Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

Thursday - JV vs. North Montgomery The Boys JV Basketball team travelled to North Montgomery on Thursday Night and came away with a 41-35 victory. Scoring for the Stars was Bryce Kopriva 14, Gavin Hawkins 8, Tristyn Faulk 7, Jackson Grimes 3, Eli Mitchell 3, Drew Gott 2, and Marcus Fortner 2. Friday - DOVER — A Sagamore Conference double-header was on tap Friday at Western Boone as the North Montgomery Chargers traveled to Dover for a match up with the Stars. For the girls it was the final game of the regular season while for the guys they’re in the meat and potatoes of their schedule. The girls got things going and the Stars were able to handle the Chargers handily ending their season with 66-35 win. In the boys game it came to the final seconds as Western Boone’s Luke Barta sealed the Stars victory with a game-winning shot with 2.6 seconds left as WeBo came away with a 40-39 win. Stars handle chargers to end season on high note Western Boone girls in their 66-35 win over North Montgomery on Friday capped off what is now a 16-win regular season. Its their most wins since the 2018-19 season (17) as the host Stars controlled the game from the opening tip against the Chargers. Their full-court press forced countless Charger turnovers which resulted in plenty of fast-break scores. For the game North Montgomery turned the ball over 28 times and had a hard time finishing off possessions as the Stars tallied 16 offensive rebounds. Overall North Montgomery coach Ryan Nuppnau chalked up the loss while giving credit to the home team. “They (WeBo) came out and were aggressive and simply wanted it more than we did,” Nuppnau said. “They’re bigger, stronger, and quicker than us at basically every spot. You could see the desire they played with and it resulted in their defense playing stellar. We just have to be stronger with the ball because we know our girls are better than that.” Katheryn Rutherford led all scorers in the game with 22 points for the Stars. Lili Jones added 14 with Emmy Roys scoring 11. In total eight different Stars scored as they shot 26-50 (52%) from the field. It was an all-around great performance that Stars coach Hannah Kelly was delighted to see. “Our defense was there from the start,” Kelly said. “That was really what was able to kick-start our offense and it really continued as the game progressed. Katheryn is like our energizer bunny that gets us going and the entire team sees that and rallies together. She’s the type of player that really makes a difference in your program.” A nice little tribute happened about mid-way through the final quarter as all five of WeBo’s seniors in Rutherford, Roys, Jones, Carlie Pennington, and Saige Terwiske all got to share the court one final time as they got a rousing ovation from the crowd. “Those girls are a great group of girls to be around,” Kelly said of her five seniors. “Despite it only being my second year, these girls brought a ton of leadership from day one. Their talent on the court will be missed but their attitudes and demeanors will be missed even more.” Piper Ramey led North Montgomery with 12 points while the trio of Macee Norman, Jadelyn Phillips, and Krestyn Bradford all scored six. The Stars, who end the regular season at 16-6 (5-2 SAC) will now shift gears towards sectional play which begins on Tuesday. They’ll get a re-match with rival Lebanon as the Tigers host the Class 3A Sectional 25. Back on Dec. 9 the Tigers bested the Stars 49-33. North Montgomery ends their regular season at 3-20 (1-6 SAC). The Chargers will also open up sectional play on Tuesday. They’ll travel to Benton Central for the Class 3A Sectional 22 and have their hands full with the No. 1 ranked team in 3A in undefeated Twin Lakes. Barta seals Stars comeback win Western Boone coach Dustin Oakley drew up the perfect out of bounds play and saw his team execute it to perfection as senior Luke Barta’s game winning shot with 2.6 seconds left lifted the Stars to a come from behind 40-39 win over North Montgomery. Leading 37-32 with 2:25 left North Montgomery saw its lead slip away. Article compliments of Codey Emerson For the Lebanon Reporter Saturday - vs. Seeger (Article and Photo compliments of Will Willems of the Lebanon Reporter) DOVER - Down a couple of starters on Saturday night against a 10-win Seeger team on Saturday night, the odds weren't in the favor of the Western Boone basketball team. But that has never deterred the Stars, and although they fell a few points short during a 65-60 loss to the Patriots, the effort showed throughout the game is something the Stars can build on the rest of the way. "I thought this was a game we could earn a little more respect from people and show we could beat a good team," Western Boone head coach Dustin Oakley said. "We were down two starters, but we had guys step up. The last 16 minutes is what we wanted to see the whole game, we just have to have that from the get-go. We competed pretty hard, just came up short." Western Boone was without its second and third leading scorers in Marcus Stepp and Levi LaGrange. Needing people to step up to fill that void, the Stars got it from a couple of different sources. The first was leading scorer Kaden Bennington, who scored 24 points - his second most this season. Bennington was 11-of-14 from the free-throw before fouling out. "He did a nice job of drawing contact and getting fouls," Oakley said. "He's been big for us. It's a big jump from last year averaging six points a game to this year up around 12. He knew he had to step up and it was awesome to see. He is a good leader, he does it by his actions and works hard." The other to step up was sophomore guard Gavin Hawkins, who took over a lot of ball-handling duties. After scoring just 11 points all season, Hawkins scored 10 on Saturday. He along with Marcus Fortner and Bryce Kopriva played significant minutes well. "Gavin did a great job out there," Oakley said. "He was really strong taking care of the basketball and then scored 10 points. It was a good team effort tonight." Oakley said he wasn't surprised to see different players step up because that has been the standard set around Western Boone. And while it hasn't translated in wins yet for the program, it is setting a foundation. "It's really just our mentality of our athletics here," Oakley said. "We may not have the wins, but they have that same type of fight and attitude and they want to win. It's not like we are coming out selfish and uncoachable. We aren't going to question that heart ever. We knew we were down a couple players tonight, but I expected us to compete and have a chance to win." Seeger started the game on a 13-5 run, starting the game 3-for-3 from behind the arc. They led 15-10 at the quarter and 35-26 at the half. "We didn't guard very well in the first half," Oakley said. "They definitely shot well, but we could have guarded better. We missed some things on the scouting report, but we cleaned it up in the second half." The Stars seized momentum in the third quarter. Down 37-26, WeBo scored the next six points, including four-straight free throws from Bennington after a technical foul on Seeger. WeBo got within three on multiple occasions, including 43-40 at the end of the third quarter. They were within three at 48-45 after a three-point play from Hawkins and within four with 1:30 to go, but Seeger had the response every time. "We have to be a little smarter and want the ball in those tight situations," Oakley said. "We had some deflections and if we just grabbed it with two hands we could have a couple extra possessions. We missed some rebounds too. If we can figure out a few possessions here and there, we will pick up some wins." Luke Barta and Blake Miller each had seven for the Stars. Western Boone is back in action Thursday against Crawfordsville. Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems