Raider boys run to 2-0 start
Rich Fowler
South Ripley’s Drew Volz streaks to the bucket for a layup on Tuesday night as teammate Landon Werner (left) and Jac-Cen-Del’s Lane Simon (middle) and Blake Wagner (right) look on. Volz dropped 36 points in a Turkey Shootout win for the Raiders.
Class 2A No. 5 South Ripley is 2-0 to start the season, using two blowouts to hit that mark on the road this past week.
The Raiders enter at No. 5 in Class 2A as part of the USA Today Preseason Poll. South Ripley is 2-0 for just the second time in five years, the first being a year ago en route to a 23-2 finish that included county, conference and sectional championships.
Tuesday night’s annual Turkey Shootout in Osgood saw Raider junior Drew Volz dazzle on the floor and his team followed suit in a 75-42 rout of host Jac-Cen-Del. South Ripley led 17-8 out of the gate and built the lead up to 35-18 by halftime. Eventually the running clock and mercy rule would be in effect late in the evening as the Raiders only increased the margin, doing so with 24 points in the third quarter and a 19-4 fourth quarter run.
For Volz it was a career night and South Ripley’s point guard did a little bit of everything, including dropping a career-high 36 points in the game. The point total was just 10 points shy of the school record for points in a game which was set last year by the program’s all-time leading scorer Cole Henry. He was 15-of-20 from the field and also added seven rebounds, six assists and four steals.
Seven other Raiders joined him in the score column. Lone senior Bryson Sipples added nine points despite foul trouble and the sophomore trio of Landon Werner, Blake Gunter and Eli Gilpin scored seven points, six points and five points respectively. Dylan Jessee put in five points, Mason Bascom tossed in four points and Brogan Buchanan connected on a three-pointer.
Gunter grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, Sipples dished out four assists and Gilpin recorded three steals.
Jac-Cen-Del was held to 29 percent shooting in the loss which served as the debut for new boys basketball head coach Scott Smith. Darian Grieshop led the Eagles with 18 points and senior Lane Simon added 10 points. Blake Wagner and Neil Sullivan each scored five points.
Others scoring for the Eagles were Will Meyer with four points and Brody Huff at one point. Simon grabbed a team-high six rebounds while Grieshop totaled three assists and three steals.
South Ripley came back on Saturday night and blasted Rising Sun 65-34 in Ohio County. The Shiners with the loss dropped to 0-2 on the season. Gilpin nailed six 3-pointers and led the green and white with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and Gunter had 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting with six rebounds. Sipples was next in line with eight points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Volz and Buchanan each scored six points with Volz adding eight rebounds and seven assists. Jessee added five points and Werner turned in three points.
South Ripley (2-0) heads back to the friendly confines of Tyson Auditorium on Saturday night to take on North Decatur. It will be the first varsity basketball game played in Tyson since February of 2008.
