Milan Indians, SEI Boys 8th Grade Champs
Gary Franklin
SPORTS EDITOR
Coach Randy Combs, a 2014 Ripley County Basketball Hall of Fame Class Inductee and current coach for the Milan 8th grade Indians boys team this season, led his team to victory many times en route to an SEI Tournament Championship with a 46-40 victory over Sunman Dearborn in the tournament championship contest.
The future Indians had advanced to the championship contention with wins over Jac-Cen-Del 44-22 and South Dearborn 49-28.
The Indians trailed at the end of the first quarter 11-8, led at halftime 25-20, continued with the lead after the third 33-27, then used some clutch free throw shooting down the stretch to claim the victory.
The tribes offensive effort was led by Zac Minnich with 14 points. Jed Minnich was in double figures as well with 10. Solid support was also found from Jacob Burton with seven, Austin King and Brayden Bruce with six each, with three points added by Steven Gutzwiller in relief off of the bench.
Coach Combs team concluded their regular season action with a 16-3 record.
Seventh grade met uphill battle early on
The Milan 7th grade team couldn't overcome a tough start, falling to Sunman Dearborn in the championship game by the score of 27-43. The Trojans jumped out to a 12-1 lead and never looked back. Indians were led in scoring by George Burton with 10, Damon Ward with seven, Oren Schmidt six while Brent Quatman rounded out tribe scoring with four points.