By Jeff Bartlett
Special to WBIW.com
BLOOMINGTON _ After watching his team’s tepid touch in a loss at New Albany last week, Bloomington South coach J.R. Holmes had a word of advice for his shooters heading into Friday’s home duel against Bedford North Lawrence.
Photo courtesy of Jessica Staggs
He issued an edict for the Panthers to relax and let it fly, and they wisely – and Wisley – took his sage words to heart.
It’s probably a good idea considering the man has an Indiana high school record 882 victories, and South came home and honed in to shoot a torrid 66 percent overall and 60 percent from 3-point range. Gavin Wisley, a 6-8 senior forward led the way by going 8 for 9 from the floor, including 4 of 5 from the arc, to score 21 points and guide a 68-55 triumph that gave the Panthers their 19th consecutive victory in the series.
“I’m really proud of the kids for this one,” said Holmes, the Hall of Famer from Needmore who previously coached at Tunnelton and Mitchell. “We shot it really poorly down at New Albany, but getting back home usually makes a big difference, and we just told them they had to not think about it too much.
“We got a good start shooting and I think that helped us relax a little, but Wisley is our best perimeter shooter, and they were really physical with him inside and made it tough in there for him. So we told him to step out. He has the green light from three at any time.”
Wisley’s prowess from 3-point land foiled BNL’s defensive plan, and his marksmanship seemed to spark his teammates. BNL head coach Jeff Hein became convinced that the Panthers were operating with advanced technology after watching an Aiden Schmitz 3-pointer at the outset of the second half hit the rim and head out before somehow seeming to reverse the laws of physics and bounce on the iron twice before rattling in.
“I think we need to check that ball and see if there’s a remote control connected to it,” said Hein, managing a moment of levity during the long-range bombing raid. “I think there had to be remote control for that one to go in.”
Photo courtesy of Jessica Staggs
Hein gave South its due following the game.
“They couldn’t throw it in the ocean from the rowboat down at New Albany, and tonight they couldn’t miss,” he sighed. “There’s a direct correlation between the shooting and the defense you face, and they got some open looks because they go 6-8 and 6-6 (Rhett Johnson) so we were trying to take away their inside game.
“We gave up six inches a kid in there, but I thought we did a really nice job battling to take the post away. But you have to pick your poison and their big kids were able to step out and knock them down because we couldn’t recover back out quickly enough.”
The laser-guided missiles started immediately when Wisley swished a pair and Taye Spears added another to ignite an 11-2 opening salvo. The Stars settled in, however, and responded with treys from Kole Bailey and Trace Rynders and a fast-break basket by Colton Staggs to pull within 13-10 at the initial break.
Wisley and reserve Tucker Simpson connected from the arc early in the second stanza to counter one by BNL’s Kaedyn Bennett and two jumpers by Colton Leach. Rynders supplied another of his patented deep rainmakers to bring the Stars within 25-20 at halftime.
The junior guard added two more bombs to start the third period to cut it to 30-27 at the 4:57 mark, and had Holmes pondering some court adjustments.
“I can’t believe how deep that kid can shoot those,” he said. “I told our guys when he backs up you better keep backing up with him so you can guard him, but wow, those were deep, and they go so high I thought about lowering the volleyball nets so they might knock his shots down.”
As impressive as Rynders was with his rifle, the Stars couldn’t contain South’s snipers, who went 9 for 11 in a decisive third period to open a 47-34 lead going to the final eight minutes.
BNL was forced into fullcourt pressure in the fourth quarter, and while it did yield seven South turnovers, it also gave up several layups as point guard Andrew Baran picked it apart en route to 11 assists and the Panthers went 6 for 9 from the field and 8 for 10 at the line to fend off the Stars.
“I cannot fault our effort at all because I thought it was great, but we didn’t shoot as well as they did, and there will just be nights like that,” Hein said. “It was South’s night and give them credit for playing well.
Photo courtesy of Jessica Staggs
“We just have to decide how good a team we want to be and if we’re willing to get in the quality reps we need to get in order to improve. There’s still a ton of season to go, and we have to keep working hard to get better. The effort was there, but the execution wasn’t great.”
Holmes was happy to get the victory over his Lawrence County rival.
“This is a tough one for me, but it was always a big one for my dad (the late Harvey “Cocky” Holmes),” Holmes said. “He worked down there and he always had to hear it when I lost to them when I was at Tunnelton and Mitchell. Then we got the upper hand on them some up here, and he got to be the one giving it out.
“So I think Dad is looking down and is pretty proud of us tonight.”
Baran finished with 10 points and six boards to go with his 11 assists, while Zach Sims added 12 points for the Panthers (2-1), who host Indianapolis HomeSchool Monday night.
Stags finished with 15 points (10 in the fourth quarter), Rynders had 14 and Leach 10 points and 10 boards for BNL (0-2), which travels to Columbus East (1-3) Friday night.
BEDFORD NL STARS (55)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
4 Kaedyn Bennett, f 1-5 1-5 2-2 0 0 5
34 Jett Jones, f 0-0 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
2 Colten Leach, g 0-1 4-13 2-5 10 3 10
22 Colton Staggs, g 0-1 6-11 3-3 1 3 15
1 Trace Rynders, g 4-6 5-7 0-0 1 2 14
14 Kole Bailey 1-2 2-6 0-0 1 4 5
11 Noah Godlevske 0-1 1-2 0-0 1 4 5
15 Kline Woodward 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
5 Houston Corbin 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
12 Maddox Ray 0-0 1-1 2-2 1 1 4
3 Quincy Pickett 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 6-17 20-47 9-12 15 17 55
BLOOMINGTON SOUTH PANTHERS (68)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
33 Rhett Johnson, f 1-1 1-2 1-2 2 1 4
14 Gavin Wisley, f 4-5 8-9 1-1 6 1 21
10 Aiden Schmitz, g 1-3 3-6 0-0 3 1 7
5 Andrew Baran, g 0-0 2-3 6-6 6 2 10
23 Taye Spears, g 1-3 2-4 0-0 0 5 5
22 Tucker Simpson 1-2 3-5 0-0 2 2 7
35 Vince Moutardier 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 1
25 Zach David 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 1
21 Zach Sims 1-1 4-6 3-3 2 0 12
12 Charles Hedrick 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 0 0
11 Griffin Gillard 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
3 Ben Smith 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 9-15 23-35 13-16 25 12 68
Bedford NL 10 10 14 21 – 55
Bl. South 13 12 22 21 – 68
Turnovers – BNL 7, South 15
Field goal percentage – BNL 20-47 (.426); South 23-35 (.657)
Free throw percentage – BNL 9-12 (.750); South 13-16 (.813)
