Shelbyville Lady Golden Bears Basketball

Katie Douglas dominated play at the post going against the "twin Allison towers" of New Palestine and nets 27. She had a run of 10 points in the third quarter that opened the game up. Video of Katie's soon-to-be-famous "up and under"

Shelbyville forward Susan Kolls works against the defense of Columbus East’s Michelle King Thursday in Columbus. King scored a game-high 19 points, while Kolls scored 8 points in the Golden Bears’ 65-60 win. Photo for The NEWS by SCOTT ROBERSON Golden Bears give gutsy performance By BRIAN HARMON bharmon@shelbynews.com The Shelbyville girls’ basketball team had every reason to quit. Sickness, injuries and a serious height disadvantage plagued the Golden Bears against Columbus East Thursday. But those obstacles weren’t enough to keep the Golden Bears from claiming a 65-60 win. Allison Berger, usually Shelbyville’s starting forward, sat out most of the game with an ankle injury. Point guard and leading scorer Gretchen Haehl took the court with a 101-degree fever. And several of the Golden Bears were feeling the effects of the virus that kept over 300 Shelbyville High School students out of class last week. Columbus East, on the strength of dominant post play, led 52-48 with less than five minutes to play. With Shelbyville center Katie Douglas busy defending the Olympians’ frontline and Haehl rendered largely ineffective by her health, as well as the defense of Columbus East’s Caitlin Watts, the Golden Bears turned to Ashley Matney for inspiration. Matney, a senior shooting guard, made two key steals, sank seven of eight free throw attempts and scored 11 points — all in the fourth period — to help Shelbyville pull away. Shelbyville outscored the host Olympians 17-8 down the stretch to secure the win. “They could have quit ... but they didn’t,” said Shelbyville coach John Fair. “This is my fourth year and this is the most proud I’ve ever been of one of our ballclubs, the way they held together and worked.” Class 3A, No. 4-ranked Shelbyville improved to 5-1 with the win. Class 4A Columbus East fell to 4-4. It was a struggle for the Golden Bears from the beginning Monday. Shelbyville’s first two shot attempts were blocked — one each by the Olympians’ Michelle King (6-foot-1) and Watts — and the Golden Bears missed 10 of 12 field goals in the first period. But as was the case throughout the game, free throws kept Shelbyville ahead. Shelbyville went 6-6 from the line in the first period and led 10-8 at the end of one. In the game, the Golden Bears were 29-38 from the charity stripe, while Columbus East was just 3-7. The Olympians put Shelbyville in the bonus with two minutes remaining in the third period. And 18 of Shelbyville’s final 26 points came from the free throw line. Shelbyville struggled from the field for most of the contest, missing 34 of 54 attempts. The Olympians, led by forwards King and Yates, made 25 of 57 attempts. King led all scorers with 19 points, while Yates (5-10) added 12. The duo scored almost exclusively from the post, as Shelbyville’s starting line-up faced a height disadvantage. Only Douglas (6-0) stands taller than 5-8 among Shelbyville starters. Shelbyville’s Katie Jackson made two consecutive 3-pointers late in the second period to give Shelbyville its largest lead of the game, at 32-22. The Olympians’ closed out the half with a 7-0 run though and trailed just 32-29 at the break. Haehl (22 points per game) was 1-7 from the field in the first half. Fair credited Watts’ defense and Haehl’ fever with limiting the sophomore’s performance. “It was a combination of both, to be honest with you,” he said. “Watts is a good ball player, but Gretchen is out there with a 100, 101 degree temperature playing. And it was obvious that she couldn’t go as hard as she normally does. “But, you know, Gretchen Haehl is Gretchen Haehl. And she’s still pretty good with 101-degree temperature.” Watts picked up her third foul of the game seconds into the third period and Haehl took advantage of her defender’s subsequent absence. She scored a team-high six points in the third period to help keep Shelbyville ahead 44-42 going to the final period despite being outscored 13-12 in the third. Haehl finished with 14 points. Douglas added 11 points and Matney led Shelbyville with 16 points. “It was a big game and we’ve all been sick, so I knew I had to step up,” Matney said. “Coming out in the second half ... when I (made the steal) in the fourth, I knew I had to keep stickin’ to ‘em and I had to play good defense.” Matney’s steal and field goal gave the Golden Bears a 54-52 lead with under five minutes to play and Shelbyville never trailed the rest of the way. Of Matney’s performance, Fair said, “It was a great moment for Ashley Matney. She really stepped tonight and showed what kind of ballplayer she is and what kind of leader she is.” Shelbyville travels to New Palestine (7-2) Saturday. Berger is scheduled for an MRI on her right ankle Tuesday, but is expected to start Saturday, Fair said.

After a nine day lay-off and half of the team recovering from a nasty virus, the Bears came out sluggish and fought for a three point lead at half 32-29. The game was close all of the way with the Bears shooting well at the line in the last few minutes. Leading the Bears were Sr. Ashley Matney with 16, So. Gretchen Haehl with 14 and Katie Douglas with 12. The Olympians were lead by Michelle King's 19

Ashley Matney played her best game of the year by playing four strong quarters. She took over the game in the final minutes by making steals with her athleticism and making pressure free throws with ice water in her veins. Ashley ends up with 16 points and the star of the game!!!

Shelbyville coasts to victory, 70-47 By BRIAN HARMON bharmon@shelbynews.com GREENFIELD — As Greenfield-Central welcomed Shelbyville into Hancock County for a girls’ basketball game Tuesday, the host Cougars were no doubt looking for some Shelby County revenge. The Cougars were handed a 62-34 loss by Shelby County’s Triton Central ball club over the weekend and were anxious to get back on the court Tuesday. And for one half, Greenfield-Central’s aggressive play paid off. One half does not a basketball game make, however, and Shelbyville pulled away over the final two periods to coast to a 70-47 win. “You knew coming in, as poorly as Greenfield played against Triton ... and Triton had a lot to do with that, that they were going to come out and play us as hard as they could. And they did,” Shelbyville coach John Fair said. Class 3A, No. 4-ranked Shelbyville improved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference. Greenfield-Central’s loss marked its third straight defeat and dropped the Cougars to 2-3, 1-1 HHC. It was a mixture of man-to-man and zone defenses that caused the Golden Bears trouble in the first half. Four Shelbyville turnovers in the first three minutes left the visitors trailing 6-1. It wasn’t until the Golden Bears turned up their own defensive pressure that they started to play effectively. Shelbyville went on a 14-2 run to close out the first period, due in large part to 12 forced turnovers. Katie Douglas led the way for Shelbyville in the first period, scoring five points and grabbing three rebounds, as team scoring leader Gretchen Haehl (23 points per game on 67 percent shooting) struggled from the field, missing 4 of 6 attempts. Greenfield-Central’s team leader, Ellen Hamilton (20 points per game), struggled in the first period as well, and had just two points. She found her rhythm in the second period, however, and scored 11 of the team’s 16 second-period points to leave the Cougars trailing just 30-25 at the break. Fair was not a happy coach. “There was some adversity in the first half, and there was a lot of adversity in the half time locker room,” Fair said with a grin. “They dealt with some adversity there. I was upset by their performance.” Douglas must have been listening. The 6-foot junior center scored four straight points to start the second half and gave Shelbyville a 34-25 lead one minute into the half. That was the start of a 13-3 run that put the Golden Bears ahead 43-28 with four minutes to go in the third period. Greenfield-Central got no closer than 15 points the rest of the way. “Greenfield changed defenses so much in the first half ... I thought we settled for jump shots and weren’t as aggressive against their zone presses as we should have been,” Fair said. “We decided at half time we were going to get the ball into Katie because Katie’s really improved as a ball player. We specifically went over some stuff to make sure that she got the ball.” Douglas finished with 18 points and six rebounds. Haehl scored 18 points, seven in the decisive third period, and made five steals. Hamilton finished with a game-high 19 points for the Cougars. Shelbyville is off until Dec. 6 when it travels to Columbus East. Notes: