Is the new year bringing a new dawn, a new day for the Sheridan boys basketball team?
One thing’s for sure: The Blackhawks were feeling good after holding off Tri-Central 46-44 Friday night at Hobbs Memorial Hall in a Hoosier Heartland Conference game. The victory ended a five-game losing streak for Sheridan, after a 3-0 start.
“Ultimately, we needed to get a win,” said ‘Hawks coach Chris Schrank. “We’ve been on a little bit of a streak there, shooting ourselves in the foot, like I’ve said in a couple of games before. We did enough here to get a ‘W.’
“We needed to break that losing streak we were on. It’s good for us to grind these out. Hopefully we’ll win one here, somewhere, that will be a little easier for us. We needed to feel what that was like again.”
Sheridan got off to a solid start against the Trojans, leading 10-3 after the first quarter and 22-16 at halftime. Drake Delph scored 13 points in the half, including two 3-pointers.
Sheridan extended its lead to 33-25 after three quarters. Tri-Central came back and got to within two late in the fourth period, but the ‘Hawks were able to hang on. Jesse Kolb helped out with a big basket during the game’s final minute, while Nick Burnell had six points in the quarter.
Delph finished the game with 20 points, while Burnell scored 10. Kolb grabbed six rebounds, with Burnell collecting five.
“We seem to get one guy, one and a half there where a guy has a good game,” said Schrank. “Drake tonight had a really good game, played well. We’ve been that way the last couple games where we’ll get one guy. We need to get everybody going at the same time. Guys contributed at the end there that we needed to. We told them at the start of the season we’re going to count on those guys to do a lot for us.”
The ‘Hawks are 2-2 in the HHC and 4-5 overall. Sheridan is back in action tonight, hosting Fountain Central at 7:30 p.m.
Sheridan 46, Tri-Central 44
Sheridan FG FT TP PF
Drake Delph 7-11 4-7 20 0
Walker Casler 1-3 0-1 3 3
Caleb Duke 1-4 3-8 5 3
Nick Burnell 5-7 0-3 10 4
Jesse Kolb 3-8 0-0 6 4
Steve Smith 0-1 0-0 0 0
Kyle Eden 1-2 0-0 2 2
Nick Roberts 0-0 0-1 0 1
Devin Mitchum 0-0 0-0 0 0
Ethan Moistner 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 18-36 7-20 46 17
Score by Quarters
Tri-Central 3 13 9 19 – 44
Sheridan 10 12 11 13 – 46
Sheridan 3-point shooting (3-14) Delph 2-6, Casler 1-3, Duke 0-2, Kolb 0-2, Eden 0-1.
Sheridan rebounds (25) Kolb 6, Burnell 5, Delph 4, Duke 3, Roberts 3, Smith 1, Eden 1, Casler 1, Mitchum 1.
Sheridan’s Caleb Duke (left) and Jesse Kolb both made important plays during the fourth quarter of the Blackhawks’ win over Tri-Central on Friday. Duke hit timely free throws, while Kolb scored a basket during the game’s last minute. (Richie Hall)