Late rally extends Shelbyville's win streak to four straight

Yorktown’s 11-0 third-quarter run put Shelbyville’s three-game win streak in jeopardy.

On Saturday afternoon at Garrett Gymnasium in Shelbyville, Yorktown held a 45-39 lead midway through the fourth quarter but the Golden Bears responded.

Savannah Collins scored on a fast-break and Jayla Ash rebounded her own miss to quickly cut the lead to 45-43.

Ninety seconds later, Hannah Baker drove hard to the rim and scored to tie it then Maddy Jones rattled in a three pointer off an assist from Kiah Pandoli  to finish off a 9-0 run.

A steal and score from Yorktown’s Olivia Conklin followed an Alexis Fields made free throw to tie the game at 48-all with 45 seconds to go.

Collins started Shelbyville’s scoring in the game with a 3 from the wing and she matched that with 33 seconds left to give the Golden Bears the lead for good.

Shelbyville secured its fourth consecutive win, 52-48, over the Tigers to improve to 9-7 (2-2 Hoosier Heritage Conference).

Collins and Jones combined for five 3s to each score 15 points. Collins had four assists. Jones had four rebounds.

Reese Fortune had nine points, three rebounds and two blocks off the bench.

Ash, who averaged 19 ppg over the latest 3-game win streak, struggled early Saturday and got in foul trouble. She finished with four points, six rebounds and two assists.

Baker had seven points and five rebounds.

“We are really challenging one another, and I think we are seeing growth out of other players and building trust in other players and I think that’s important,” said Shelbyville head coach Kylie Weichman. “That’s why the season is so long, right? You have to get everybody on the same page and I feel like, right now, we are playing our best basketball. … We are really coming together as a team, and you can see that chemistry on the floor in the way we move the ball, and we don’t get down on one another even when we get down in the game.”

Lilly Sylvester scored the final four points of the opening quarter to get Yorktown a 12-11 lead at the first break.

The Golden Bears outscored the Tigers, 14-7, in the second quarter for a 25-19 lead at halftime.

Fortune scored in the low post with 4:15 to go in the third quarter for a 29-24 lead before Yorktown went on a run.

Off three consecutive assists by Conklin, Brooklyn Bartle, Olivia Jaromin and Sylvester capped off an 11-0 run.

A late 3 from Jones cut the Tigers’ lead to 35-32 after three quarters.

Sylvester drained a 3 early in the fourth quarter to extend Yorktown’s lead to 41-34 – its largest of the game.

Shelbyville hit three 3s in the final quarter and made 8 of 11 shots to secure the come-from-behind win.

“I was proud of our girls for executing,” said Weichman. “They never once got down. The bench never once got down. I told the girls once we went in after the game that I was so proud of the energy.”

Sylvester led all scorers with 23 points. She also had seven rebounds for Yorktown (9-8, 0-4 HHC). Conklin finished with nine points, four rebounds and four assists.

Shelbyville won the junior varsity game, 41-32.

The Golden Bears put their four-game win streak on the line Tuesday at Rushville (2-16), the host site for Sectional 28 that includes Shelbyville, Roncalli (15-3), New Palestine (12-4), Beech Grove (11-7), Indian Creek (8-10) and Greenwood (0-15).

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