The top area high school boys basketball players got a chance to play alongside some their regular-season opponents during Monday’s All-Area All-Star Game at Columbus Christian.
It was a high-scoring game that featured 10 double-digit scorers out of the 15 players that competed. The Maroon team ended up taking the 96-81 win against the Gold, with The Republic Boys Basketball Player of the Year, Hauser’s Alex Gross, scoring a game-high 24 points.
Gross scored 18 of those points in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter.
“There are a lot of good players out here, so it was enjoyable,” Gross said. “I was a little rusty at the beginning. It kind of took awhile to get going.”
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All five of the Jets All-Area players were on the same team, which was coached by retiring Hauser coach Griff Roth, and Gross said it was fun being able to play with them one last time to end his high school career on a win. He will be continuing his career at Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois next season.
Travis Wilson of Jennings County was right behind Gross in scoring with 22 points for the Gold team. The future Franklin College player scored 13 fourth-quarter points on three 3-pointers.
The Gold team had a 41-34 halftime lead after trailing by six to start the second quarter. The Gold squad had three different players with seven points by the end of the first half.
The 3-pointers started to fall for the Maroon team in the second half. It hit 10 threes in the final 16 minutes on the way to outscoring the Gold team 62-40.
Wilson said he still had fun playing with athletes he’s been playing against all year.
“It was fun because I know most of these guys from the season,” Wilson said. “It felt pretty good coming out here after the season,so it was a pretty good experience.”
Six of the seven Maroon players scored in double digits. Columbus North’s Blake Barker had 19 points on five 3-pointers. Hauser’s Andrew Titus and Justin Compton and North’s Bailey Hester all scored 13 points, while Hauser’s Mason Sherman added 11 points and nine rebounds.
“It was really fun to get together with a couple of guys I knew from other schools and come out and just play, kind of mess around and have a good time,” Hester said.
The Gold team had four double-digit scorers. Edinburgh’s Colton Henderson ended with 14 points and nine rebounds, while Matt Frost of Columbus East added 13 points and Thomas Myers of East ended with 11 points.
The boys and girls games, which are in their fourth year, benefited Columbus Christian’s Levi Sallee, who is recovering from a traumatic brain injury from an August 2016 car accident.
