The Press-Dispatch
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B-2 Sports Wednesday, Februar y 14, 2018 The Press-Dispatch By Ed Cahill Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net Junior Braeden Beard scored a game-high 26 points to lead Tell City to a 54-52 double-overtime victo- ry over Pike Central in high school boys' basketball ac- tion on Friday, Feb. 9. For the game, the 6 -foot-5 Beard made 11 of 17 field goal attempts – including back-to-back three-point- ers that erased a 42-36 defi- cit and forced a second over- time – and was 2-for-4 from the free throw line as the Marksmen improved to 13- 6 overall and 3-2 in the Pock- et Athletic Conference. During regulation, Beard – who was recognized be- fore the opening tip-off for scoring 1,000 career points – netted 13 points while go- ing 6 -for-12 from the field and 1-for-2 from the free throw line. During the two four-min- ute overtime period, howev- er, Beard was 5 -for-5 from the floor and 1-for-2 from the free throw line. "Coming in, we knew he was a heck of a player," said Chargers' head coach Hunter Elliott, whose team slipped to 8 -8 overall and 3-1 in the PAC. "He's had a heck of a career here so far. I thought we did a really good job on him. He got free a lit- tle bit there at the end, and then he hit those two threes, and then he got a couple in overtime I thought were a lit- tle too easy." "But, for the most part, all night, I thought (senior) Bryant (Nalley) was good on him in there," Elliott added. "We were doubling, and we made it pretty tough for him all night." Two baskets by senior Breyton Booker and anoth- er by senior Kyson Western gave Pike Central a 6 -5 lead heading into the second pe- riod. Beard scored all five of the Marksmen's first-quar- ter points on a pair of put- backs of missed three-point- ers by junior Tretter Lyons and junior Devon Blake and a free throw following an of- fensive rebound of a missed trey by junior Spencer Fest. Tell City opened the sec- ond quarter with back-to- back baskets by Beard and junior Ty Smith to take a 9 - 6 lead, but the Chargers an- swered with an 8 -0 scoring run – on three-pointers by senior Tyler Tormohlen and senior Cameron Henson and a pair of free throws by Nal- ley – to take a 14-9 lead with 3:44 left in the first half. A fter Beard scored to trim Pike Central's lead to 14-11, the Chargers stretched their advantage to 19 -11 on a basket by Nal- ley and a three-pointer by ju- nior Christian Benson. Tell City scored the last two points of the first half – on a basket by Lyons – and the first two points of the second half – on a basket by Beard – to close to within 19 - 15 before back-to-back bas- kets by senior Kaleb Clar- idge and Henson extended Pike Central's lead to 23-15 with 5:33 left in the third pe- riod. Following an exchange of baskets, the Marksmen scored nine straight points – on a basket by Blake, a three-pointer and a basket by junior Trent Arnold and a basket by Beard – to take a 26 -25 lead with 7:32 remain- ing in the fourth quarter. A fter Claridge scored to give the Chargers a 27-26 lead with 5:55 remaining, back-to-back three-point- ers by Lyons and Arnold pro- pelled Tell City ahead 32-27 with just under four minutes left in the contest. some stuff going on, but you can't back down from any- thing." Hewig said that Sisk's pre- vious trips to the semi-state meet certainly helped pre- pare him for this year's event. "I think one of the rea- sons is he's been there be- fore," Hewig said. "It wasn't a shock. To look up at the Ford Center from the floor is cra- zy, when you're getting ready to wrestle. The environment there's just amazing. He had been there before. I think that was one of the differences. I think he was just comfortable down there this year." The second factor that led to Sisk's success, Hewig add- ed, is Sisk's drive to get bet- ter and succeed. "He's just worked his butt off," Hewig said. He's always worked hard, but this year's been 'no excuses, go out and wrestle as hard as you can,' and practice as hard as he can. It's been fun to watch." "I think growing up men- tally and physically just kind of got him where he's sup- posed to be," Hewig added. "Wrestling 220, as a fresh- man and sophomore especial- ly, is hard, because you're go- ing to be wrestling all older kids. He's always excelled in his weight class. He's always been at the top of his game. I think his age finally let him be mature enough to get through that stuff." Sisk, who won his first sec- tional and regional titles while advancing to the semi-state meet, agreed with Hewig's assessment. "Going into this year, I'm sitting here and I'm looking, I know what to expect," Sisk said. "I know how many peo- ple are going to be there. I know how it feels. The ener- gy – you've got to feed off of it. This year, I kind of thought to myself, don't worry about the people that's around me, I've got to worry about my matches. My sophomore year, I was still young. It was kind of shock and awe. Then, ju- nior year, I didn't get the best regional seed. This year, I knew I set myself up great, and I knew I had to capital- ize. I knew what was there, but I just treated it like every other match." Sisk (38 -5) will face a for- midable opponent in the first round of the state meet on Fri- day, Feb. 16, when he will take on Lawrenceburg senior Ma- son Parris, a two-time defend- ing state champion at 220. Parris, who will wrestle collegiately at the Universi- ty of Michigan, has won 149 consecutive matches since suffering his only loss in the semifinals of the state meet as a freshman. He is current- ly 202-1, including 43-0 this season. "What we're going to go out and do is wrestle our best match, and we can't worry about who the other person is or what they do," Hewig said. "We need to just sit there and push our pace, push our match, and leave everything on the mat." "Jake and I have talked about that since sectionals started, that no matter what happens, we just can't leave anything on the mat, because we don't want to have any re- grets," Hewig said. "Jake knows that and he's not go- ing to do it and we're not go- ing to back down from any- body. I've known Jake long enough to know that there's one thing he doesn't do – he doesn't back down." "That's where we're at, and that's where we're going to be," Hewig added. "Jake's not going to back down. I'm not going to let him back down. So we'll game plan the same way as we do for anybody else and figure out what we can do and go to work." Sisk described Parris as "a great wrestler." "I've got a good coach here; I've got two good coaches," Sisk said, referring to Hewig and assistant coach Ryan Mc- Cain. "I've got good drilling partners. They're going to come in and they're going to help me to prepare the best way I can. We're just going to pick out what we can do, and then we're going to execute it and see how it falls on Friday." GOFF FALLS IN QUARTERFINALS; JONES SUFFERS 1ST-ROUND LOSS A fter opening the state meet with a win by a 4-3 de- cision over Madison junior Otto Kling, Pike Central se- nior Silas Goff – compet- ing in the 285 -pound weight class – dropped a 5 -2 decision to Whiteland senior Garrett Curtis in a bout that went to the first tiebreaker. Whiteland would subse- quently advance to the cham- pionship match, where he de- feated Bloomington South se- nior Harley Hillenburg by a 5 - 0 decision. "Silas, I know, if not the first, at least the second-best heavyweight in that bracket," Hewig said. "The kid from Bloomington South didn't even make it to the champi- onship of the regionals, and he goes to state. That's hard to watch. That's hard to see. Especially when you know what Silas has put into it. I'm not saying other kids didn't put in the same work, but I do feel that Silas was the sec- ond-best there." "That's the worse thing about wrestling in our state," Hewig continued. "I love not being classed. But to see kids like that fall out, that ticket round, that's rough to watch. It's not rough to watch until it's one of your kids, and then it's really rough to watch." Goff, making his second consecutive appearance at the semi-state meet, finished the season 38 -3. In the 126 -pound weight class, Pike Central senior Dylan Jones was eliminated with a 7-2 loss by decision to Boonville junior Evan Over- ton. "Dylan came out and wres- tled hard," Hewig said. "I think we got panicked there at the end. We just got into some bad spots. We took a couple of shots we don't usu- ally take. The kid hit us in a tile that we weren't ready for. It was a close match, but it kind of got out of hand at the end. We were just pushing the pace." Jones, making his first-ever appearance in the semi-state meet, ended the season 35 -4. "To have three guys at the semi-state, at that level, is fan- tastic," Hewig said. "It was great for them. It was great to watch for them. When they get to this level, this doesn't have anything to do with me. It's all on them, and they pushed the pace. I was proud of how hard they worked and wrestled." Call us at 812-354-8500 or email sports@pressdispatch.net GOT SPORTS NEWS? SISK Continued from page 1 HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' BASKETBALL Pocket Athletic Conference Standings PAC Overall Team W-L W-L Heritage Hills ...................................... 6 -1 .................18 -2 Forest Park .......................................... 4-1 .................14-4 Gibson Southern ................................. 4-1 .................11-6 North Posey ........................................ 3-1 ................ 10 -8 Pike Central ........................................ 3-2 .................. 8 -9 Tell City ................................................ 3-3 .................13-7 Southridge ........................................... 2-5 .................9-10 South Spencer ..................................... 1-6 .................6 -14 Tecumseh ............................................ 1-7 ................. 7-14 Results of February 6 Pike Central 40, Tecumseh 39 Wood Memorial 59, Forest Park 58 Gibson Southern 53, Boonville 46 North Harrison 62, South Spencer 58 Results of February 9 Tell City 54, Pike Central (2OT) Evansvile Memorial 66, North Posey 49 Heritage Hills 69, Forest Park 52 Gibson Southern 58, Tecumseh 49 Princeton 58, South Spencer 52 Southridge 75, Wood Memorial 65 Results of February 10 Heritage Hills 62, Pike Central 48 Forest Park 58, South Spencer 48 North Posey 75, Perry Central 66 North Daviess 75, Southridge 67 Gibson Southern 43, Tell City 38 Games of February 13 Gibson Southern at Pike Central Boonville at Forest Park Game of February 15 North Posey at Forest Park Games of February 16 Pike Central at Forest Park – Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. Heritage Hills at Tell City North Posey at Boonville South Spencer at Southridge Wood Memorial at Gibson Southern Games of February 17 Jasper at Pike Central – Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Var- sity, 7:30 p.m. South Spencer at Boonville Southridge at Loogootee Tecumseh at Perry Central Tell City at North Posey Vincennes Lincoln at Gibson Southern Games of February 20 Pike Central at South Knox – Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. Boonville at Tell City Gibson Southern at Forest Park Jasper at Southridge Princeton at Heritage Hills Tecumseh at Northeast Dubois Game of February 21 Pike Central at North Posey – Junior Varsity, 6:30 p.m.; Varsity, 8 p.m. Games of February 23 Forest Park at Northeast Dubois Gibson Southern at North Posey Heritage Hills at Perry Central Southridge at Boonville Game of February 24 White River Valley at South Spencer END REGULAR SEASON UPCOMING SPORTS SCHEDULE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15 High School Boys' Swimming and Diving: Pike Central in Sectional Meet at Jasper – Swimming pre- liminaries, 5:30 p.m. Middle School Wrestling: Pike Central and Jas- per at Vincennes Lincoln, 6 p.m. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16 High School Boys' Basketball: Pike Central at Forest Park – Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. High School Wrestling: State Meet at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis – First round, 6 p.m. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17 High School Boys' Basketball: Jasper at Pike Cen- tral – Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. High School Boys' Swimming and Diving: Pike Central in Sectional Meet at Jasper – Diving prelimi- naries and semifinals, 10 a.m.; Consolation and finals, 1 p.m. High School Wrestling: State Meet at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis – Quarterfinals and semifinals, 9 a.m.; Consolations, 5 p.m.; Finals, 7 p.m. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19 Middle School Wrestling: Pike Central, Tecum- seh and Tell City at Forest Park, 6 p.m. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20 High School Boys' Basketball: Pike Central at South Knox – Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. High School Boys' Swimming: Pike Central in Diving Regional at Bloomington North, 6 p.m. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21 High School Boys' Basketball: Pike Central at North Posey – Junior Varsity, 6:30 p.m.; Varsity, 8 p.m. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23 High School Boys' Swimming: Pike Central in State Meet at IU Natatorium in Indianapolis – Swim- ming preliminaries, 6 p.m. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 High School Boys' Swimming: Pike Central in State Meet at IU Natatorium in Indianapolis – Diving preliminaries and semifinals, 9 a.m.; Consolations and finals for all events, 1 p.m. Middle School Wrestling: Pike Central in Pike Central Invitational, 9 a.m. Pike Central High School senior Dylan Jones (top) battles Boonville junior Evan Overton during a first-round match in the 126-pound weight class during the semi-state wrestling meet at the Ford Center in Evansville on Saturday, Feb. 10. Jones lost by a 7-2 decision. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Silas Goff (right) lifts Madison senior Otto Kling (left) off the mat during a first-round match in the 285-pound weight class during the semi-state wrestling meet at the Ford Center in Evansville on Saturday, Feb. 10. Goff won by a 4-3 decision. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Bryant Nalley (40) goes up for a shot against Tell City junior Braeden Beard (left) during varsity boys' basket- ball action on Friday, Feb. 9. Nalley scored 18 points in a 54-52 double-overtime loss to the Marksmen. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Jake Sisk (top) sets up Ben Davis sophomore Aleksei Tavasso- li (bottom) for a fall during a first-round match in the 220-pound weight class during the semi-state wrestling meet at the Ford Center in Evansville on Saturday, Feb. 10. Sisk won the match by pin in 1:13. Ed Cahill photo Chargers drop 54-52 double-overtime loss at Tell City See DROP on pg 5 Life Milestones made free CALL: 812-354-8500 Put a free photo with write up on your Family and Class Reunions.