BENNETT'S MINUTES: Bieghler, Gross shine in all-star action

KNIGHTSTOWN — Miranda Bieghler of South Putnam and Elliot Gross of North Putnam competed in the Post Your Talent All-Star basketball games on Saturday, with both players having good days.

Despite going to a Class 2A school, Bieghler played for the East team in the Class 3A-4A game which tournament organizers considered the best of the seven games played for the day.

The West needed an extra period to defeat the East in the final girls game of the day. The West rolled to a 25-16 lead before the East trimmed its deficit to 35-33 at intermission — with Bieghler hitting a halfcourt shot to cut the gap to two.

The contest was tied at 72-72 at the end of regulation and sudden death ensued, with the first team to score in the untimed extra session being declared the winner.

After each team had a couple possessions in overtime, the West’s Brooklyn Radtke of Rensselaer Central hit a close-in bucket to win the game for her team.

Bieghler finished with 13 points, second on her team to Taneigh Boyd of Munster (who had 22).

Lauren Godwin of Owen Valley added nine points for the West team, while Patriot teammate Abigail Herrington had two.

Gross played in the day’s final game for the West team, which recorded a 118-100 win in the Class 3A-4A game.

The East had a 33-21 lead in the first half before the West put on the after-burners to outscore the East 35-13 the remainder of the first half and grab a 56-46 advantage at intermission. The East came to within 88-82 in the second half before the West pulled away for the 18-point victory.

Gross had 14 points, which ranked him fourth on his squad in the scoring column.

Odds and ends

• Former DePauw assistant men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris has landed his first Division I coaching position at Chattanooga.

Paris coached at DePauw in the 1999-2000 season after playing at Wooster and coaching at his alma mater for one year.

After leaving DePauw, he served as an assistant at Indiana-Pennsylvania for three years and Akron for five years before going to Wisconsin. He has been on the Badger staff for the past seven years, serving as associate head coach under Greg Gard

• One minor correction is needed to a recent column describing IHSAA alignments of schools in various sports.

Greencastle’s soccer teams are in two different tourney classifications.

In boys’ soccer, there are 303 teams competing statewide and the Tiger Cubs are at the bottom end of Class 2A. In girls’ soccer, there are only 267 competing teams so the Tiger Cubs fall to the upper end of Class 1A.

• Coaching changes continue to take place around the area. Edgewood football coach Jerry Bland has resigned after recording a 52-55 record in 10 seasons.

He will remain at the school as an assistant principal. The Mustangs were 9-2 in 2014 but dropped off to three wins in 2015 and just one last season.

South Vermillion boys’ basketball coach Phil Leonard will not return to the bench next year for the Wildcats. He had a 27-45 record in three seasons.

• West Central Indiana continues to be a hotbed for Class 3A high school baseball teams.

Defending state champion Northview returns seven starters from last year’s team and welcomes newly-eligible transfer Brigham Booe from Clay City.

The Knights lost 2-1 to Bloomington North on Saturday.

West Vigo is ranked fifth in the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association poll, while Sullivan is sixth and Edgewood is 11th.

Crawfordsville is ranked second.

• Several more opponents of Putnam County basketball teams have made their college choices.

Michael Light of Owen Valley will play collegiately at Oakland City College. Light averaged 15.3 points per game last year for the 10-15 Patriots, adding 3.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

Southmont’s Kaleb Swick will play for Trine University in northeastern Indiana. Swick averaged 17.7 points and 9.5 rebounds last year for the 11-11 Mounties.

Danville’s Zach Callahan will play collegiately for Rose-Hulman. Callahan averaged 13.5 points and 6.5 rebounds last year for the Warriors, who finished 19-9.

High-flying dunker Nike Sibande of Indianapolis Crispus Attucks, which won the Class 3A Greencastle Regional before going on to take the state title, is still undecided on his college choice.

He was offered this week by Miami (Ohio), but published reports indicate he needs to improve his SAT score and he will likely attend prep school for a year before going to college.

• In a long overdue move, the IHSAA has approved a pitch-count rule for high school baseball.

No pitcher may throw more than 120 pitches in a varsity level game/calendar day or 90 pitches in a sub-varsity level game/calendar day. Anyone who throws at least 36 pitches in a varsity contest or 26 in a sub-varsity contest must receive one day of required rest.

Additionally, any pitcher who throws more than 60 pitches over two days will be required one day of rest.

If a pitcher reaches the maximum number of pitches in a pitch count level during an at-bat, the pitcher may complete the at-bat without moving to the next pitch count level.

Schools also will be mandated to use a pitch count chart – provided by the IHSAA — for each pitcher on the team and submit updated pitching statistics to their school administrators following each game.

The use of an ineligible pitcher in a game shall result in the forfeiture of that game.

The new pitch count policy is a result of a new rule announced by the National Federation of State High School

Associations (NFHS) in July requiring states to develop their own policies after it was determined that a pitching restriction

rule should be based on the number of pitches thrown instead of the previous method of innings pitched.