Jennings County players, coaches and fans celebrate the regional championship Saturday at Seymour.
Ted Schultz | The Republic
SEYMOUR — After a couple of close calls in the sectional, Jennings County was hoping to build a lead early in Saturday afternoon’s regional against Evansville Reitz.
Jennings did just that, and it never let Reitz get back into the game. Jennings led by 17 at halftime and went on to post a 64-40 victory for its first regional title since 1998.
“It was big for us,” senior point guard Keegan Manowitz said. “We wanted to come out with energy and lock in on defense and hit a few shots early, and that’s what we did. It easy to control the game against a team like that that wants to pressure when you’re ahead.”
Jennings (24-2) will find out its semistate opponent and site when pairings are announced at 1 p.m. today on ihsaatv.org.
Jennings was clinging to an 8-7 lead with 3:20 left in the first quarter before Carter Kent hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to seven. Kent and Owen Law hit 3s during a 10-0 second-quarter run that increased the lead from 18-12 to 28-12.
A Manowitz 3-pointer at the buzzer gave Jennings a 35-18 lead at halftime.
Another Manowitz 3 gave Jennings a 40-20 lead. Jennings led 49-26 after three quarters and enjoyed as big as a 25-point advantage in the fourth.
“We wanted to try to play with a lead,” Kent said. “We hit shots tonight.”
Jennings shot 56 percent (26 of 46) from the field, including 50 percent (7 of 14) from 3-point range. Reitz was just 39 percent (15 of 38) from the field, including 18 percent (2-11) from beyond the arc.
“I thought defensively from the get-go, we were tuned in,” Jennings coach Josh Land said. “We followed the game plan to a T. They had a couple of guys we thought we could help off of, and Keegan and Justin Ramey did a great job of putting some pressure on the ball to turn them over there. Defensively, we were in rhythm.”
Kent finished with 16 points and Manowitz 15 to lead Jennings. Lane Zohrlaut added 10 points.
Justin Ramey grabbed seven rebounds to lead Jennings to a 31-18 advantage on the boards.
“I thought our focus was really there,” Land said. “We shot the ball well on offense, and took pretty good care of it and then defensively, we just got after it. I thought we had pretty good intensity, rebounded the ball well and really didn’t have any negatives.”
Jennings County 64, Evansville Reitz 40
Evansville Reitz;9;9;8;14;—;40
Jennings County;16;19;14;15;—;64
Evansville Reitz (17-7): Robert Goodloe 0 0-0 0, Jayden Snders 4 5-6 14, William Kirkland 0 0-2 0, Jason Sanders 0 0-0 0, Braylen Langley 5 0-0 10, Ke’Arieon Pace 0 1-2 1, Aiden Knowles 0 0-0 0, Isaac Higgs 6 2-2 15. Totals: 15 8-13 40.
Jennings County (24-2): Cole Sigler 0 2-2 2, Logan Napier 1 0-0 2, Darius Thomas 0 2-2 2, Carter Kent 6 0-0 16, Cash Millspaugh 0 0-0 0, Lane Zohrlaut 5 0-0 10, Parker Elmore 2 0-0 4, Owen Law 3 0-0 7, Keegan Manowitz 6 1-2 15, Matt Hines 0 0-0 0, Justin Ramey 3 0-0 6, Austin Byford 0 0-0 0. Totals: 26 5-8 64.
3-point goals: Evansville Reitz 2 (Sanders, Higgs); Jennings County 7 (Kent 4, Manowitz 2, Law).
