Game Report: Shakamak 63, North Central (Farmersburg) 57

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Saturday night had some great small town Indiana high school basketball in store with a Sectional 57 showdown between the Shakamak Lakers and the North Central (Farmersburg) Thunderbirds. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1386500' first='J.T.' last='May']</strong>, a 2024 shooting guard, came in as the player to watch in this one. <strong>Wyatt Ison</strong> will be the player to stop for the Thunderbirds as he came in averaging 23.0 points and 7.8 rebounds on the season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the first quarter, it was an inside-outside battle with North Central looking to attack the paint with their bigs, and Shakamak letting it fly from the outside. Senior <strong>Kayne Wade</strong> knocked down a pair of early triples for the Lakers, and a couple of fastbreak buckets off of turnovers by the Thunderbirds put Shakamak in front. The Lakers continued to get some easy buckets in transition, but the Thunderbirds were able to fight back with some tough buckets in the lane. Shakamak would end the first quarter with a 16-15 lead.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the second quarter, both Ison and May started attacking the rim and getting to the foul line, but both teams got cold from the floor. However, a technical on the North Central coach late in the half gave the Lakers the momentum to go on an 8-0 run to stretch the lead to 10. North Central would answer with a three from <strong>Jace Hooper</strong> and offensive rebound putback by Ison just before the half would cut the lead to single digits. Shakamak would lead 35-29 at the break. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>North Central came out strong in the second half as they went back to their bread and butter of getting the ball to their post duo inside. <strong>Joshua Roberts</strong> and <strong>Levi Jennings</strong> were each able to get a couple of buckets, and the Thunderbirds started the half on a 12-2 run (17-3 going back to the first half) to take a four-point lead. Shakamak answered with a pair of buckets to regain the lead, but Ison came right back with an and-one on the other end to put North Central back in front. Wade came right back with his third three of the game to put the Lakers up 45-44 at the end of the third after a flurry of action in the final two minutes.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Wyatt Ison</strong> continued the hot end of the third quarter by knocking down a catch and shoot three and putting back and offensive rebound to start the fourth and put the Thunderbirds back in front by four and three free throws from Roberts gave North Central their largest lead of the game at 7. The Lakers then got a pair of triples from <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1557194' first='Jaden' last='Johnson']</strong> and <strong>Linden Jenkins</strong> to cut the lead right back down to one possession. May then forced back-to-back turnovers and got a fastbreak bucket to put the Lakers back in front by 2 with one minute to go. Then another bucket by May and another forced turnover extended the lead to 4 with 30 seconds to go. After several missed free throws by both teams in the final minute, Shakamak would hold on for a big 63-57 victory on the road.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Kayne Wade</strong> led Shakamak with 18 points and 11 rebounds, and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1386500' first='J.T.' last='May']</strong> added 16 points in an outstanding defensive performance. <strong>Wyatt Ison</strong> led the Thunderbirds with 23 points and added 7 rebounds and 4 assists, but his 11 turnovers were costly late. The North Central bigs duo of <strong>Joshua Roberts</strong> and <strong>Levi Jennings</strong> added 13 points and 8 rebounds for Roberts and 10 points and 13 rebounds for Jennings.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With the win, Shakamak improves to 9-7 on the season. The Lakers return to the court on Thursday evening with a battle between two of the top three teams in Sectional 57 as they host Clay City. North Central (Farmersburg) falls back to .500 at 8-8 on the season with the loss on Saturday night. The Thunderbirds will hit the court again on Thursday as they travel down South for a game at Washington Catholic.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->