Shelbyville fell behind early but recovered to get within two points of Batesville near the mid-point of the second quarter Thursday at William L. Garrett Gymnasium.

Over the next eight minutes on the scoreboard clock stretching across two quarters, the visiting Bulldogs outscored the Golden Bears 26-5 and closed out their regular-season schedule with a 70-45 victory.

The trio of Sam Johnson, Cade Kaiser and Jack Grunkemeyer combined for 44 points and 25 rebounds to improve Batesville to 17-5 this season. The Bulldogs have won six straight and eight of their last nine heading into the postseason – and they’ve won five straight against Shelbyville.

Johnson finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Kaiser had 16 points and seven rebounds and Grunkemeyer, a Northwestern baseball recruit, added nine points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Caden Claxton led Shelbyville with 12 points. Damon Badgley finished with nine. The Golden Bears (11-11) have lost five straight and seven of their last nine. In those seven losses, the offense is averaging just 43.6 points per contest.

On Senior Night at Garrett Gymnasium, Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett inserted the program’s five seniors into the starting lineup. The Golden Bears fell behind 12-4 forcing Hartnett to call an early timeout and the team’s two leading scorers, Claxton and fellow sophomore Mar Nicholson, entered the game.

Shelbyville cut the lead to 16-11 at the end of the first quarter and Nicholson hit a short jump shot in the lane that closed the deficit to 18-16 with 5:30 left in the second quarter.

It was all Batesville after that. Johnson hit a 3-pointer. Kaiser scored off his own miss then had an easy layin on a back door cut. Trenten Luers followed with another 3 and the Bulldogs extended the lead to 30-18 at halftime.

Batesville opened the third quarter with an 11-0 run and the Golden Bears trailed 41-18 before Badgley sank a corner 3 at the five-minute mark.

“We made a nice run to come back and had a chance to tie it up and missed a transition layup and they went on a nice run,” said Hartnett. “Our keys at halftime were to come out and get a couple of stops, then go down and try to execute and they got a quick 7-0 run and that was the hole we dug ourselves in to and couldn’t get back out.”

Shelbyville shot 39% from the field and hit just 6-of-12 free-throw attempts in the loss. Batesville made 24-of-46 shot attempts (52%) and sank 8 of 17 3-pointers.

The end was somber for seniors Luke Brinkman, Brock Kuhn, Kohen Myers, Ethan Lambert and Kyle Clouse, all of whom played their final game at Garrett Gymnasium.

“We told those seniors, especially Lambert, Brinkman and Myers who had more experience and playing time and those guys that came back to the program (Kuhn and Clouse) that they mean just as much as everybody,” said Hartnett. “Kyle Clouse and Brock Kuhn showed up every day to practice regardless of playing time and worked their butts off every single day. We told them they are just as important as anyone on this team. They made us better this year. All those guys deserved a start tonight.”

Shelbyville’s junior varsity under head coach Bryan Fischer closed out their campaign with a 15-7 record after Thursday’s 42-29 victory over Batesville.

Kenny Owens finished with a game-high 12 points. Brody Runnebohm had nine and Gavin Reed and Tyler Gwinnup each finished with eight.

Shelbyville opens the postseason Tuesday at East Central High School against Whiteland (13-10) in the second quarterfinal game. The winner advances to Friday’s semifinal to face Franklin (15-4).

The first quarterfinal game Tuesday pits Columbus East (6-16) against Columbus North (6-14). The winner advances to take on East Central (11-12) in Friday’s semifinals.

Whiteland eliminated Shelbyville from the 2023 sectional, 47-45. In their regular-season meeting early this season, the Warriors prevailed 65-53.

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