Class 3A, No. 6 Shelbyville battles way to HHC win at Yorktown

YORKTOWN – Caden Claxton’s quest to surpass 1,000 career points Saturday night at Yorktown quickly became part of the Golden Bears’ run to finally get control of the game.

Claxton scored on a left-handed layin with 4:10 to go in the third quarter to become just the 11^th Golden Bear to reach the 1,000-point club. That was part of an 11-0 run that turned a 27-20 deficit into a 31-27 lead that was not surrendered again.

Class 3A, No. 6 Shelbyville outscored the Tigers 11-2 in the third quarter and hit 6 of 8 free throws in the final 68 seconds of the fourth quarter to secure the Hoosier Heritage Conference win, 49-39.

“We got off to a slow start. We had a great discussion at halftime and came out ready to go,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett. “We figured out ways to find baskets and put points on the board, and our defense picked up in the second half.”

Shelbyville struggled to get its offense in gear, scoring a season-low 20 points in the first half. Meanwhile, a pesky Tigers squad, fresh off a road win Friday at Greenfield-Central (51-46), played well enough to earn a 25-20 halftime advantage.

Coming off a disappointing 60-57 loss at Class 4A, No. 7 Mt. Vernon Friday, Shelbyville’s defensive effort was solid Saturday in its first back-to-back games of the season. The intensity rose in the third quarter and forced Yorktown (2-2, 1-2 HHC) into 11 turnovers and a 1-of-5 shooting performance.

Down 27-20, Brody Runnebohm scored off one of those Yorktown turnovers to begin Shelbyville’s run to the lead. Claxton’s milestone points followed to cut the deficit to 27-24.

“The kid (Claxton) deserves everything he gets. He works as hard as anybody I’ve been able to coach,” said Hartnett. “It’s such an accomplishment for a guy that has worked that hard. He is one of the greatest kids I’ve coached in terms of attitude, the way he carries himself, how respectful he is and how hard he works. I think the biggest thing I admire about him is how hard he works and how dedicated he is.”

Mar Nicholson scored in the low post, Camden Thoman scored off an offensive rebound, Cole Schene hit 1 of 2 free throws and then scored on a reverse layin to close out the quarter.

Schene and Nicholson both scored in the low post, where Shelbyville regained its offensive energy, to extend the run to 15-0 and the Tigers never got closer than five points the rest of the game.

“We have to have that low post presence to be effective this year just because teams know what our guards can do (shooting the ball),” said Hartnett. “I thought later in the game once we spread things out and saw the advantages we had in the post and our athleticism with Mar and Cole, we did a good job of getting the ball in our hands.”

Mason Trammell scored 10 of Yorktown’s 14 second-half points to finish with a game-high 15 points.

Nicholson (photo) led Shelbyville (6-1, 2-1 HHC) with 13 points, two rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

Gavin Hall scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter to give the Golden Bears a boost off the bench.

“We are looking for that spark to come off the bench and give us a little bit of momentum and Gavin Hall did just that,” said Hartnett. “He comes in and does his job, gets some rebounds and scores some points in the fourth quarter to pull us away. That’s what we need, guys to come off the bench and help us when we run down a little bit.”

Runnebohm finished with nine points while Claxton had seven points and five steals.

Claxton (photo) now begins his climb up the top 10 scoring list. The next 39 points will vault him quickly to No. 7 on the list, passing Brian Asher (1,024 points), Tony Martin (1,028), Oliver Sandman (1,036) and Rick Moorhead (1,038).

The top six are Zach Kuhn (1,887), Harry Larrabee (1,390), Tim Ash (1,246), Wes Miller (1,244), Garry Elkins (1,149) and Mark Drake (1,143).

Shelbyville won the junior varsity game, 56-40. Jasper Hahn led the Golden Bears (5-2) with 23 points. Eli Davis finished with nine.

Shelbyville will take Christmas week to prepare for its second-straight appearance in the Bob Wettig Tournament in Richmond. The Golden Bears lost to Ben Davis in last year’s championship game.

The Golden Bears open this year’s event at 9 a.m. on Dec. 29 at Richmond High School against Indianapolis HomeSchool (6-2). Depending on a win or loss, Shelbyville returns to action at 3 p.m. the same day to face either KIPP Indy Legacy (0-4) or Fort Wayne North (0-4).

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