By GREG MENGELT
SEYMOUR — Sectional-favorite Floyd Central erased a 13-point halftime deficit and overcame Jennings County in double overtime in the Class 4A Seymour’s sectional’s quarterfinal round Tuesday. That thriller followed defending champion Jeffersonville’s 61-48 victory over Bedford North Lawrence.
Jeffersonville (8-11) will face Seymour (15-6) in Friday’s first semifinal at the famed Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium. New Albany (11-11) will play its first postseason game Friday when it faces No. 12 Floyd Central (18-4) in the nightcap.
Seymour beat Jeffersonville 55-47 and the Highlanders beat New Albany (11-11) by 31 points in the teams’ regular-season matchup. Both games were played on Dec. 10, just short of three months. Tuesday’s winning coaches agreed that the regular-season results are basically meaningless on Friday.
“That was like a lifetime ago,” Floyd Central head coach Todd Sturgeon said of the 57-26 triumph. “I can’t even remember it. That game means zero. They’ve got two or three of the best offensive players in the league on that team and a coach that’s won 600 and some games. It’s going to be a challenge.”
Jeff lost to the Owls without head coach Andrew Grantz and star seniors Will Lovings-Watts and Kobe Stoudemire the first time around. Seymour may have its best team this decade and its best chance to win a sectional title since the class era began in 1998.
“I’m excited to see, with a full squad, what we can do,” Grantz said. “Man, that seems like it was a century ago.”
FLOYD CENTRAL-JENNINGS COUNTY
There were plenty of stars of the Floyd Central comeback.
The Highlanders managed just 13 points in the first half, but senior Max Tripure scored seven of Floyd’s 13 third-quarter points and helped his team cut the deficit to 31-25 in the final eight minutes.
Tripure led the Highlanders with 14 points off the bench.
Sturgeon said the halftime message was, “This isn’t going to happen all at once. Let’s play it possession-by-possession and grind this out and get ourselves back in the game for the fourth quarter. That’s exactly what we did, took seven points off (the deficit in) the third quarter.”
Then it was Wesley Celichowski’s turn to play hero. With Floyd trailing by two, the 7-foot senior tied the game at 36-36 with 1:23 remaining then at 38-38 with 20 seconds left in regulation. Jennings had two shots to win the game in regulation, but Celichowski blocked one and Panther freshman Carter Kent missed a 10 footer that would’ve sent Jennings into Friday’s semifinal.
Celichowski scored four of the Floyd Central’s six points in the first overtime, but Jennings senior Carson McNulty nailed a clutch a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left and Celichowski missed a potential game-winning half-hook at the first overtime buzzer. Celichowski finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots.
Like they did in the regular-season matchup — a 67-58 overtime win in the Knobs — the Highlanders dominated the final overtime period, outscoring the Panthers 17-10. Brady Moore scored the first four points of the second extra session, then junior Caleb Washington, who entered overtime without a point, went 2 for 2 at the stripe in the first overtime and a game-clinching 8 for 8 in the second. He finished with 10 points. Moore contributed 12 points, six rebounds and three assists to the victory.
“They guys had some toughness,” Sturgeon said. “But for the record, I’d rather be 13 ahead than 13 down.”
Kent led Jennings with 14 points and was 4 for 8 from behind the 3-point line. Kent, who is listed at 5-foot-9 also had six rebounds, two assists and a steal. Junior Keegan Manowitz added 13 points, while McNutt and junior big man Justin Ramey had nine apiece.
“They’re just a good team,” Sturgeon said. “They match up well with us, got a bunch of shooters, terrific guard play, they spread you out. They’re a handful. We’re not surprised that it was difficult.”
JEFFERSONVILLE-BEDFORD NORTH LAWRENCE
As usual, Jeffersonville was led by seniors Will Lovings-Watts and Brandon Rayzer-Moore. Only this time, they led the Red Devils to victory a little differently than usual.
Jeff’s high-octane scorers combined for 34 points, but it was their passing that made the difference Tuesday. Both had five assists and found wide open teammates for baskets throughout the night. The Red Devils assisted on 16 of their 23 baskets.
“What we told them, the thing that they had to do was really understand that when Will and Brandon are driving … they needed to stop early and hit the dump offs. They draw so much attention,” Grantz said. “They did that tonight. They were unselfish. They did their job getting into the gaps of the zone … and finding the open guys.”
But it was the Red Devil defense that was the biggest difference in the victory. Jeff, which has won six of its last nine games after a 2-8 start, forced 11 BNL turnovers in the first half and committed just three of its own.
Jeff didn’t have a single turnover in the second quarter, while the Stars scored just three field goals and turned the ball over six times in the period. The Devils trailed 9-8 after one quarter then took control by outscoring BNL 23-10 in the second for a 31-19 halftime edge.
The regular-season meeting between the teams was played more at the Stars’ pace. The Devils won the Dec. 10 Hoosier Hills Conference game 44-42 on a Lovings-Watts shot at the buzzer.
“Bedford is not an easy team to speed up,” Grantz said. “They do a great job of making you play their pace. They did that when they came to Jeff about a month ago, so we knew that we were going to have to throw different traps, rotations, things like that. Really about a month ago, we would’ve been trapping hard, but our backside coverage wouldn’t have been good. Their efforts to rotate and cover for each other, I thought was a lot better tonight. When we’re doing that, I think we’re at our best.”
For the evening, Jeffersonville had 13 steals, led by five from Rayzer-Moore.
“I was proud of our effort,” Grantz said. “I thought our effort, our rotations, trust, communication, all those things, got better from the last game. That’s all we want to do, continue to get better every single day. We told them even after the season is over and they go on with the rest of their lives, their goal should be to get better every day. That’s our focus right now.”
Rayzer-Moore led all scorers with 22 points. He also had six rebounds, five assists and five steals. Lovings-Watts was just 4 for 13 from the field, but the future Drake Bulldog had 12 points, six rebounds, five assists, three steals and a blocked shot. Also for Jeff, Stoudemire had seven points and senior Isaiah Florence and freshman Michael Cooper scored five apiece. Cooper also had four assists and two steals.
BNL was paced by Kaedyn Bennett’s 15 points and Colten Leach’s 13 in defeat. Every Star who played Tuesday night was an underclassman.
CLASS 4A SEYMOUR SECTIONAL
QUARTERFINALS
JEFFERSONVILLE 61, BEDFORD NORTH LAWRENCE 48
Jeffersonville 8 23 10 20—61
Bedford NL 9 10 13 16—48
Jeffersonville (8-11): Will Lovings-Watts 4-13 2-6 12, Kobe Stoudemire 2-4 2-2 7, Michael Cooper 1-5 3-4 5, Brandon Rayzer-Moore 10-16 2-3 22, PJ Douglas 1-1 0-0 2, Brenton Moore 1-1 0-0 3, Shawn Boyd 1-3 0-0 3, Isaiah Florence 2-2 1-3 5, Monnie McGee 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 23-46 11-19 61.
BNL (11-12): Trace Rynders 1-3 0-2 3, Colten Leach 5-9 3-6 13, Kaedyn Bennett 6-9 1-2 17, Colton Staggs 3-9 4-5 11, Jeff Jones 1-2 0-0 2, Kole Bailey 0-1 0-0 0, Quincy Pickett 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 17-37 8-15 48.
3-point field goals: Jeffersonville 4-15 (Lovings-Watts 1-3, Stoudemire 1-3, Moore 1-1, Boyd 1-2, Cooper 0-2, Rayzer-Moore 0-2); BNL 6-14 (Bennett 4-6, Rynders 1-3, Staggs 1-3, Leach 0-1, Pickett 0-1).
Rebounds: Jeffersonville 20 (Lovings-Watts 6); BNL 24 (Leach 9).
Assists: Jeffersonville 16 (Lovings-Watts 5, Rayzer-Moore 5); BNL 6 (Leach 3).
Steals: Jeffersonville 13 (Rayzer-Moore 5); BNL 2 (Rynders, Bennett).
Blocked shots: Jeffersonville 1 (Lovings-Watts); BNL 1 (Rynders).
Turnovers: Jeffersonville 6, BNL 15.
Fouled out: None.
Technical fouls: BNL bench, Rayzer-Moore.
FLOYD CENTRAL 61, JENNINGS COUNTY 54 (2OT)
Floyd Central 4 9 12 13 6 17—61
Jennings County 11 15 5 7 6 10—54
Floyd Central (18-4): Kyle Poates 2-4 2-5 6, Brady Moore 4-8 4-6 12, Cole Harritt 1-5 1-2 3, Caleb Washington 0-2 10-10 10, Caleb Celichowski 5-8 2-2 12, Tevi Ali 0-0 2-4 2, Alex Tripure 5-6 0-0 14. Totals 18-34 21-29 61.
Jennings County (14-9): Carson McNulty 3-4 1-1 9, Owen Law 1-5 0-0 3, Keegan Manowitz 4-7 5-6 13, Justin Ramey 2-3 3-4 9, Jacob Vogel 2-6 0-0 4, Carter Kent 5-12 0-0 14, Lane Zohrlaut 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 18-38 9-11 54.
3-point field goals: Floyd Central 4-10 (Tripure 4-4, Poates 0-1, Moore 0-1, Haritt 0-2, Washington 0-2); Jennings County 9-21 (Kent 4-8, McNulty 2-6, Ramey 2-2, Law 1-4, Manowitz 0-1).
Rebounds: Floyd Central 23 (Celichowski 10); Jennings County 20 (Vogel 7).
Assists: Floyd Central 7 (Moore 3); Jennings County 7 (McNulty 2, Manowitz 2, Kent 2).
Steals: Floyd Central 6 (Poates 2, Tripure 2); Jennings County 3 (McNulty, Manowitz, Kent).
Blocked shots: Floyd Central 5 (Celichowski 5); Jennings County 0.
Turnovers: Floyd Central 9, Jennings County 15.
Team fouls: Floyd Central 17, Jennings County 14.
Fouled out: None.
Technical fouls: None.
CLASS 4A SEYMOUR SECTIONAL
FIRST ROUND
Tuesday, March 1
Jeffersonville 61, Bedford North Lawrence 48
Floyd Central 61, Jennings County 54 (2OT)
SEMIFINALS
Friday, March 4
Seymour (15-6) vs. Jeffersonville (8-11), 6 p.m.
New Albany (11-11) vs. Floyd Central (18-4), 7:30 p.m.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday, March 5
Semifinal winners, 7:30 p.m.
