Senior guard Ava Wilson scored a game-high 19 points and added seven rebounds, six assists and five steals to her stat line for the Golden Bears (7-4, 1-2 HHC) on “Pink Out” Night.
Sophomores Ellie Keller and Hannah Baker combined for 27 more points and helped limit the Trojans to single-digit scoring in every quarter.
“We lost on Tuesday (56-49 at New Palestine) and we were very unhappy with ourselves so we had a pretty tough practice on Wednesday and got refocused and knew we wanted to come out and handle our business pretty dang quick and get this conference win and move on,” said Shelbyville head coach Becca Hoefler.
Keller had nine of her 16 points in the first quarter and Wilson had eight to help Shelbyville to a quick advantage.
New Castle’s first field goal did not come until the 5:15 mark of the second quarter. The Golden Bears struggled from the field in the second but a renewed focus on free-throw shooting paid off with a 7-for-10 performance in the quarter.
“Our free-throw shooting is a big thorn in our side this year,” said Hoefler. “We’ve been coming in every single morning before school and getting free throws in. That’s non-negotiable for us now. It happens every morning and that has been a big help for us.”
The Golden Bears were hovering just about 50% from the free-throw line this season but hit 13 of 16 Friday (81%) in the win.
Senior center Ella Johnson finished with six points and 12 rebounds.
“She’s a dawg. She’s a dawg through and through,” said Hoefler. “She has made a real difference for us this year. She has really stepped up. Senior year, she is leaving it all on the court. She is a hard girl to box out and she gets after every single ball. We are a very different team when she is not on the court.”
Shelbyville led 30-10 at halftime and 47-14 at the end of three quarters.
Emma Hart led New Castle (1-10, 0-4 HHC) with eight points and four rebounds. Mallory Owens finished with four points and eight rebounds.
New Castle finished 0-23 last season and has lost 34 of its last 35 games.
On Thursday, Shelbyville’s junior varsity team traveled to New Castle and prevailed 43-23 to improve to 11-0 this season.
The Golden Bears continue a three-game portion of the schedule against HHC opponents with a road trip Tuesday to Greenfield-Central (7-3, 1-1 HHC).
Get the most recent Shelby County Post headlines delivered to your email. Go to shelbycountypost.com and click on the free daily email signup link at the top of the page.
