By Steve Fields
Clinton — Andy Walsh had been busy quarterbacking the South Vermillion football team to a record-setting season, and Wednesday night he led the Wildcats’ basketball team to a 61-46 season-opening victory over the visiting Clay City Eels.
Walsh scored 24 points and grabbed six rebounds.
“Andy is a good athlete. Good football player, good basketball player, he’s just a tremendous athlete,” third-year South Vermillion coach Rodney Idlewine said.
Patrick Harpeneau added 12 points and eight rebounds, and Cody Mumaw had 11 points.
Clay City was led by D.J. Newton with 12 points and Tyler Bridgewater with 10.
It was a match between two programs at different junctures. South Vermillion is loaded with returning starters like Walsh, Harpenau and Mumaw, while Clay City has a new coach and only two returnees from last year’s sectional championship team.
Coach Vance Edmondson, who had been an assistant at Terre Haute South, was happy with the opening night for his Eels.
“Offensively I was pretty happy with the way we played tonight. There were times when we took some ill-advised shots, forced some things. But give South Vermillion credit, they’re a good solid team,” Edmondson said.
South Vermillion, starting the 6-3 Walsh, 6-3 Harpenau and 6-3 Jerrett Hastings, dominated the rebounding 39-16. Hastings had six boards to go with Harpenau’s eight and Walsh’s six.
“We knew coming in they were a big, physical, strong team. We talked about being strong mentally and physically and rebound, because we knew [with] them coming right out of football season and having the success they did [in football] that they were going to be aggressive on the board and on the inside. And they used their size and it hurt us a lot,” Edmondson said.
South Vermillion led 23-18 after the opening quarter of the season, as Walsh scored 12 points. While the Wildcats hit 10-14 shots from the floor, the Eels stayed close with 7-11 shooting.
But in the second quarter, South Vermillion’s man-to-man defense gave Clay City trouble. The Eels hit just 2-8 shots and the Wildcats pulled away from a 38-27 halftime lead on 6-11 shooting.
The Wildcats extended their lead to 17 points, 49-32, in the third quarter and continued to pull out to a 21-point advantage in the final period.
CLAY CITY (46) — Higgins 2-9 3-7 7, Bridgewater 4-8 1-2 10, Newton 4-6 0-0 12, Denker 1-8 0-0 2, Moore 3-6 1-2 8, Decker 1-1 0-0 2, Jenkins 2-6 0-0 5, Tiefel 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-44 FG, 5-11 FT, 46 TP.
SOUTH VERMILLION (61) — Walsh 8-11 7-10 24, Harpeneau 6-9 0-0 12, Hastings 0-1 0-0 0, Laswell 2-4 0-1 5, Mumaw 4-8 0-0 11, Craigmyle 2-2 1-4 5, Reyher 2-3 0-0 4, Scott 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 24-41 FG, 8-15 FT, 61 TP.
Clay City 18 9 5 14 — 46
South Vermillion 23 15 11 12 — 61
3-point goals — CC 7-15 (Newton 4-6, Moore 1-1, Jenkins 1-3, Bridgewater 1-4, Denker 0-1), SV 5-11 (Mumaw 3-6, Laswell 1-2, Walsh 1-2, Reyher 0-1). Total fouls — CC 14, SV 14. Fouled out: None. Turnovers — CC 14, SV 18. Rebounds — CC 16 (Higgins 6), SV 39 (Harpenau 8, Laswell 7). Steals — CC 7 (Higgins, Moore 3), SV 6 (Reyher 3).
JV — South Vermillion won 37-26.
Next — On Dec. 4, South Vermillion (1-0, 0-0 in WIC) plays at West Vigo, and Clay City (0-1) will be host to Union.
