Golden Bears play fast and furious in win over Spartans

Shelbyville forced 40 turnovers Friday at Garrett Gymnasium and grabbed 27 offensive rebounds to overwhelm Southwestern, 89-10.

The total points were the most for the Golden Bears since a 102-15 win over Yorktown on Nov. 11, 2006.

Seven different Shelbyville players scored in double digits as the program gets more comfortable in first year head coach Kylie Weichman’s system.

“We needed to continue what we started building upon at Speedway (61-20 win Tuesday). We talked a lot about our transition. We want our defense to build our offense and that’s what we are doing. That’s how we want to play basketball,” said Weichman, who has the Golden Bears at 3-1 with a tough stretch of games ahead on the schedule.

Shelbyville raced out to a 20-4 lead after one quarter and were never threatened by a young and inexperienced Southwestern program led by Shelbyville graduate and former Shelbyville head coach Jason West.

The Golden Bears made 13 of 27 shots in the second quarter, including a trio of 3s, while holding the Spartans scoreless for a 51-4 lead at halftime.

“We want to play up tempo. We want to put lots of points on the board and hold our opponents to not many points,” continued Weichman.

Shelbyville led 71-7 after three quarters and the Shelbyville bench added 18 more points in the fourth quarter.

Hannah Baker led all scorers with 19 points, six rebounds, five steals and three assists.

Maddy Jones finished with 13 points. Kiah Pandoli (photo) had 12 points and 10 rebounds (eight offensive). Melia Cartwright came off the bench to score 11 points. Savannah Collins, Jayla Ash and Chloe Higdon each scored 10.

Claire Utley led Southwestern with six points.

Shelbyville finished 14-11 last season without a senior on the roster. Head coach Becca Hoefler accepted the Avon girls basketball coaching position which led to the hiring of Weichman, a former assistant coach at Columbus East.

The transition to a new coach is still a work in progress according to the new coach.

“The goals remain the same. We have to fine tune what we are doing,” said Weichman of the tougher opponents on tap. “We have to be prepared to anticipate a little more. The thing I didn’t like tonight is we did a lot of reacting.

“Once we start to anticipate, which we did at Speedway, we will be able to do some really amazing things on the defensive end. We are athletic. We are long. We have girls that know the game of basketball. We have experience. We have a lot of young players coming off the bench that are eager and competing for minutes which is really positive for our program.”

Shelbyville won the junior varsity game, 50-6, to improve to 3-1.

The Golden Bears host Beech Grove (5-2) Tuesday in their final game of the month. The December schedule opens with road trips to Columbus North (5-0), Batesville (3-2) and New Palestine (5-1).

Southwestern collected its first win of the season Saturday over Crothersville, 45-35. The Spartans host Class A, No. 15 Trinity Lutheran (2-1) on Saturday afternoon.

The Shelby County Post is a digital newspaper producing news, sports, obituaries and more without a pay wall or subscription needed.