Class 3A, No. 9 Shelbyville grinds out win over Seymour

Class 3A, No. 9 Shelbyville boys basketball head coach John Hartnett labeled Tuesday’s game against Seymour as “must win.”

Coming off a loss Friday at Delta, the Golden Bears needed to regain momentum with the postseason looming. And with a pair of Mar Nicholson free throws with five seconds remaining on the Garrett Gymnasium scoreboard clock, Shelbyville secured a 44-42 victory.

Nate Fritsch drove to the rim in the final seconds to try and tie the game but was denied by Cole Schene under the rim to set off the celebration.

The Golden Bears improved to 18-5 with one game left in the regular season – Senior Night Thursday against Batesville (18-3), also ranked No. 9 in this week’s Class 3A state poll.

“That was a very tough Seymour team and we knew it would be tough to get a win tonight,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett after his team matched its win total from last season.

Steve Bush photo: Shelbyville's Gavin Reed shoots and hits a second-quarter three-pointer against Seymour Tuesday.

Shelbyville’s first lead of the game came just before the halftime buzzer when Nicholson converted a fast-break opportunity. That came after a Gavin Reed three-pointer to get the Golden Bears up 26-24 at halftime.

The Golden Bears never trailed again but never were able to dispatch of the pesky Owls (10-10).

A low-scoring third quarter ended with Shelbyville leading 34-32.

Schene and Claxton each scored at the rim to start the fourth-quarter scoring and extend Shelbyville’s lead to 38-32 – its largest lead of the game.

With 5:12 to go, Claxton again converted in the lane to put the Golden Bears up 40-34. From there, the offense spread the floor and looked for good looks.

Seymour was forced to chase and hope for a miss, which it got, and Lakoda Leavy hit a 3 at the other end to cut the lead to 40-37. Less than a minute later, Leavy scored in the lane and the lead was down to one.

Shelbyville went back to running its offense and Claxton drove the lane and scored with 1:23 left. After a stop, Gavin Reed had a chance to ice the game with a pair of free throws, but he missed both.

Fritsch attacked the rim, scored and was fouled. He converted the 3-point play to tie the game with 18 seconds on the clock.

SHS Athletics photo: Shelbyville senior Mar Nicholson was honored Tuesday for scoring his 1,000th career point earlier this season.

Shelbyville tried to get Nicholson free in the low post, but he was fouled and sent to the free throw line. Prior to the game, the senior was honored for surpassing 1,000 career points earlier this season and he added the two biggest points of the game to set the final score.

Nicholson finished with 14 points and two rebounds. He is now the eighth leading scorer in Shelbyville history with 1,056 points.

With his 16 points Tuesday, Claxton rose to 13^th all-time in Shelby County basketball history, surpassing Morristown’s Eli Streeval (1,274 career points), Southwestern’s Travis Kuhn (1,277) and Triton Central’s Mike Wells (1,281). The senior needs 25 points to catch Waldron’s Jared Lux (1,313) and he is exactly 101 points behind Harry Larrabee (1,390), who is second in Shelbyville scoring history behind Zach Kuhn (1,887).

Claxton also had four rebounds and two assists against the Owls.

Fritsch and Leavy each scored 13 points to lead Seymour.

Shelbyville’s junior varsity defeated Seymour, 53-33. Jasper Hahn led the Golden Bears with 14 points. Austin Martzall had 13 and Eli Davis finished with 11.

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