Shelbyville’s first Hoosier Heritage Conference win of the season only took 144 hours to complete.

The Golden Bears finished off New Castle Thursday night at William L. Garrett Gymnasium in the conclusion of Friday’s suspended game after New Castle’s Landon Thompson suffered a severe lower leg injury with 4:19 left to go in the fourth quarter and Shelbyville leading 42-35.

On Thursday, the Trojans returned but could not keep Shelbyville from capitalizing at the free-throw line which resulted, officially, in a 53-47 victory. Four different Golden Bears combined to make 11 of 12 free throws Thursday.

Mar Nicholson was 6 for 6 and finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. Caden Claxton also had 14 points for the Golden Bears. Luke Brinkman and Ethan Lambert combined for 17 points and Shelbyville improved to 5-1 – the best start to a season since 2006.

“After Tuesday night where we missed nine free throws (in a 53-44 win over Greenwood), the next day at practice we spent 30 minutes shooting a bunch of free throws,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett after the win Thursday. “And today we came in at 5:30 p.m. to shoot free throws for another half hour and then we went over game prep and it all paid off.”

New Castle (3-3, 0-1 HHC) opened the scoring Thursday in a Garrett Gymnasium setting that had more of a summer scrimmage atmosphere with a 3-point play by Mason Miller that cut the lead to four points.

The Trojans chose to chase the Golden Bears for over a minute before Brinkman was fouled. The senior hit both free throws and Nicholson followed with two more to make it 46-38.

Cade Logston connected on his second 3 of the game to cut the lead to five but Gavin Reed sank a pair of free throws and Damon Badgley made one of two to again push the lead to eight with 40 seconds left.

Tucker Griffin hit another trifecta for New Castle but time was running out. Nicholson converted all four free throw attempts in the final 18 seconds to secure the victory.

Colin Taylor led the Trojans with 19 points. Thompson was the only other New Castle player to reach double digits, scoring 11 points and grabbing five rebounds before getting seriously injured.

Landon Thompson, on crutches, visited with his New Castle teammates earlier this week.

“Landon had great medical care that night. He was able to get to Methodist Hospital (in Indianapolis),” said New Castle coach Daniel Cox Thursday after the loss. “They were able to set (the broken bones) and he had surgery the next morning. Everything looks as good as it can be after what happened.

“He got back home Saturday night. Our guys were over at his house after we beat Jay County Saturday. He is in good spirits. We have finals next week and he is coming back to school for finals.”

Cox confirmed that Thompson expects to return for his senior season.

New Castle was back home one night after the suspended game and defeated Jay County, 56-44, but it was tough to play without Thompson.

“Saturday night was an emotional night for us, coming back out and losing a guy that was our leading scorer and leading rebounder,” said Cox. “You just don’t know what you are getting into at that point. I’m proud of our guys the way they have rallied around him (Thompson) and taking it one step at a time for him and getting him back healthy.”

Cox praised the Shelbyville staff and administration for the way they handled the emergency situation.

“I thought everybody worked well together,” said Cox. “My assistant coach Chase Koger is our school SRO (School Resource Officer) so he is a first responder and he is pretty good in these situations. He was able to get out there and see things. It was good to have him along.

“I thought everybody handled it well in a situation you don’t prepare for, but you have to. … Thank you to everybody involved and to Shelbyville for the quickness with which they executed everything and figured it all out.”

Shelbyville travels to Mt. Vernon (2-2, 1-0 HHC) tonight to face a team that blitzed the Golden Bears, 74-42, last season in Garrett Gymnasium.

“Mt. Vernon is very tough with Julien Smith and R’mani Wells back. They hit 10 3s on us in the first half last year. I remember that in my nightmares,” said Hartnett. “We came in (Wednesday) and went over scouting personnel with them and right now the team is watching film on them.”

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