The Trinity Lutheran boys basketball team celebrated Senior Night on Friday in the Bollinger Athletic Complex with a thrilling 61-59 win over Medora.

Trinity coach Brad Dickey started seniors Levi Froedge, Eli Ballard and Luke Coomler.

Those seniors, along with the senior cheerleaders, were introduced, along with their parents, before the game.

Dickey said, “It was an exciting senior night. I was happy that those seniors got to start the game, and then sort of my necessity we played those younger kids at the end. Hopefully, the seniors weren’t too disappointed that they weren’t all riding off into the sunset together at the end.”

The game was tied at 58-58 when Kole Shewmaker scored off an offensive rebound with 17 seconds remaining to score what proved to be the winning basket for the Cougars.

Medora’s Shephard Earl was fouled under the basket with 2.3 seconds remaining.

He made the first free throw before Dickey called a timeout. He also made the second free throw, but a Medora player was called for a lane violation and the free throw was nullified and the Cougars added a free throw with less than a second remaining.

The younger players Dickey was talking about were a pair of freshmen — Shewmaker and Jack Stuckwisch. Both players made five 3-pointers as Shewmaker finished with 20 points and Stuckwisch added 17.

Both had two 3-pointers each in the fourth quarter when Trinity rallied from a 50-46 deficit after Eli Sturgill put Medora on top by that score with six minutes remaining.

Ballard added 14 points for the 4-9 Cougars.

Trinity finished with 10 3-pointers and Dickey said his team was taking whatever open shots Medora was giving the Cougars for the most part.

“We wanted to be able to bounce it inside more often, which we did. The inside pass led to an outside pass almost every time so that’s what we needed to do,” he said. “It was a good team effort. Medora was awesome. They shot so well tonight. Obviously (Earl) is a good, strong player inside.”

Earl led the Hornets (4-8) with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Braxton McCory added 15 and Hudson Johnson had 10 points for the Hornets.

Medora coach Mark Morin said, “They gave a great effort. Earl was doing a good job of kicking it out when they triple-teamed him down low. We only had us for 13 turnovers, but it seemed like we had some turnovers at bad times. In a close game they’re always at a bad time. We gave up too many offensive rebounds, and we lost their shooters.”

“With two minutes remaining we went to a man,” Morin said. “We don’t normally play man but I thought it kind of throw them off a little bit.”

Both teams will be on the road tonight with Medora playing at Crothersville, while Trinity will travel to Switzerland County.

Box score

Medora;16;10;17;16;—;59

Trinity;12;13;13;23;—;61

Medora (4-8): Shepard Earl 8 4-6 20, Braxton McCory 4 4-4 15, Eli Sturgill 2 0-0 6, Dawson Cornett 1 0-0 3, Hudson Johnson 4 0-0 10, Jaxon Nugen 2 0-0 5, Totals 19 8-10 59

Trinity Lutheran (4-9): Eli Ballard 6 2-2 14, Kowan Gross 1 2-2 4, Luke Coomler 1 0-0 2, Levi Pottschmidt 1 2-2 4, Kole Shewmaker 7 1-2 20, Jack Stuckwisch 6 0-0 17, Levi Frodge 0 0-0 0, Charlie Hackman 0 0-0 0, Levi Pollert 0 0-0 0, Totals 22 7-8 61

3-point goals: TL (Stuckwisch 5, Shewmaker 5), M (McCory 3, Sturgill 2, Johnson 2, Nugen, Cornett),

Rebounds; TL 26 (Pottschmidt 7, Gross 6), M 25 (Earl 11, Johnson 7)

Turnovers: M 13, TL 9

Junior varsity

Trinity 47, Medora 35

Trinity Lutheran: Josh Conrad 10, Jake Holland 7, Kade Gillaspy 6, Trey Owen 7, John Harris 3, Brody Brown 6, Evan Christopher 3, Drake Goodpaster 5.

Medora: Nugen 9, Wesley Goen 6, Kade Wright 6, Kacie Inscoe 6, Eli Lane 4, Cornett 2, Johnson 2.