By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – One of the tenets of justice is fitting the punishment to the crime.
The IHSAA approved the Tournament Success Factor in 2012, a rule designed to level the playing field and create competitive balance. Any team that wins a regional and state championship in consecutive years, or two consecutive semistates, will be moved up a class for the next two seasons. Critics contend it penalizes athletes for the success of their predecessors.
Case in point: Scottsburg. The Warriors won the Class 3A state title last season. That was the “crime” for which the current Warriors are now being “punished” with the bump to 4A for this season, and next, as they will join Bedford North Lawrence and the other Hoosier Hills Conference neighbors in Sectional 15.
Most programs would complain bitterly about that fate. Scottsburg coach Eric Richardson, now in a rebuilding mode after graduating six seniors from the championship team and unable to defend the 3A title, has accepted the situation. “If you had to choose a state championship and getting moved up, we would choose that 100 percent of the time,” he said. Rings take the sting away.
Scottsburg’s encore campaign has been as rough as expected. The Warriors (4-11) lost 11 straight games, but now they will carry a two-game winning streak into Tuesday night’s clash with BNL, which is scuffling along at 8-8 with a three-game slump.
The Warriors opened with back-to-back wins over Austin and Eastern Pekin, then reality (and a brutal schedule) hit hard with the losing streak. They ended that with a 56-47 win over Clarksville, then came back with a 82-71 win over South Central on Saturday.
“This year is a little rough, we’re in a rebuilding mode,” said Richardson, who has three sophomores in the starting lineup. “We have a lot of inexperienced players. The roles were going to be different than they were last year, and they’re trying to fit into those roles. We’ve tried to get these guys to come out and compete, not worry about the outcome.
“We’ve played really tough competition, the schedule was really hard. So it was good to get a win, to get rewarded for the effort.”
Scottsburg will feature junior Garrett Boling (27 points against South Central) and senior guard Dare Bowles (24 against the Rebels and the lone returning starter from the title team). Boling also had 21 points in the win over the Generals.
Meanwhile, BNL is searching for a quick fix, even if the answer to the issues has been elusive. The Stars have lost four of their last five, and the last one (a 61-58 setback at struggling Floyd Central) was the most concerning.
“We’ve done some really good things, now we need to be successful, to see the positive side of the outcome,” BNL coach Kurt Godlevske said. “I’m still more worried about the details of getting ready for the sectional, putting together a complete game. We’ve been struggling to do that. One game we’re really good offensively, the next we’re good defensively. We haven’t put it all together yet.
“They always say teams are what you emphasize. We’ve been doing so much in practice to help ourselves offensively, maybe that was our emphasis and we need a healthy balance. But we need both sides fixed to get rolling. This game will hopefully be a good start for that. It’s an important game for that reason.”
Patric Matson leads BNL in scoring at 20.3, while Quincy Pickett (9.7) and Logan Miracle (9.5) have been productive options.
“We don’t have a lot of size, so Matson and Miracle pose a challenge for us,” Richardson said. “They have four guys that can really shoot it, and that’s been one of our weaknesses this year.”
Scottsburg won last year’s clash 57-51, rallying from a 38-27 deficit in the second half. Jack Miller keyed a 12-0 run to erase the BNL lead and finished with 26 points while Wyatt Zellers added 16. Matson totaled 22 points for the Stars, who didn’t attempt a free throw while the Warriors had a 15-point edge on that stat line.
SCOTTSBURG at BNL
When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Records: Scottsburg 4-11; BNL 8-8
Sagarin ratings: Scottsburg 55.14; BNL 74.99
Series: BNL leads 17-3
Last meeting: Last year at Scottsburg, the Warriors rallied in the second half for a 57-51 victory. Jack Miller had 26 points and Wyatt Zellers added 16 for Scottsburg. Patric Matson had 22 points and Noah Godlevske totaled 17 for BNL.
Previous game story: Experiment works for Scottsburg
Game notes: Scottsburg won the Class 3A state title in 2024 and was bumped up to 4A (because of the success factor rule) for two seasons. The Warriors will compete in the sectional at Seymour.
Starting lineups
Bedford NL Stars
F – Dax Short 6-1 Jr.
F – Isaiah Sasser 6-0 Sr.
C – Logan Miracle 6-5 Sr.
G – Patric Matson 6-5 Sr.
G – Quincy Pickett 6-3 Sr.
Scottsburg Warriors
F – Garrett Boling 6-2 Jr.
F – Jarin Luttrell 6-4 So.
G – Dare Bowles 5-7 Sr.
G – Hayden Thomas 5-10 So.
G – Braden Cox 5-9 So.
