Sports

The Indiana Basketball Coaches Association recently named six Greene County girls to its Academic All-State team. Addi Graves of White River Valley and Malea Toon of Bloomfield made the first team. Both have tallied more than 1,000 points in their careers. Toon scoring 1,386 and Graves putting 1,130 points on the scoreboard...

Linton-Stockton coach Aaron Lynn hopes large numbers of freshmen will help the Miner track teams realize their goals this spring. A lucky 13 freshmen, five girls and eight boys, came out for the teams. Lynn said those athletes can help Linton realize its goal of taking the Southwest Indiana Athletic Conference titles. “Our goal every year, both boys and girls, is winning SWIAC. We know it’s tough every year,” Lynn said. He noted the Linton girls must compete against a formidable Shakamak team, and the boys must go up against talented Clay City and Eastern-Greene squads.

Despite Saturday’s loss in the Washington semistate, the Bloomfield basketball team logged some solid accomplishments this season. The Cardinals finished the season with a 20-8 record, won the Clay City Sectional, the 33rd title in school history, and won the Martinsville Regional, the eighth in school history. They made it to the Final Four of Class 1A basketball...

This story has been updated with pictures and additional comments by coach Ron McBride.

SEYMOUR – Superior size and a sizzling shooting display by the Linton-Stockton Miners was more than the Shenandoah Raiders could handle. And the Miners are headed to Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the State Finals. Linton (27-3) scorched the nets and dominated at the defensive end, sending Shenandoah (26-2) down to defeat 73-56 in the Class 2A Seymour Semistate Saturday...

This time Bloomfield needs to get its offense out of the deep freeze early. The Cardinals (20-7) face Barr-Reeve (25-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Washington Semistate. The final Associated Press weekly poll rated Barr-Reeve as No. 2 in Class 1A basketball and Bloomfield as No. 11. The victor will face the winner of the Lafayette Central Catholic (24-4)-Ft. Wayne Blackhawk Christian (26-2) game in the Class 1A championship Saturday, March 23...

he Cardinals can expect a bulldozer bucket full of fun and good memories this weekend when they take on Barr-Reeve in the Washington Semistate. At least, that is the opinion of players who have played in previous semistates. In the 2015-16 season, Bloomfield defeated West Washington 58-53 to win the semistate, but fell 64-45 to Liberty Christian in the Class 1A championship. ...

Senior Andrew Shelton has emerged as Bloomfield’s second-leading scorer this season. The 6-foot-4 forward has scored 304 points in 27 games (11.26 ppg), including a season-high 23 points Jan. 25 in the Cardinals’ 57-40 win at North Central. He said he has succeeded this season because “I play to my strengths and I have great teammates to help me out.” He cited Bloomfield’s 49-43 win over Indianapolis Metropolitan in the first game of the Martinsville Regional last Saturday as an example. ...

Two talented teams with similar records but different sizes will clash when the Linton Miners (27-3) take on the Shenandoah Raiders (26-1) Saturday afternoon in the Seymour Semistate. The Miners and Raiders will perform on the big stage in the world’s biggest high school gym. Lloyd E. “Barney” Scott Gymnasium boasts a listed seating capacity of 8,228...

Linton Miners coach Joey Hart has said on more than one occasion, with all the weapons the Miners have, senior point guard Evan Slover is sometimes “an afterthought.” The 5-foot-11 guard may have flown under the radar, perhaps because he doesn’t score 20 points a night. But Slover hasn’t escaped the notice of Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference coaches. He’s a three-time All-SWIAC selection...

With 4.8 seconds left to play in Saturday’s regional semifinal at Paoli it was do-or-die time for the Linton Miners. Linton had battled all the way back from a 13-point deficit, taking a 70-69 over the host Paoli Rams on a pair of Lincoln Hale free throws with 24.5 seconds on the clock...

OAKLAND CITY -- Linton-Stockton’s own Sultan of Swat finished his career as a Mighty Oak. Austin Robertson, who graduated Linton in 2015, completed his basketball career playing for Oakland City University. OCU recognized Robertson and two other seniors Feb. 24 in its Senior Day game with Andrews University...

A local archery shop was recognized at a recent state tournament for continuously bringing in new participants. For the second year in a row, Shooters Archery in Linton was recognized for “Most New Shooters” at the Indiana Field Archery Association State Indoor Tournament, with several of their participants earning high ranks in the contest. Co-owners Josh and Krysten McDaniel took 24 of their local shooters to the contest, with 10 new members in attendance...

Conference coaches recently named the All-Southwest Indiana Athletic Conference basketball teams. Students named to Academic All-SWIAC team are: Tyler Schantz, Margaret Talbott, and Alex Yarbor, all of Bloomfield; Gabriel Youngblood, Alexis Laswell, and Lauren Ream, Clay City; Andrew Drummond, Sierra Ford, and Victorya Valentine, Eastern-Greene; Ashtynn Powell and Emily Hayden, Linton-Stockton; Emily Edwards and Amber May, North Central; Mattier Lawyer, Cassie Knepp, and Shom Berry, North Daviess; Evan Cruse and Jesylan Lambermont, Shakamak; and Addi Graves and Lia Ragle, White River Valley. ...

MARTINSVILLE -- The Cardinals cashed their paycheck Saturday night. Bloomfield (20-7) defeated Greenwood Christian (16-11) 52-50 to win the Martinsville Regional. Several players, including A.J. Sipes and Cameron Ross, said the Cardinal coaches told them that taking a regional title would be like cashing a check on payday. After winning the morning game, Sipes said, the coaches and players agreed: why get half a check? Ross said McBride told the players to work hard “and get the pay check.”...

PAOLI – In each of the past three games the Linton-Stockton Miners have owned the fourth quarter. Saturday’s final-quarter dominance in the Paoli Regional has the Miners headed for the semistate. Saturday morning in the semifinal Linton overcame a 13-point deficit, riding a 29-point final stanza to a last-second 72-71 victory over the host Paoli Rams. They did it again Saturday night...

MARTINSVILLE – A slow start, a wild finish, and Bloomfield advanced to the Martinsville Regional championship. Bloomfield (19-7) fell behind Indianapolis Metropolitan 8-2 to start the second game of the regional Saturday afternoon, but rallied to take an 18-14 halftime lead. The Pumas (16-10) fought back to tie the score at 41 all with 1:57 on the clock, but the Cards closed the game with an 8-2 run...

PAOLI – A furious fourth-quarter comeback lifted the Linton Miners to the final of the Paoli Regional and sent the host Paoli Rams disappointed. Sammy Robbins’ layup as time expired capped off a 29-point quarter and gave the Miners a 72-71 come-from behind win...

Amazing. That’s how the Bloomfield Cardinals described Saturday night, beating Shakamak 34-21 to win the school’s 33rd sectional title and the second in a row. Mitchell Burch said the Cardinals are a “rock-solid” group of players who hung together against a Shakamak team that played well. Graysen Medina agreed that every Cardinal who took the court played hard...

Character certainly counts for Mitchell Burch. On Friday, Jan. 4, just before the start of Bloomfield’s 56-48 win over Eminence in the second semifinal of the Greene County Invitational, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes presented him with the Character Counts Award. Burch said the FCA presents the award for mental attitude, something he displayed that night as he scored 14 points...

Tradition. Merriam-Webster defines it as “an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior.” At Bloomfield it means victory. “I’d say it’s very important,” A.J. Sipes said. He and Bloomfield coach Ron McBride noted winning basketball games is expected at Bloomfield. The school has 33 sectional titles to its credit, placing it fortieth on the state’s list of all-time sectional winners. The Cardinals have also won seven regional and two semistate titles...

OAKLAND CITY -- Shannon Pittman found a better fit. The former White River Valley standout now plays guard at Oakland City University (14-8). Pittman played her first two years at Earlham College in Richmond. She said she transferred to Oakland City for several reasons, adding it was easy to make the transition to another college...

Bloomfield will try to chop down some tall trees this Saturday at the Martinsville Regional. The Cardinals (18-7, ranked 11th in the final Associated Press poll) will face Indianapolis Metropolitan (16-9, 12th) at 12 p.m. Saturday in the second game of the regional. Metropolitan fields a tall lineup that defeated Indianapolis University (21-5, fifth) 39-33 in the championship game of the University Sectional. Bloomfield defeated Shakamak 34-21 to win the Clay City Sectional...

The next step in the Linton-Stockton Miners’ postseason journey could be summed up by the theme song from the cult classic film Slap Shot, the hockey-themed comedy starring Paul Newman: “Right Back Where We Started From.” The season resumes Saturday the way it started – a rematch with the Paoli Rams, the Miners’ season-opening foe in the Linton-Stockton tournament November 24. Linton won the much-anticipated season opener 67-62...

Setting goals for the upcoming season is commonplace for high school basketball teams and their coaches. Winning a conference championship and winning a sectional are two of the most common. The Linton Miners managed to do both, finishing the Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference slate undefeated (7-0) for their sixth conference title in the past seven years; and winning the 2A Sectional 47 championship, defeating South Knox 54-39 in the final...