Historic run ends for JCD hoops

Class A No. 10 Jac-Cen-Del came to Seymour on Saturday afternoon and showed a capacity crowd why it was worthy of a Final Four appearance but despite a gutsy effort all the way until the end, it was the Eagles on the wrong side of the scoreboard as No. 2 North Daviess pulled away late for a 60-47 victory in the Class A South Semi-State.
The victory is the first for North Daviess against Jac-Cen-Del after the two teams collided in 2009. The Eagles won that matchup 38-32 at Seymour en route to that year’s Class A State Championship.

Eagle Nation was in full force in the 2022 version of the contest at the historic Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium and early on it was evident that the two teams and their contrasting styles would make for a rather intriguing contest. Jac-Cen-Del and its high-octane offense wanted to speed the game up. North Daviess wanted to slow the game down to a methodical pace. Through much of the first half, the two styles clashed.

Devin Grieshop opened the game with a trifecta for the Eagles but soon after it was the Cougars grabbing a lead and maintaining it the rest of the way. Markus Britton answered back with a three of his own and four other players scored as North Daviess ran out to a 10-7 advantage. Jac-Cen-Del thought they had the game tied at the buzzer when Caleb Simon’s half court heave banked into the basket but the toss was waved off by the officials much to the unpleasant dismay of the Osgood fan base.

North Daviess maintained control in the second frame and increased the lead to two possessions by halftime. Jac-Cen-Del found itself faltering but another three by Grieshop and six points by Wyatt Day kept the Eagles within striking distance at 23-18. However the Cougars and their slowdown style started to take a toll as the second half got underway.

Although Jac-Cen-Del put in 10 points in the third stanza, North Daviess and its defense clamped down tremendously and limited successful Eagle possessions while the offense picked all the right times to strike. The result was a lead that continued to blossom. The Cougars got the lead up to six points with 3:18 remaining in the period and then took advantage of a defense that found itself overcommitting and allowing easy buckets underneath, allowing for the margin to stretch to 37-26 before settling on a 37-28 score heading into the final quarter.

The game slowed down even more in the final eight minutes and Jac-Cen-Del trailed 39-32 two minutes in but a change in defense and two missed free throws by North’s Logan Wilson sparked a final burst of momentum. Matt Dickman canned a huge three-ball and Wyatt Day led the charge as the Eagles spent the next three minutes on a 10-4 run that brought the deficit down to a single point and brought some life back into a boisterous Osgood crowd. But unfortunately the burst was short-lived and the Cougars stayed the course.

Jac-Cen-Del was never able to take a lead and was forced to watch North Daviess end the game on a 17-5 run. The Cougars again penetrated and dished to a plethora of cutters for easy twos while 11 made free throws secured the victory and state title bid for North.

Six players hit the score column for North Daviess, led by its leading scorer Jaylen Mullen who finished with 16 points. Eight of his 10 second half points came inside the fourth frame. Brendan Stickels was pivotal off the bench and scored 11 second half points en route to 15 points. Lance Wilson and Devin Collins each scored eight points while Logan Wilson and Markus Britton had seven points and six points respectively. The Cougars finished 14-of-20 from the free throw line.

North Daviess (26-3) meets No. 11 Lafayette Central Catholic (20-9) in the Class A State Championship on Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It is the first state finals appearance for the Cougars.

Jac-Cen-Del’s Wyatt Day finished out his stellar high school career by leading all scorers with 20 points which included 12 points in the fourth quarter. Grieshop was hampered by foul trouble but hit three 3-pointers en route to 11 points. Simon, another senior and Top 10 career scorer, and Dickman, a junior, finished with seven points apiece while Nathan Hoffman came off the bench in the third quarter for two points.

The Eagles went to the free throw line on just two occasions in the game and went 4-of-4 at the charity stripe.

Jac-Cen-Del finishes out its year with a 22-6 record and four different championships throughout the course of the season. The Eagles won not only a Class A Sectional 60 title and regional championship, but also laid claim to their first Ripley County Tournament since 2007 and their first outright Ohio River Valley Conference since 2009.