No.13 Red Devils dig deep for tough 48-39 victory over BNL

Jeffersonville’s Tre Singleton and BNL’s Isaiah Sasser battle for a loose ball. Singleton had a double-double as the No.13 Red Devils fought off the Stars 48-39 on Friday night.

By Justin Sokeland

WBIW.com

BEDFORD – As excavators dig deep into the Earth, they encounter extreme temperatures and crushing pressure. Sherron Wilkerson donned his hard hat and went as far down the Jeffersonville bench as he could, the deep end where freshmen and managers hang out.

The heat was on, the pressure gauge was spiking. This is Hoosier Hills Conference basketball, after all, usually not the place for the meek and roster fillers. But with the Devils lacking their normal fire, with Bedford North Lawrence threatening their status as league frontrunner, Wilkerson needed a spark.

He got it from a least likely source. Wilkerson inserted freshman Aiden Toler into a lineup that includes Division I recruits and eight seniors on the roster. The kid accounted for only one basket, but Wilkerson gave him major credit and props following Jeffersonville’s dig-deep victory over the hard-to-bury Stars on Friday night.

Tre Singleton, the Northwestern recruit who’s just come back from a broken foot, scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Red Devils, ranked No.13 in Class 4A, posted a 48-39 win over BNL. Michael Cooper, on his way to Wright State, added 12 points as the Devils improved to 5-0 in the league race.

Those guys get a lot of the glory, rightfully so. But Wilkerson pointed to the freshman off the bench as the catalyst for the Devils (11-5 overall), who absorbed body shots from BNL and fought off the challenge.

“Too often we look at people that score the basketball, and we don’t pay attention to the guys that make the tough plays, the energy plays,” Wilkerson said. “Those are the plays that flip the game. We were sluggish, they had all the momentum.

“The key was in the third quarter, when we subbed a freshman. We were a little dead, our energy was a little low, and we missed some rotations from the scouting report. He flipped the game for us, changed the whole momentum of the game.”

The Devils, taking advantage of multiple BNL mistakes, had grabbed control with an 11-0 run late in the first half to take a 26-19 advantage. The Stars responded with two Patric Matson treys and his fadeaway on the baseline, followed by an Isaiah Sasser drive through traffic that powered BNL within 33-29.

BNL’s Patric Matson looks for room to shoot over a defender. Matson scored 14 points.

That’s when Toler made his mark. After Singleton scored off a baseline drive, Toler capped a fast break – started by a Singleton blocked shot – as the Devils roared to a 10-point lead.

BNL battled back with Quincy Pickett’s tough 16-footer from the circle and a trey from the key that cut the Jeff lead to 39-36, and the Stars had two following possessions to get closer. Both ended in turnovers, and the Devils pulled away with 7-0 run.

Depth proved to be the difference. BNL got all its points from its starters, while five of the six Devils coming off the bench contributed a basket. The other key statistic was turnovers. BNL was guilty of 17 (7 during the second quarter lull that cost the Stars the lead they never recovered).

“The ones we had down the stretch were bad ones that hurt us,” BNL coach Kurt Godlevske said. “I can’t fault the effort, we played very hard and did some really good things. We defended like we wanted. Once we got into our offensive stuff, we got some good looks. But timely mistakes hurt us.

“We had turnovers, players trying to do too much, missing some open people or being careless with the ball. The pressure they put on you, that’s why they do it. I have nothing but positive things to say about our effort, we just have to clean up the mistakes.“

BNL’s Logan Miracle dribbles past a defender on a fast break. Miracle had 4 points.

Singleton was tough in the paint, and his voice was just as important as his stats. Wilkerson called one timeout during the BNL comeback, and spent about 10 seconds spewing his displeasure before waving the Devils away. It was Singleton who gathered the troops, it was Singleton who did a lot of talking and guiding.

“They say vocal leader, they say lead by example, they say lead in the locker room,” Wilkerson said. “He does it all for us. And he’s still trying to get his rhythm back.”

Matson paced BNL (8-6, 1-3 in the HHC) with 14 points while Pickett totaled 11. The Stars managed only one free throw, on a Pickett 3-point play with 32 seconds left.

Jeffersonville still hasn’t clinched anything in the league. New Albany has yet to lose in the conference, and those two rivals will clash on Feb. 11. It couldn’t be any more taxing than Jeffersonville’s last two HHC wins. The Devils clipped Columbus East on Singleton’s last-second shot, then had to go deep for this win.

“That was tough,” Wilkerson said. “It’s like this every year. I’ve always said it’s one of the toughest conferences in the state, night in and night out. You have to come prepared.”

BNL will have to recover quickly. The Stars will visit Terre Haute North on Saturday afternoon.

BNL’s Isaiah Sasser encounters two Devils in the paint. Sasser totaled 5 points.

JEFFERSONVILLE RED DEVILS (48)

3s FGs FTs R F Pts

12 P.J. Douglas, f 1-2 1-2 0-0 0 0 3

0 Tre Singleton, f 0-2 3-8 7-8 10 2 13

5 Michael Cooper, g -13 5-9 1-1 2 1 12

2 Terrence Nord, g 1-4 4-7 0-0 0 2 9

11 Elijah Cheeks, g 0-0 0-1 0-0 2 0 0

3 Gilly Polk 0-2 1-3 0-0 0 3 2

24 Shawn Boyd 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 0 3

10 Caleb Jones 0-0 1-1 0-0 1 0 2

1 Tay Harper 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

15 Aiden Toler 0-1 1-2 0-0 0 1 2

31 Mason Longest 0-0 1-1 0-0 0 1 2

Totals 4-16 18-36 8-9 18 10 48

BEDFORD NL STARS (39)

3s FGs FTs R F Pts

5 Dax Short, f 1-3 2-6 0-0 3 2 5

22 Isaiah Sasser, f 1-3 2-7 0-0 1 1 5

31 Logan Miracle, c 0-0 2-4 0-0 8 2 4

10 Patric Matson, g 2-4 6-14 0-0 4 3 14

3 Quincy Pickett, g 2-4 4-6 1-1 0 0 11

24 Gibson Crane 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

4 Parker Kern 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

23 Tyler Stigall 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0

Totals 6-14 16-37 1-1 19 11 39

Jeffersonville 13 13 13 9 – 48

Bedford NL 13 6 12 8 – 39

Turnovers – Jeffersonville 11, BNL 17

Field goal percentage – Jeffersonville 18-36 (.500); BNL 16-37 (.432)

Free throw percentage – Jeffersonville 8-9 (.889); BNL 1-1 (1.000)