NEW MARKET — It had the feeling of a sectional atmosphere on Tuesday as Class 2A Sectional 44 foes Parke Heritage and Southmont squared off in the regular season finale for both teams. It was a potential sectional championship preview and both teams treated the fans to a great game which saw back and forth action. Leading by a single point at 39-38 after three quarters, the visiting Wolves controlled the final eight minutes and pulled away for a 53-43 win.
Star freshman and coach Rich Schelsky’s son Treigh Schelsky came into the contest averaging 19 points per game and South’s defense wasn’t going to let him be the guy who beat them. Unfortunately sophomore Renn Harper who averages just over 10 a game, doubled his average to lead all scorers with 20 points. The Mounties scored their final points of the game with 4:41 left when Carter Hubble made 1-2 free-throws.
Despite being down two key players in big man Carson Chadd and Kyler McCandless, the Mounties showed grit when they were hit with adversity in the final game.
“The mistakes we made tonight we can easily clean up and that’s the good part about the loss,” Southmont coach Jake Turner said. “We got great looks all night and that was encouraging too that our guys executed and took the shots that we wanted them to take. Even though we were short-handed, our goal was to come in to this game and win. We didn’t want any moral victories and still put ourselves in a good position to accomplish our goal.”
Hubble led the Mounties with a great showing scoring 16 points and adding nine rebounds. Trip Ward and EJ Brewer both scored nine, Lucas Oppy four, Vince Reimondo three, and Hayden Hess two. Schelsky added 14 for the Wolves to go along with Harper’s 20. Max Dowd added seven, while both Ethan Tidwell and Brayden Luce scored six.
Wolves coach Rich Schelsky noted how Harper’s play is something that his team will continue to need as they prep for the post-season.
“Renn is capable of doing this every night,” he said. “Sometimes we just rely on Treigh too much and that’s when we get out of rhythm. We feel like we have two really good scorers and here in the last three weeks Renn has taken it upon himself to look to score more. When he does that we’re pretty good. Brewer did a good job of guarding Treigh tonight and when he’s been tightly guarded like that we have to have other guys step up.”
With the conclusion of the regular season now official for both teams, they now shift their focus to the sectional. The Mounties end the regular season with a record of 15-7 while the Wolves end 15-9. Parke Heritage opens up the Class 2A 44 Sectional on Tuesday when they’ll take on Greencastle.
“Greencastle is young just like we are,” Schelsky said of the opening round matchup with the Tiger Cubs. They’re starting to put somethings together (won four out of their last five). We have a head to head win against them (52-38) but we know we’re going to get their best shot. I think this sectional is wide open and there’s a lot teams that can cut down the nets. We can get beat by anybody so it starts with getting our guys prepared for Greencastle.”
The Mounties will have a week off to prepare for a re-match with North Putnam who defeated them way back in the season opener. Turner knows that both teams will look a lot different than the opening game back on Nov. 22.
“The biggest thing for us making sure we get healthy and prepare ourselves mentally,” he said. “That’s our number one priority. It’ll likely come down to who executes their gameplan better and does the little things well.”
PARKE HERITAGE 53, SOUTHMONT 43
Score By Quarter
PH 22 7 9 15 - 53
SM 11 14 14 4 - 43
Parke Heritage (15-9) FG-FGA FT-FTA PTS: Max Dowd 3-8 0-1 7, Adam Carrington 0-0 0-0 0, Ethan Tidwell 3-4 0-1 6, Renn Harper 8-11 0-0 20, Brayden Luce 2-7 0-0 6, Treigh Schelsky 3-7 7-8 14; Totals 19-37 7-10 53
Southmont (15-7): Vince Reimondo 1-6 0-0 3, Trip Ward 3-10 0-0 9, Lucas Oppy 2-3 0-0 4, Hayden Hess 1-3 0-0 2, EJ Brewer 4-5 1-5 9, Carter Hubble 7-10 2-3 16; Totals 18-37 3-8 43
3-Point Shooting: PH 8-18 (Harper 4, Luce 2, Schelsky, Dowd); SM 4-14 (Ward 3, Reimondo)
Rebounds: PH 20 (Schelsky 5, Harper 5); SM 22 (Hubble 9, Brewer 4, Ward 4)
Turnovers: PH 9, SM 10