A battle between two top ranked Class A basketball teams saw the 13th ranked Rising Sun Shiners down the fifth ranked Oldenburg Academy Twisters 51 to 48 on Saturday, December 19 at Rising Sun.
Leading the way was senior Brady Murray with 17 points including five 3-pointers after being named homecoming king.
The evening started out slowly as Oldenburg jumped out to a 5 to 0 lead. Rising Sun didn’t score until Murray’s first 3-pointer with 2:21 left in the opening quarter.
Murray found Derrick Eldridge with one of his three assists to tie the game at five.
However, the Shiners focus to open the game was their triangle and two defense played on OA’s Matt Moorman and Drew Kloepfer by Tristan Brown on Moorman and Kurtis Armstrong on Kloepfer.
Nick Sporleder scored on a pair of assists from Armstrong and Murray. Rising Sun scored 10 straight to lead 10 to 5 after one quarter and completed a 14 to 0 run before OA broke a four-minute drought.
Back to back 3-pointers by Armstrong put Rising Sun up 13 before Moorman had back to back baskets at the inside the four minute mark.
Murray barely wrinkled the net in hitting three straight 3-pointers to push the Shiners lead to 29 to 14 at the half. Moorman was held to four first half points.
Oldenburg opened the second half with a 7 to 0 run to force a Shiners time-out.
Eldridge scored to break up the run.
OA’s Owen Sporleder scored a 3-pointer to pull within eight.
Eldridge scored and Jake McClellan hit a pair of free throws before a half-court shot at the buzzer by the Rising Sun king had the home team on top 42 to 30 after three quarters.
Rising Sun took its biggest lead of 16 points, 50 to 34, as Mitchell Morris used his baseball arm to connect with a fullcourt basket by McClellan with four minutes left.
Oldenburg turned to Greg Schroeder off the bench and he hit back to back 3-pointers and a free throw.
Rising Sun was 10-for-19 from the free throw line and the Twisters were just 1-for-4. The Shiners struggled at the free throw line down the stretch, missing on three front end of the bonus.
Murray’s free throw with 8.6 left put them up six. A Nicholas Moorman 3-pointer kept OA alive and a pair of missed free throws allowed for one final errant heave.
Nick Sporleder and Eldridge added 11 points each while Armstrong and McClellan had six each. Sporleder had nine rebounds and three steals. Armstrong had four rebounds and four assists while Murray and Eldridge added three assists each and two each by Brown and McClellan.
Rising Sun had 14 turnovers.
Mitchell Morris did not score but pulled down 11 rebounds (tops in the ORVC) and had two assists.
Matt Moorman managed to lead the Twisters with 14 points averaging 22 points coming in. Michael Wandstrat had 13 with Schroeder adding seven, Sporleder five, Chase Hoog four, Nicholas Moorman three and Kloepfer two (averaging 15).
The win ended a two game losing streak by the Shiners and handed Oldenburg its first loss in four outings.
The two teams could meet up again in Sectional 60 at South Decatur later in the year.
Rising Sun will go on the road and won’ return home until a meeting against Franklin County on January 16.
Things won’t get any easier as they play Class A State champ Barr Reeve (ranked first in 2A) in the opening round of the GPB Classic at North Daviess on December 29.
Twisters nip Shiner reserves
Oldenburg rallied to down the Shiner reserve 49 to 46.
Noah Pflum led RS with 15 points (all on 3-pointers). Angela Gallegos had two 3-pointers and 11 points. Brent Turner added 11, Trevor Levi four, Brandon Benning three and Trenton Gridley two.