And then there were none

The area's last unbeaten team standing fell Tuesday night at Bloomington.

Bloomington South ran away from Bloomfield, 69-43.

I'm not sure what to make of this one. South is a team clearly at a level we aren't accustomed to seeing.

Veteran sports writer Andy Graham of the Bloomington Herald Times said before the game, "I think Bloomfield can give South a game. Buy they haven't seen anything like South's quickness and athleticism."

That was evident.

The Cardinals came out ready to play, grabbing an early 9-2 lead.

Then they were hit by a freight train. South closed out the first half on a 25-2 run.

Bloomfield trailed 23-9 after enduring a 7-minute, 0-for-9 scoring drought. And after Brandon Van Sant's fast break layup at the 4:51 mark of the second quarter, they didn't score again in the first half.

The Cardinals responded with 13 of 18 shooting in the second half including 5-for-6 from beyond the arc in the fourth stanza.

Even that wasn't enough to keep pace with the Panthers. South outscored Bloomfield 42-32 over the final 16 minutes.

"This is why he (Bloomfield coach Matt Britton) wanted to schedule this game, trying to get his team ready to play down the tournament trail," long-time Bloomington South coach J.R. Holmes said.

Bloomfield likely won't see another team with South's quickness and athleticism this season.

Britton provided an accurate summary of Tuesday's game.

"Defensively they took us out of everything we like to do. They make it very difficult for you to get the ball inside. Then, on the other end of the floor their quickness freed them up for a lot of easy drives to the basket."

Bloomfield was ranked second in this week's AP Class A poll. It will be interesting to see how much Tuesday's outcome influences the pollsters' opinions.

Bloomfield handled White River Valley 36-17 Saturday as expected. The Wolverines attempted to slow the game down, taking just 14 shots and hitting seven. WRV's strategy wasn't enough to overcome Bloomfield's firepower.

The winless Wolverines (0-6) will have their next chance for a win December 29 at Washington Catholic.

Eastern Greene lost both its games over the weekend. Neither could be considered a bad loss.

The Thunderbirds lost a heartbreaker on a buzzer-beater - Trevor Lengacher's bank shot from eight feet - to lose 43-42 at then-2A No. 2 Barr-Reeve Friday.

Saturday Eastern Greene twice fought back from nine-point defeicits to make a game of it against visiting Martinsville. The T-Birds came back to pull within four midway through the fourth quarter. They were still in the game, down six with two minutes to go in the 50-40 loss to the 7-0 4A Artesians.

Martinsville is off to its best start since 1994.

Thunderbird coach Jon Neill said, "We got desperate and chucked a few more threes towards the end of the game than I really wanted to. But you're going to do that sometimes trying to come back.

"But I'm pleased with the way we came back and battled."

Last week I said Eastern Greene must solve its turnover problem after turning it over 17 times at Mitchell and 20 against North Knox.

They did just that. Eastern Greene had just five turnovers at Barr Reeve and only four against Martinsville.

This Thunderbird team has all the elements in place. Neill has gotten balanced scoring from Nathan Eckerle, Caleb Hamilton, Matt Sanders and Trevor Yoho. Colden Roberts has been a steady and dependable floor general.

Jeff Graham has missed the last four games with a concussion. The return of a healthy Graham should further bolster the rotation.

The Thunderbirds climbed to 15th in this week's Class 2A AP rankings.

Eastern Greene (6-2) is idle until the Greene County Invitational and a first-round meeting with Shakamak January 5.

Linton-Stockton may have struggled more that it would have liked last weekend. But the Miners won twice and are now 5-1.

Shakamak managed to stay within five points of Linton-Stockton most of the night before the Miners finally put away the Lakers 57-48 Friday.

Miner coach Joey Hart said, "We didn't shoot the ball as well as we'd like but we found a way to win."

One way to win when the offense isn't clicking is to steal the ball 23 times as the Miners did.

Linton-Stockton needed Josh Dieball's 3-pointer from the top of the key to bounce around the rim and fall through to send Saturday's game with rival Sullivan to overtime.

The Miners scored the first four points of the extra session and never looked back, coming away with a 54-51 win.

Linton-Stockton holds steady at 2A No. 6 in this week's poll.

Miner fans may have witnessed the emergence of another scoring option in Tyler Meurer.

Meurer provided a spark against Shakamak with 12 points off the bench. Saturday he earned a start against Sullivan and was even better, scoring 18 points on 6 of 9 shooting.

When football season ended I was anxious to see what the dual-threat quarterback would bring to the basketball court. I saw a glimpse of that last weekend.

We may have seen the last of Meurer playing junior varsity minutes.

The Miners and Lakers are preparing for their first-round opponents in the Wabash Valley Classic Saturday at Terre Haute North.

For Linton-Stockton, it's a rematch with the Golden Arrows.

Shakamak drew the Cloverdale Clovers. The Miners defeated the Clovers in the season-opening J7 Sports Grille Classic at Linton.

If the Lakers get past Cloverdale they'll face the winner of the Edgewood/Marshall (Ill.) tilt.

If Linton-Stockton gets its second win over Sullivan, Terre Haute South will be the likely second-round opponent.

Coach Joey Hart and the Miners learned a little bit about Sullivan Saturday. But as Hart said the Wabash Valley Tournament is going to be "A big challenge. It's not going to be easy. It never is."

Shakamak coach J.B. Niell said the Lakers face a big challenge right from the start with Cloverdale.

"It will be a tough tournament for us especially starting off. Cloverdale's got the Neese kid (Cooper). We've got a big challenge with him. He's the type of guy who can win a game by himself.

"I'm glad to see our defense got a little better against some nice players that Linton has. If you make a mistake they're going to make you pay."

Shakamak figured to be improved this year - and they looked improved against Linton.

Despite the 23 thefts by the Miner pickpockets, the Lakers were in the game thanks to a solid offensive performance.

Shakamak shot 17 of 31 from the floor and hit 8 of 12 free throws.

And both Hart and Neill agreed the Laker defense kept the visitors in the game.

"We're getting better," the Lakers coach said. "I liked some things we did defensively we haven't done this year yet."

Hart said, "I'd say this was their best defensive performance."

Saturday at Eminence Shakamak jumped out to a 27-17 halftime advantage and cruised to a 59-46 win over the Eels. The Lakers take a 3-4 record into the Wabash Valley Classic.

I hope to see a lot of Laker Columbia Blue and Miner Red and Royal Blue in the stands at Terre Haute North.

Terry's Weekly Rankings

1. Bloomfield (7-1)

2. Eastern Greene (6-2)

3. Linton-Stockton (5-1)

4. Shakamak (3-4)

5. White River Valley (0-6)

Terry Schwinghammer is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 27. He can also be reached via email at tschwing32@yahoo.com.