The Herald-Tribune
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The Batesville High School boys varsity basketball team needed to bounce back from a tough loss to the East Central Trojans with only three games until sectional play begins.
Despite a rocky start, the Bulldogs responded with a hard-fought 73-62 victory on the road against Jennings County.
The Bulldogs trailed 15-10 at the end of the first quarter, but made up the ground and a little more in the second.
Bryan Hoeing scored 13 of his game-high 41 points to help give the Bulldogs a 32-30 halftime lead.
Coach Aaron Garrett’s crew gradually built a seven point lead on back-to-back field goals by junior Wes McKinney. Blake Walsman added a basket and the Bulldogs had their biggest lead of the game at 45-36 near the 5:00 mark.
Jennings County’s Caleb Eder scored the next six points to pull the Panthers within three. A key rebound and basket by Quinn Grimsley was followed a possession later by another McKinney field goal as the Bulldogs regained the momentum.
The third quarter ended with the Bulldogs in front 53-46.
The Panthers took the lead in the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer by Dan Leach only to see Hoeing take over and score the next eight points to give the Bulldogs back a 63-56 advantage.
The Panthers would get only as close as four points the rest of the way.
Hoeing’s 41 points is the second time the sophomore forward has eclipsed the 40-point mark this season. He also added 17 rebounds against the Panthers.
McKinney was the only other Bulldog scoring in double figures with 12 points.
The Bulldogs improved to 16-2 with the victory, while the Panthers fall to 11-8.
The Batesville junior varsity fell to 12-6 on the season with a 43-36 loss.
The Panthers outscored the Bulldogs 9-6 in the second quarter to enter halftime knotted at 17-17. They gained a three point advantage by the end of the third.
After falling behind even more early in the fourth, the Bulldogs kept battling and pulled to within three points on a couple of occasions.
Trips to the free throw line down the stretch helped give the Panthers a seven point cushion when the final buzzer sounded.
Bo Gowan had a good night offensively for the Bulldogs with 18 points. Matt Moorman was also in double figures with 10 points over three quarters of play.
Varsity Scoring
Batesville (73)
Player 2FG-3FG-FT-TP; Grimsley 1-0-0-1-2; McKinney 3-1-3-4-12; B. Hoeing 11-2-13-15-41; Kase 1-1-2-2-7; Walsman 2-0-0-0-4; M. Hoeing 1-0-1-3-3; Dennis 2-0-0-0-4; Totals 21-4-19-25-73.
Jennings County (62)
Player 2FG-3FG-FT-TP; Sanders 4-3-2-3-19; Taylor 5-0-1-2-11; Mills 2-1-0-0-7; Hunt 2-0-0-0-4; Kirchner 0-0-0-0-0; Leach 0-1-2-2-5; Eder 7-0-1-2-15; Totals 20-5-7-11-62.
Junior Varsity Scoring
Batesville (73) - Prickel 0, Moorman 10, Meyer 2, Gowan 18, J. Reer 2, Vogelsang 2, Nobbe 4, C. Reer 0, Koehne 0.
Jennings County (43) -Euler 6, Villa 3, Jarvis 4, Jackson 6, Pettit 8, Woods 4, Scruggs 4, McNamee 8.
