NDIANAPOLIS – Four Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference basketball stars will team up at the annual All-Star Classic.
The Hoosier Basketball Coaches Association has named the 24 players that will make up the East and West teams on Sunday, April 16 at North Daviess High School.
Playing for the East Team will be Lawrenceburg guard Logan Rohrer, Greensburg guard Ki Dyer, Connersville guard Josh Williams, and Batesville forward Cole Pride.
On the girls side, East Central’s Josie Trabel was selected to be a member of the East team.
All players selected to the All-Star Classic were voted upon by HBCA member coaches.
WEST
Wes Aigner — Castle High School Peyton Bledsoe — Loogootee Peter Combs — Bloomfield Cale Donoho — South Spencer High School Joey Hart — Linton-Stockton Blake Herdes — Evansville Mater Dei Colten Leach — Bedford North Lawrence Jaylen Mullen — North Daviess HS Tyler Myers — Evansville Day School Brycen Neidigh — Washington JaQualon “JQ” Roberts — Bloomington North Logan Webb — Linton-Stockton
EAST
Josten Carter — New Albany High School Jacob Cherry — Eastern Ki Dyer– Greensburg Cooper Horn — Columbus North Casey Kaelin — Providence Owen Law — Jennings County Keegan Manowitz — Jennings County Kaden Oliver — Silver Creek Cole Pride — Batesville Logan Rohrer — Lawrenceburg Caleb Washington — Floyd Central Josh Williams — Connersville
Congratulations to the EIAC boys basketball All-Conference selections. Listed below are the MVp’s and players for the 2022-23 season as selected by the coaches.
1. MVP: JOSH WILLIAMS – (CONNERSVILLE) & KI DYER – (GREENSBURG) (81)
3. COLE PRIDE – BATESVILLE (67)
4. RYAN WILLOUGHBY – SOUTH DEARBORN (55)
5. BRAXTON MYERS – CONNERSVILLE (51)
6. JETER EDWARDS – GREENSBURG (47)
7. BRANT ERTEL – FRANKLIN COUNTY (40)
8. LUCAS BARRON – CONNERSVILLE (36)
9. LOGAN ROHRER – LAWRENCEBURG (34)
10. CARSON PIECZONKA – EAST CENTRAL (33)
11. COOPER BOBO – LAWRENCEBURG (31)
12. CADE KAISER – BATESVILLE (21)
12. BRODIE TEKE – SOUTH DEARBORN (21)
BESIDE EACH NAME IS THE TOTAL NUMBER OF POINTS ACCUMULATED IN THE VOTING.
ST.LEON- East Central Indoor Invite got several EAIC teams season started on Saturday. Listed below are the results of the meet.
One of the highlights was Connersville’s Ahniyah Bennett a freshman who set meet records in the 55-meter with a time of 7.23 and in the 200-meter with a time of 26.51.
Boys 55
Carter DeBoard Connersville 6.94
Carson Koelling East Central 7.05
Charles Evans South Dearborn 7.12
Boys 200
Micah Buchanan 25.44
Carter DeBoard Connersville 25.76
Parker Sweet Connersville 25.76
Boys 800
Ayden Potts Milan 2:14:57
Jake Chapman Batesville 2:14:96
Cannon Clark Batesville 2:16:28
Boys 3200
Ayden Potts Milan 10:49:77
Jake Hawkins Greensburg 10:55:03
Bradyn Hatton East Central 10:59:78
Boys 55 Hurdles
Parker Sweet Connersville 8.19
Trevor Perkins East Central 9.14
Gage Pohlman Batesville 9.31
Boys 4×400
Bellman,Koelling,Schutte,Geisen East Central 3:56:21
East Central took over in the first quarter of last nights game against the Union County Patriots. Carson Pieczonka scored on a layup then finished that off with a free throw after getting hacked. Conner Kuhn nailed a three-pointer, Joel Richter hit a jumper, and Pieczonka added two more points, and EC was up 10-0 with less than two minutes off the clock. Logan Harris stopped the EC run with a basket, but Kuhn responded by hitting from downtown again. The Patriots got a basket from Brad Meadows, but Rhys Hofer dropped two baskets from outside the arch and Dylan Maxwell scored to put the Trojans up by 15. Logan Boone hit a three for UC before the frame ended and the Trojans led after one quarter 21-9.
Nick Watterson scored the first basket in the second period for the Patriots to make it a 10-point game. Hofer put EC back up with an old fashioned three-point play, Gavin Davis scored for UC, and Cole Wheat added three-points to put the Trojans up by 14-points. Union County got two three-point baskets from Meadows while Maxwell put up two two-point baskets for EC. The Trojans finished the half strong. Pieczonka scored again for EC, Hofer drained a three, Maxwell put in a layup, and Wheat ended the half with a basket making the score 40-19 at the half.
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The Third quarter started, and it was all Pieczonka, he scored the first seven EC points while Ty Elleman added a basket for the Patriots. Maxwell scored for the Trojans to put them up by 28-points with just three minutes played in the quarter. Meadows hit another three for UC and Boone scored again making the score 49-26 midway through the third period. The Patriots added eight more in the frame four from Davis, and a bucket each from Watterson and Elleman. The Trojans added 15 more in the period, Pieczonka led the charge with five-points and Maxwell was just behind him adding four, giving EC a 64-34 lead through three frames. The Trojans outscored UC over the final eight minutes 16-9 to earn their sixth win on the season, and snap a five game skid. The Trojans now sit at 6-15 on the season and have one more game left. They host Greensburg (15-5) next Friday, Feb. 24.
Unofficial Scoring
East Central– Pieczonka 19, Maxwell 16, Hofer 15, Richter 8, Kuhn 6, Wheat 5, Eli Sehorst 3, Max Moses 3, Noah Mersmann 3, Peyton Hofer 2.
Union County– Meadows 11, Davis 8, Boone 8, Watterson 6, Elleman 4, Harris 4, Rhett Hollen 2
The #12 ranked Connersville Spartans hosted the East Central Trojans last night in an EIAC hardwood matchup. The game was a low scoring affair with the Spartans taking the first quarter, EC held Connersville to just two-points in the second quarter and led by three at the half. An even third period had the Trojans up by one-point going into the final period. The Spartans outscored EC by 11-points in the fourth quarter and secured their second win in a row.
The first quarter started with the Spartans jumping out to a 4-0 lead with Lucas Barron and Braxton Myers each scoring. Cole Wheat got the first East Central basket, and Dylan Maxwell added the next field goal to tie the game up at 4-4. Myers scored again for CHS and that started an 8-0 run for the Spartans, Gavin Pearson scored two from the charity stripe, Josh Williams scored, and Blaine Hornsby hit the final basket in the frame to put Connersville up 12-4 after one period. Carson Pieczonka opened the second quarter with a three-point shot, Maxwell added a three ball, and then went to the foul line twice in a row hitting all four freebies and putting EC up 14-12. Myers scored again for the Spartans, but Rhys Hofer ended the half with a three-pointer for EC and giving them a 17-14 lead at the half. Pieczonka started the third frame off with a deep ball and Wheat hit a free throw putting the Trojans up 21-14. Connersville got a basket from Myers and a three pointer from a wide-open Pearson to pull the game back to just a two-point lead for EC. Pieczonka hit his third deep ball with three minutes to go in the quarter. Connersville closed out the period with Myers scoring and collecting a free throw to make the score EC 24 CHS 22 after three quarters. The final frame started with both teams scoring Barron for Connersville and Hofer for EC, then the Spartans went on a 7-0 run (Myers 5, Barron 2) to retake the lead. Pieczonka collected two-points from the charity stripe for EC, then Pearson collected four freebies for Connersville, Brayden Pearson got in the scoring column with a free throw and CHS was up by 10. East Central got a final free throw from Pieczonka with 18 seconds remaining and that was the fnal point scored in the game. Connersville got the win 38-29 and improved to 14-4 on the season. They remain undefeated in EIAC games at 5-0. The Trojans fall to 5-14 on the season and 3-2 in EIAC games. The Spartans will have their hands full in their next contest, they host #10 New Palestine (17-1) on Saturday evening. East Central will have a matinee game with EIAC foe Batesville (13-6) on Saturday at 1:30pm.
1 2 3 4 F
ECHS 4 13 7 5 29
CHS 12 2 8 16 38
Unofficial Scoring–
East Central– Pieczonka 12, Maxwell 9, Hofer 5, Wheat 3
Connersville– Myers 16, G. Pearson 9, Barron 8, Josh Williams 2, Hornsby 2, B. Pearson 1
The East Central Trojans took a hard loss Saturday when the Columbus North Bulldogs came to town. East Central was just one-point down after the first quarter 12-11, and Dylan Maxwell finished an old fashioned three-point play giving EC the lead to start the second period. The Bulldogs then went on a 14-0 run and took a 28-17 lead into the locker room at the half. Columbus North then started the third period on a 7-0 run before Connor Kuhn hit a three-pointer for EC. Another Bulldog run put them up 46-20 going into the fourth period. East Central added seven points in the fourth quarter while the Bulldogs added nine to their total and won the game 55-29.
East Central was led in scoring by Rhys Hofer with 7, Kuhn 6, Maxwell, Peyton Hofer, and Carson Pieczonka 3, Nolan Maple and Cole Wheat 2. The Trojans fall to 5-13 on the season and will be in action on Thursday when they travel to #13 Connersville (13-4) for an EIAC matchup.
AURORA – East Central (253 points) captured another IHSAA wrestling sectional title Saturday at South Dearborn while the Franklin County Wildcats (207) battled to second place. The Trojans pushed five champions on to the Richmond Regional with FC, third-place Milan (180) and Connersville sending two each. Lawrenceburg, Greensburg and Union County had the other individual champs. Remaining unbeaten through the first postseason weekend were Milan’s 106-pound freshman Matthew Baylor (41-0) and LHS’ Colton Roth at heavyweight (17-0).
EC’s top guys were Blake Wolf at 126, Dylan Lengerich at 145, Grayson Hylton at 152, Brayden Huber at 170 and Brendin Kolter at 182.
Representing FC atop the podium were Cole Freese at 113 and Colin Troyer one class up at 120. Levi DeGroat (220) and Orlan Foster (195) were Connersville’s toughest, while Milan’s Indians saw Kaleb Wilburn (138) join Baylor in the winner’s circle. Greensburg’s Preston Merritt was the best at 132 and Jordan Takara of UC ran through the 160 bracket. Overall, EC got 11 wrestlers to the regional – top four in each weight class advanced – as FC totaled 10, Milan 9, 4th -place Rushville 7, CHS 5, 6th -place UC 5, LHS 3, 9th -place Greensburg 3, SD 2 and last-place Batesville 1.
Freese (35-3) had a bye and forfeit to the semifinals, then pinned Rushville’s Blake Hunt and earned a 10-1 major decision over EC’s Tyler Stenger in the final. Troyer (35-1) likewise moved into the semis with no early foes, then won by fall over Connersville’s Aiden Maze and took less time to pin Milan’s Lucas Richards in the championship bout. UC’s Landon Myers was 3 rd at 120. Merritt (30-4) pinned CHS’ Gavin Lemen, then won by decision over UC’s Carson Whitley (7-1) and edged EC’s Nyden Euson in the final match. Tuff Tackett of Rushville won by injury default over Whitley in the second period of the 3 rd -place bout. Takara (36-4) made quick work of LHS’ Trey Campbell in the quarterfinals, then majored Cameron Gilb of Milan in the semis (13-5) and took down FC’s Hayden Newell early in the second period to claim the title. Rushville’s Matthew Komlanc won a 3-1 decision over Gilb for third place. FC had two more grapplers join Newell in the runner-up position. Lendon Sizemore pinned Kyle Mellon of SD in the 220 division before duplicating a late pin over EC’s Brady Jones – similar match at the conference meet – and falling to DeGroat in the second period. Breck Bohman at 170 pinned UC’s Matt Wooley and earned a 13-5 major over LHS’ Drake Rorabacher. He was pinned late in the second period by Huber. Rushville’s Sam Pavey was 4 th at 170. Jesus “Chewy” Aquino-Morales took 2 nd at 126 as EC’s Blake Wolf pinned him in the finals. Chewy earlier pinned Landin Shepherd of Greensburg, who ended up third when he pinned 4 th -place Kian Nash of Rushville. In the heavyweight final, Batesville’s Max Amberger fought Roth to the end before losing by a 2-0 count; the 31-6 Amberger earlier pinned Parker Moles of UC and Gotts. FC’s Nathan Noble was 3 rd at 195, narrowly losing to Milan’s Carson Betz but flourishing in the consolation bracket. He pinned Rushville’s Kaleb Amos, won 3-0 over Greensburg’s Will Cunningham, finally avenging his earlier loss by pinning Betz. Wildcat senior Clayton Bolser also took bronze in the 285 class. The big man was pinned by Rushville’s Trey Newman but pinned Milan’s Kyle Gotts and EC’s Matt Mittermeier.
At 106, Zakk Reed of Rushville earned a pin over Greensburg’s Tristan Smith to decide third and fourth placement. UC’s Evan Wolf placed 3 rd at 145, pinning Rushville’s Denver Campbell, losing 7-0 to LHS’ Brayden Tudor, then majoring FC’s Dakota Schwab and Landon Walton of SD. Trevor Bruns of FC placed 4 th in the 138 bracket, falling twice to EC’s Tyson Miller but also getting wins over LHS’ Ben Heath and Rushville’s Pacey Dye. Teammate Cody Bolser was also 4 th at 152, falling to SD’s Nick Wismann before defeating LHS’ Braxton York and Batesville’s Hudson Kohlman. Also taking 4th was FC’s Phoenix Simons at 182; Simons pinned Rushville’s Elijah Biggs, was pinned by Milan’s Mason Green, then pinned LHS’ Patrick Nanz before losing by fall to Biggs in the rematch. The Tiernan Center in Rishmond is host to regional action this Saturday. The other feeder sectional is Shenandoah. Wrestlers must win at least one match to advance to semistate.
LAWRENCEBURG – Although not sporting their most talented lineup in recent years, the East Central Trojans continued to show their superiority in the Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference wrestling realm with another title claimed Saturday at Lawrenceburg. EC scored 279 points with five champions as Franklin County settled for runner-up with 218 and a trio of champs. Rushville’s 195 was good for bronze. Connersville (3 champs), LHS (1 champ), South Dearborn (1 champ), Greensburg (1 champ) and Batesville rounded out the standings.
Colton Roth (285 pounds) of Lawrenceburg remains the league’s lone unbeaten wrestler as his record went to 13-0 with a 5-0 finals decision over Greensburg’s Robert Eisert (22-7). Eisert had narrowly escaped Batesville’s Max Amberger (28-5) in the semifinals, 3-2, after a pin of Rushville’s Justin Foreman. Roth pinned FC’s Clayton Bolser (9-7) in the second period in the other semi.
Colin Troyer of FC is now 30-1 after running through the 120 bracket unscathed. After a forfeit, Troyer earned a pin of Rushville’s Neeko Hodson, then needed 2:38 to pin EC’s Brayden Proctor. Proctor had earlier pinned BHS’ Cade Simonson in the third period.
FC’s Cole Freese won three matches to claim the 113 division and push his season mark to 29-2. Following a forfeit, Freese pinned Blake Hunt of Rushville early before outlasting EC’s Jaxon Carr 13-10 in the title bout.
The Wildcats’ third grappler to stand atop the podium was Hayden Newell at 160. Newell is now 24-6; a forfeit put him into the semis where he secured a third-period pin over EC’s Logan Schott. In the finals, Damien Dance of BHS was no match in a 15-2 major decision. Dance (28-3) had pinned the hosts’ Trey Campbell in the semifinal. Schott pinned Rushville’s Quinn Barada in the first round.
Preston Merritt of Greensburg stands at 27-4 as he was last man standing at 132. Merritt got a takedown in the first overtime period to defeat EC’s Nyden Euson. Merritt outpointed Rushville’s Tuff Tackett in the semifinal round (10-4) after Tackett had pinned Connersville’s Mauro Lopez. FC’s Avery Crouch lost a tough 9-8 battle to LHS’ Javier Payne in the opening round.
EC’s champs came at 126 (Blake Wolf), 145 (Dylan Lengerich), 152 (Grayson Hylton), 170 (Brayden Huber) and 182 (Brendin Kolter).
Kolter pinned FC’s Lane Westerman (21-6) in the finals after Westerman had dropped Elijah Biggs of Rushville, who himself earned a fall over CHS’ Kayden Woods. Huber was an 11-7 winner over the Cats’ Breck Bohman (8-3), the latter getting to the final by virtue of a pin against LHS’ Drake Rorabacher. Huber had pinned Rushville’s Sam Pavey in the semis after Pavey pinned Cash Boulware of CHS. It took Wolf 1:22 to get Greensburg’s Landin Shepherd on his back in the finals. Shepherd had earlier pinned Kian Nash of Rushville and Wolf the same over FC’s Roger Zurborg (9-7); Zurborg had pinned CHS’ Dylan Steele to start his day.
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For the Spartans, Orlan Foster and Levi DeGroat locked down the 195 and 220 brackets, respectively. Foster pinned FC’s Nathen Noble (14-12) in the semis after Noble had pinned BHS’ John Dirkhising. EC’s Brayden Rouse was his finals opponent after Rouse pinned Greensburg’s Will Cunningham; Cunningham had won by fall over Rushville’s Kaleb Amos. DeGroat pinned FC’s Lendon Sizemore (24-5) in the second period of the finals after Sizemore had earned an exciting pin late in his semifinal match with EC’s Brady Jones. DeGroat won 7-0 over BHS’ Andrew Jones in his semifinal. A. Jones had earlier pinned Keilan Abdon of LHS while B. Jones did the same versus Rushville’s Jordan Collins.
Aric Fox has 15 season losses for CHS, but none came Saturday. Fox got by Batesville’s David Maher in the semis, 8-5, before getting a pin in the finals. In other 138 action, Rushville’s Pacey Dye majored FC’s Trevor Bruns 17-6 but was edged by EC’s Tyson Miller 5-3 in the semis.
SD’s Liam Hubbartt won the 106 bracket. Part of his path was a pin over Greensburg’s Tristan Smith, who had pinned CHS’ Audri Turley. EC’s Tyler Stenger pinned FC’s Bryce Bruns and Rushville’s Zakk Reed on his way to the finals.
In other 145 results, BHS’ Brady Wonnell was pinned by Rushville’s Denver Campbell and Greensburg’s Connor Campbell suffered the same fate vs. LHS’ Brayden Tudor. FC’s Dakota Schwab (20-10) was pinned by Tudor after pinning CHS’ Matt Koons. In more 152 action, FC’s Cody Bolser (8-9) pinned BHS’ Hudson Kohlman before being pinned by Hylton. Rushville’s Trenton Dyer lost by fall to CHS’ Jahmel Carter.
Franklin County fell behind early on Saturday against East Central. The Trojans Carson Pieczonka scored three times, Dylan Maxwell added two, and a Conner Kuhn three pointer put them up 11-0 to start them game. Eli Butt hit a pair of free throws to stop the dry spell and sophomore Landon Johnson closed the quarter with a triple. EC led 11-5. The second quarter started with a Pieczonka Three, an FC free throw and Johnson’s second three-point basket, was matched by a Rhys Hofer long ball. Quinn Gillman got in on the deep ball action, and his three put the Cats back within six-points. Gillman followed that with one from the line, Butt put in two more freebies and FC had closed the gap to three with 4:00 to go in the half. Both defenses stepped up and the final score in the second quarter was an EC three pointer from Hofer. The Trojans led midway 21-15. The Cats got the first basket in the third frame from Butt, and EC hit two more deep balls (Pieczonka, Maxwell) to go up by 10. Over the next two minutes FC got two baskets from outside the arc (Butt, Johnson) and a Brady Morehead free throw. The Trojans Cole Wheat got in the scoring column, Pieczonka scored again, and the Cats were down by 10 after three quarters, 34-24. Tanner Weartz attempted to keep FC in the game putting up six of the Cats 10 fourth quarter points, but the Trojans collected eight points from the charity stripe and took the win by a score of 46-34. Pieczonka led the Trojans in scoring with 18, Hofer 13, Maxwell 8, Kuhn 3, Wheat and Peyton Hofer 2. The Wildcats got 11-points from Butt, Johnson 9, Weartz 6, Gillman 4, Xander Rodriguez 2, Morehead and Blake Stephenson 1. The Win moves East Central to 3-8 on the season while the Wildcats fall to 8-5 and sit at 2-2 in EIAC games. East Central host South Dearborn next Wednesday and the Cats host Lawrenceburg on Tuesday.
RUSHVILLE- The East Central Trojans finally got rid of the goose egg in their win column last night. The Rushville Lions hosted the Trojans in the EIAC matchup that could have gone either way. The squads played even, and the game remained close until the final frame when EC went on an 8-0 run and pulled ahead for a 45-30 victory. The Lions fall to 2-9 on the season and are now 0-3 in EIAC games. The Trojans are now 1-8 and 1-0 in conference games.
A back-and-forth battle had the squads trading baskets for the first period and the Trojans came out on top 11-10 after one quarter played. EC went on a 6-0 run before XxZavien Jenkins added a three ball to close out the frame. The second period began with the Lions going on an 8-0 run. Kane Thompson hit two shots from outside the arch and Nick Jarman added a field goal that put RCHS up 18-11. The Trojans finished the period on a 6-0 run with four of those points coming from junior Dylan Maxwell. Rushville led at the half 18-17. The Trojans defense shut down the Lions offense in the third period and did not allow them to hit a single field goal in the period. Rushville got two points in the period via Kam Morton free throws. Maxwell added four more points for EC and Carson Pieczonka matched his teammate with four of his own to secure a six-point Trojan lead after three quarters. EC led 26-20 going into the final period. Pieczonka got the Trojans going in the fourth quarter scoring five points in the frame. The Trojans got a deep three ball from Conner Kuhn and senior Cole Wheat added seven in the period as EC tallied 19-points in the period. The Lions got 10 with Morton connecting twice from three-point land and Jarman scoring twice from the lane. The Trojans earned the victory with a final score of 45-30.
East Central is back in action tonight when they travel to take on the Ross Rams (6-3) at 7:30. Rushville has the week off and will be action all next weekend. Friday evening, they travel to Morristown (1-11) and Saturday they travel to New Castle (7-5) as they hope to pick up their third win on the season.
