Team Orange coach Brian Shewmaker greets players Ledger Gelfius (3) and Taeshaun Tungate (4) as they come off the floor during Saturday’s 10th Annual All-Area All-Star girls and boys games at Columbus Christian School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Saturday was a winning night for the Shewmaker family.
Veteran high school assistant and travel team coach Brian Shewmaker guided the Orange boys teams to a pair of wins in the 10th Annual All-Area All-Star Games. More importantly, proceeds from the games raised more than $2,200 for the Shewmaker family, who lost their son Kole to a car accident just prior to the start of the recent basketball season.
Kole Shewmaker had played at Trinity Lutheran as a freshman last year before transferring to Columbus North. He was friends with Columbus Christian’s Josh Conrad, who also played at Trinity last year.
“It was just a very special night honoring our son,” Brian Shewmaker said. “Obviously, we miss him so much. He had played against or with all of these kids pretty much over the years, so it’s just really thoughtful of the Columbus Christian guys. It’s awesome. It was very special. It’s a great way to honor Kole, and I’m just very thankful for tonight.”
The All-Star games feature most of the selections from The Republic’s All-Area teams, which will be announced in the coming weeks. The boys were divided into three teams, with each of the three playing two quarters against each of the other two.
The Orange, which consisted of players from Columbus Christian, Hauser and South Decatur; beat the Blue, which featured players from North, Columbus East and Trinity, 64-50. The Orange then beat the Gray, which had players from Jennings County, Edinburgh and Brown County, 56-39.
The Blue finished the night with a 53-47 win against the Gray.
“I love playing in a game like this,” said South Decatur senior Jacob Scruggs, who led the Orange. “It’s fun playing against a bunch of good talent, and showing all your skill set and what you can do is fun. A lot of people think an All-Star game, so they don’t take it seriously, but what’s most fun to me is winning. That’s what I try and do, and I compete.”
Scruggs, who was playing in his fourth All-Area All-Star Game, finished with 41 points in four quarters in earning the game’s MVP honor.
“I was telling some of the underclassmen when I was playing the three years before, I wasn’t getting the ball much,” Scruggs said. “It was all the seniors. That was kind of me tonight. There’s going to come a time when they’re going to shoot the ball the whole time.”
Hauser juniors Ledger Gelfius and Taeshaun Tungate scored 23 and 22 points, respectively, for the Orange. Columbus Christian senior Peyton Walden had 10 points and 10 rebounds, Hauser sophomore Kam Blair added nine points and Hauser sophomore Stryker Gill grabbed 10 rebounds.
East sophomore Keaton Lawson led the Blue with 38 points. East sophomore Carter Patterson had 17 points and 14 rebounds, North sophomore Caleb Ferguson added 17 points and 12 rebounds, East senior Jack Fischvogt scored 13 points and East junior Mason Reeves and Trinity senior Levi Pottschmidt chipped in eight points apiece.
“I thought it was really cool that we could all get together and have fun, even from different schools,” Lawson said. “We were all having fun and getting some good buckets.”
Jennings senior Dorian Hacker led the Gray with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Edinburgh junior Connor Ramey scored 15 points, Jennings senior Cole Sigler had 12 points, Brown County sophomore Eli Wrightsman added 11 points and nine rebounds, Edinburgh senior Austin Brockman and Brown County sophomore Cash Harden each contributed nine points and Edinburgh junior Rylan Londeree added eight points.
Orange 64, Blue 50
Orange 56, Gray 39
Blue 53, Gray 47
Orange: Peyton Walden (Columbus Christian) 5 0-2 10, Josh Conrad (Columbus Christian) 3 0-0 6, Cam Pritchard (Columbus Christian) 0 0-0 0, Ledger Gelfius (Hauser) 9 0-0 23, Taeshaun Tungate (Hauser) 11 0-0 22, Kam Blair (Hauser) 3 1-2 9, Stryker Gill (Hauser) 1 0-0 2, Jacob Scruggs (South Decatur) 16 2-2 41, Colby Rathburn (South Decatur) 3 0-0 7. Totals: 51 3-6 120.
Blue: Caleb Ferguson (Columbus North) 6 0-0 17, Jack Fischvogt (Columbus East) 5 0-0 13, Keaton Lawson (Columbus East) 19 0-0 38, Carter Patterson (Columbus East) 8 0-0 17, Mason Reeves (Columbus East) 3 0-0 8, Kowan Gross (Trinity Lutheran) 1 0-0 2, Levi Pottschmidt (Trinity Lutheran) 3 0-0 8. Totals: 45 0-0 103.
Gray: Cole Sigler (Jennings County) 4 0-0 12, Dorian Hacker (Jennings County) 10 0-1 22, Connor Ramey (Edinbugh) 5 0-0 15, Rylan Londeree (Edinburgh) 3 0-0 8, Austin Brockman (Edinburgh) 4 0-0 9, Eli Wrightsman (Brown County) 5 0-0 11, Cash Harden (Brown County) 3 0-0 9. Totals: 34 0-1 86.
3-point goals: Orange 13 (Ferguson 5, Fischvogt 3, Reeves 2, Pottschmidt 2, Patterson); Blue 15 (Scruggs 7, Gelfius 5, Blair 2, Rathburn); Gray 18 (Ramey 5, Sigler 4, Hacker 2, Londeree 2, Wrightsman, Harden).
