Shelbyville Lady Golden Bears Basketball

Richmond falls easily to Bears Saturday By JEFF BROWN jbrown@shelbynews.com RICHMOND — While the Lady Golden Bears can execute a full court press with the best teams in the state, working in the half court set after the smothering press breaks down has been a problem. So Shelbyville head coach John Fair has had the team working more in recent games on one of its most glaring weaknesses. There was one problem Saturday at the Tiernan Center in Richmond, the less-talented Red Devils were still hanging around at halftime, trailing by just five points. Fair challenged his team to turn up the defensive intensity in the third quarter. The Lady Golden Bears responded, outscoring Richmond 21-4, as Class 3A No. 5-ranked Shelbyville cruised to a 67-38 win, improving its overall record to 8-1. The third quarter in which the Lady Golden Bears hit 10 of 12 shots while the Red Devils (3-5) managed to take just 11 was one of the team’s best performances this season. “It’s the first time all year, and its taken us nine games, to actually go into deny mode,” Fair said after the win. “We usually just let teams get the ball and try to turn them (into a double team). We knew we were just so much better athletically and quicker and stronger that we decided to deny the ball to them.” It took Richmond six minutes and 25 seconds to get its first basket of the second half. By that time, Shelbyville ran off 16 straight points including four 15-foot plus jumpers. After Chelsea Caywood scored for Richmond, Shelbyville’s Jessica Horner responded with a 3-pointer that made the lead 44-22. Shelbyville kept the comfortable lead in the fourth quarter with solid free throw shooting. The Lady Golden Bears converted 13 of 16 free throws in the quarter and finished the game 20 of 25 (80 percent). From the field, Shelbyville shot 49 percent (22 of 45) and was 3 of 9 from 3-point range. Richmond hit 40 percent of its shots (19 of 48) but was 0 for 7 from the 3-point line and 0 for 8 from the free throw line. Shelbyville center Katie Douglas led all scorers with 13 points — 11 in the first half. Gretchen Haehl and Haley Wise added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Caywood scored 12 to lead Richmond. The Lady Golden Bears have won seven straight games since their Nov. 17 loss to Columbus North. The winning streak can improve to eight Friday at Hoosier Heritage Conference member Yorktown (0-10). Then Shelbyville will start preparing for Hall of Fame Classic in New Castle Dec. 28. The Lady Golden Bears open the four-team tournament against Jennings County. Wawasee, led by state scoring leader and University of Tennessee recruit Shanna Zolman, and Frankfort will also compete in the one-day tournament. A throwback to the more traditional one-class state tournament days, the Lady Golden Bears have to prepare to play twice in one day. Fair says the team won’t worry about its second opponent until after the opener with the Panthers and all-state candidate Jenny Pfeiffer. “We’re just preparing for Jennings County and then we’ll go from there,” Fair said. “We’ll try and win that ballgame and then see who we have.”