Simon reaches 1,000 career points!
PHOTO BY LORI SAMPLES
Jac-Cen-Del’s Caleb Simon cruises to the bucket for two of his 21 points on Friday night as the senior becomes the 11th player in program history to score 1,000 career points.
Getting one basketball player to 1,000 career points in a four-year span is quite the accomplishment for any program. Putting two on in the same season at that is almost unheard of in our neck of the woods.
But such is the case over in Osgood. After senior Wyatt Day accomplished the feat earlier this winter, classmate and sharpshooter Caleb Simon became the 11th player in boys basketball history at Jac-Cen-Del to record 1,000 career points as the Eagles celebrated the occasion with a pair of weekend victories.
Simon’s monumental accomplishment came on Friday night as Jac-Cen-Del survived an upset bid from Switzerland County as part of a 58-49 home win in Ohio River Valley Conference play. The two teams stood tied at 13-13 at the end of the first quarter before the visiting Pacers started making some serious noise with a 26-25 halftime advantage. That lead crept up to 43-39 through three frames but the Eagles never allowed a potential upset to come to fruition.
Jac-Cen-Del suffocated Switzerland County in the final eight minutes and in doing so completed a fourth quarter comeback with a resounding 19-6 run in the fourth quarter. All but eight of those points for the Eagles came from the free throw line while the Pacers were limited to just their three field goals, all of which coming from inside the arc.
Simon reached the 1,000 career point mark with a bucket in the third quarter, joining Day in the exclusive Eagle club and finishing the night by leading all scorers with 21 points. He now has the opportunity to ascend towards the top of the school’s all-time scoring list and currently sits inside the top 10. Day’s journey continued as well as he finished with 20 points in the contest.
Justin Swinney added eight points to the score column for the Eagles while Ryan Wilson had three points. Devin Grieshop, Matt Dickman and Nathan Hoffman each had two points. Switzerland County (8-13, 1-5 ORVC) was led by Cole Riley’s 16 points and Bryce Wrightsman’s 13 points.
Simon hit double figures again on Saturday night as did Day as Jac-Cen-Del remained unbeaten in conference play with a 64-47 win at Milan. The victory gives the Eagles a season sweep of the rival Indians after beating the black and gold 65-53 in the first round of the Ripley County Tournament.
Milan held a brief one-point lead in the opening stanza but the rest of the game belonged to Jac-Cen-Del who went on a 28-11 run in the second quarter and never looked back. The Eagles led 40-24 at halftime and that alone was enough to seal a victory as the Indians were only outscored 24-23 in the second half.
Day scored 15 points in the first half and finished with 27 points on the night while Simon scored 11 of his 15 points in the first two quarters. Wilson and Grieshop each finished with six points, Swinney and Dickman scored four points apiece and Landon Kohlman chipped in two points.
The Indians got 22 points out of Landon Morgan including nine points in the fourth quarter. Kohen Riner added 14 points but Milan had just two other players score for the game. Ben Riehle finished with seven points and MJ Hartman had four points.
Milan (1-17, 1-4 ORVC) hosts Shawe tonight in its final home game of the year before closing out the regular season on Friday night at Union County.
Jac-Cen-Del (15-5, 5-0 ORVC) hosts Covenant Christian on Wednesday night before visiting South Ripley on Friday night in a big conference rivalry matchup. The Eagles have already clinched a share of the ORVC title but can claim it outright on Friday with a win against the Raiders.
