regionals. Memorial ended up 4th in the 3A coaches poll. They are lead by all-star candidate Courtney Reising. Memorial seemed to hit every three pointer. The Bears perimeter defense was working on worn out legs and could not cover the outside. Late in the game, we were down by 3 put Memorial hit a couple of threes and Shelbyville ended up losing by 9. Next up is a trip to West Lafayette for the Purdue Shoot Out on June 30th.

The first games of the summer were played June 11th at the Anderson University Shoot Out. In the first game the Bears came from behind to tie Fort Wayne South and send the game into overtime where Shelbyville won by 4 points. The offense was a little rusty early with a lot of missed bunnies, but the defense was outstanding. Fort Wayne South is a 4A school with an 13-8 record last year. In the second game, Shelbyville played the home town Anderson 4A school who was 18-5 last year. The Bears stepped it up offensively and won by a dozen at the end. In the third game, we faced an AAU team of college players including Harper from Mooresville who graduated in 2004. The Bears never lead but got to within 2 early in the second half but lost by 9. Next, Shelbyville played Franklin coached by Walt Raines. The score was about even at half time but Shelbyville went on to win by a dozen or so. The last game of a very long day was against Pendleton Heights and Susan Lester. Shelbyville led the whole game but only won by one point as there were a lot of dead legs. Everyone was much impressed with the early season performance by the Lady Bears. They had 15 turnovers in the first game but never exceeded 10 in the other 4 games. They out rebounded the opponents and played outstanding team defense. Everyone seemed to be on their game, the princeton offense was being run to perfection. Free throw shooting was somewhere in the 65% range. Coach was even seen relaxing on the bench. Next shoot out-Hanover College on June 25th.

The joke going around The News sports department was that Gretchen Haehl would one day become the mayor of Shelbyville. She was-- and is-- an extremely mature young lady with seemingly limitless future.

LeAnn Douglas joins 11 other Hoosier Heritage Conference players on the all HHC Conference Team. Joining LeAnn are Co-MVPs Stull from Rushville and Lester from Pendleton Heights. Others selected were Ponsler from Rushville, Howerton from Pendleton Heights, Crawford and Johnson from Mt Vernon, Robertson, Parks, and Lawson from New Palestine, Smoot from Greenfield and Winney from Yorktown. Congratulations to LeAnn!

Success comes with a price.