Colt Ryan leads Bulldogs to victory

The Class 3A, No. 1 ranked Batesville Bulldogs entered their match-up with Class A, No. 8 Jac-Cen-Del at a bit of a disadvantage.

The Bulldogs were without two potential starters because of injury. The first was returning letter winner Dalton Rose, who sustained a knee injury in the fall, and the second was newcomer J.D. Stephens (illness).

First-year head coach Aaron Garrett had just one starter with any significant varsity experience.

Luckily, it was Evansville-bound and potential Indiana All-Star Colt Ryan.

Ryan made the most of the first outing of his senior season and lit up the scoreboard for a game-high 42 points. He nearly single-handedly buried the Eagles in the first half.

Batesville went on to defeat the host Eagles 72-62 in front of a near capacity crowd in Osgood.

Ryan clearly took it upon himself to set the tone of the game early. The BHS senior was making shots from everywhere on the court. The Eagles did not seem to have an answer for him.

“We have seen it from him (Ryan) the past two weeks of practice and he carried it over into the game,” Garrett commented. “It was a very good performance, but I think some might overlook how well we also played as a team.

“We rebounded the ball really well and we knew that was important going into the game,” he added.

Ryan’s 15 first quarter points helped give the Bulldogs a 24-12 advantage and quieted the JCD faithful. He finished the first half with 25 points and Batesville possessed a 35-29 lead.

The Eagles were not about to roll over in the second half, but the deficit proved too great to overcome.

After the Eagles pulled within nine points, Batesville went on a 8-0 run, which culminated on a nice pass from Pete Reding to Ryan for a basket.

Jac-Cen-Del coach David Bradshaw elected to call a timeout and it seemed to shift the momentum.

The Eagles closed out the third quarter with an 8-1 run of their own and trimmed the BHS lead to 10 points.

Reding had only one field goal in the game, but it was a big one. The BHS senior drained a 3-pointer from the corner to give the Bulldogs a 60-48 lead with 4:55 to play.

“That was a huge shot for us,” Garrett commented. “I really thought Pete had a solid all-around game for us … he rebounded extremely well.”

Reding finished with night with eight rebounds, three assists, one steal and a blocked shot.

The Eagles battled back and drew within six points (68-62) on pair of free throws by Blake Sutton with 2:14 to play in the game.

Batesville was able to score the last four points of the game and held the Eagles scoreless over the the final 2:13.

In addition to Ryan’s big night, the Bulldogs got 10 points from Ryan Hartman and nine from Connor Kelley.

Ryan also finished with seven rebounds, two steals and four assists. Hartman was third on the team with six rebounds.

For the game, the Bulldogs out-rebounded the Eagles 32-17.

The Eagles were led in scoring by Matt Gehl with 18 points and Sutton with 16.

via BatesvilleHeraldTribune