The Rising Sun Shiners advanced to the finals of the 2016 River Town Classic with a 65 to 50 in over host South Dearborn before falling to defending champion Lawrenceburg 53 to 45 on Saturday, January 9 in Aurora.
Seniors Mitchell Morris and Jake McClellan led Rising Sun with 19each with seven field goals and five free throws each. Morris had his straight double-double of the season with 14 of Rising Sun’s 48 rebounds. It was his third double-double of the season and the ninth time in 11 outings he had double digit rebounds. He had three blocks along with an assist and steal.
McClellan added six boards and three assists. Kurtis Armstrong added 11 points and had eight rebounds and four assists.
Rising Sun led 12 to 10 after one quarter and led 29 to 22 at the half. They went on to take a 48 to 38 into the final quarter.
Rising Sun managed to seal the win with 18-for-31 from the free throw line while South Dearborn was just 1-for-4.
Brady Murray added nine points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal. Nick Sporleder added five points, two assists and a block. Tristan Brown added three points while adding four assists, two rebounds and an assist.
The Shiners committed 14 turnovers while shooting 22-for-49 from the field.
SD was led by Drew Lewis with 12, Dakota Gibbs added eight, John Tedesco seven, Alex Smith six, Hunter Brindley six, Charlie Tedesco five, Brett Upton three, and Tyler Moorhead three.
The win put Rising Sun into the finals where they came up on the short end of a 53 to 45 decision against Lawrenceburg.
It was a physical finals encounter between the Shiners and Tigers.
Lawrenceburg (8-for-22 from 3-point range on the evening) jumped out to a 19 to 9 first quarter lead and 24 to 12 at halftime after a 5 to 3 scoring advantage by the Tigers.
The Shiners cut the lead to five, 34 to 29 after three quarters but that’s as close as it would get.
Tourney MVP Curtis White scored 11 of his 13 points in the final quarter.
Rising Sun battled to the end with Brady Murray burying a pair of 3-pointers but it wasn’t enough.
AJ Muller led the Tigers with 14 points. White had 13 points and Grant Bradley scored 11. Drew Wilson added eight With Adam Lang and Jordan Houze scoring three each. Houze had 24 points in the Tigers’ opening round win over Switzerland County and White had 23.
Murray led Rising Sun with 11 points and McClellan added 10. Armstrong’s nine points, two rebounds, two assists, two blocks and three steals earned him all-tourney honors along with McClellan.
Brown added six points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals with Morris adding five points, four rebounds and a steal. Sporleder had a basket with six rebounds, two steals and an assist. Derrick Eldridge had a basket to round out the scoring.
Dakota Gibbs of South Dearborn and Caleb Furnish of Switzerland County were named to round out the six member all-tourney team.
Rising Sun travels to Milan for a non-conference game Friday and host Franklin County Saturday for the first home game since December 19.