JEFFERSONVILLE — Jeffersonville coach Tim LaGrange is not easily impressed.

But his Red Devils did make an impression on their coach with an 86-41 win over Evansville North on Saturday.

It wasn’t so much the 45-point margin of victory or the fact that Jeff led by as many as 50 points. Nor was it the fact that all 13 Devils scored and 12 had rebounds.

It wasn’t even that his team forced 25 turnovers while having just six of its own, or that Jeff outrebounded the Huskies, 39-15. And it wasn’t only because the Red Devils easily overcame a 2-for-14 night from the 3-point line.

What impressed LaGrange during his team’s fourth straight win was that — even in a blowout — his team continued to play fundamentally, unselfishly and hard.

“Any time you get into a game where the score starts to spread like it did tonight, you worry about your kids becoming individuals, and you worry about your kids getting lazy on defense,” Jeff’s second-year coach said. “I thought we were very unselfish and we played hard on defense (throughout the game). That’s what I was most proud of.”

Jeffersonville left little doubt that it would beat North (3-8) by coming out with an 11-0 run to open the game. However, the Huskies showed their only spark of the game to get within 23-14 by the end of the quarter.

It was a quarter that left at least two Red Devils seniors wanting more.

“We gave up too many points in the first quarter,” forward Sean Fisher said about his team’s goal of perfection.

“We have a goal to meet of holding teams to 12 points in each quarter, and we didn’t meet that goal,” Edward Wright-Baker said.

After giving up 14 first-quarter points, the Red Devil defense got serious. It held the Huskies to just seven points in both the second and third quarters. While Jeff scored on all but four of its second-quarter possessions, North made just one second-quarter field goal — a Ty Pauley layup with 3:43 left in the period — leading to a 47-21 halftime lead for Jeff.

“That was probably the best first half we played all year,” Wright-Baker said. “If we keep on (playing well in the first half), it should help a lot.”

Things got even uglier in the third quarter. North scored seven early points in the period and didn’t score again in the quarter as the Red Devils stretched their lead to 74-28 when Baker scored on a tip-in at the buzzer. Baker had six points and six rebounds — five of which came on the offensive boards — in the third quarter. He finished with a team-high 18 points and had seven rebounds, six offensive, in the contest.

Wright-Baker was one of four Devils in double-figures — Keegan Clark scored 12 points and A.J. Adams and Fisher each had 11 — and Drake Coleman added eight. Sophomore Evan Maschmeyer led Jeff with five assists and three steals, and Adams had team-highs with eight rebounds and three blocked shots to go with his 11 points.

“Everybody knows their roles this year,” Wright-Baker said. “Different guys can score in double-figures every night.”

Jeff dished out 17 assists on its 35 baskets.

“This is a very unselfish team,” Fisher said. “The point guards do a nice job of taking care of the ball and making nice passes.”

“We’ve done a much better job on our press the last three or four games,” LaGrange admitted. “We seem to be understand more what we want to get out of it. And in the half-court, we’re doing a better job on the ball of being a little more aggressive. Any time you have your defense creating offense, that’s a good thing.”

After a span in which the Red Devils lost three of five games, they have recovered to improve to 9-3 and now believe they have a team to be reckoned with.

“One thing about this year’s team is that we didn’t get down after those losses,” Wright-Baker said. “Last year, when we had losses like that, it would carry over to the next game. This year’s different. We have a hard-working group of guys. Everybody’s focused on taking every game one at a time.”

Jeff goes on the road for two games next week. Next Friday, the Red Devils travel to Bedford to face an 8-6 North Lawrence team that has won its last two games, including a 65-62 overtime win over Edgewood on Friday. The following night, Jeff goes to Newburgh to face 6-7 Castle. The Knights have lost three straight and six of eight after starting the season 4-1.



EVANSVILLE NORTH 14 7 7 13—41

JEFFERSONVILLE 23 24 27 12—86

Evansville North (3-8) — Pauley 10, Spears 2, Whitler 10, Buening 8, Strohmeier 1, Lewis 4, Gilmore 2, Caldwell 3.

Jeffersonville (9-3) — Adams 11, Coleman 8, Baker 18, Maschmeyer 4, Clark 12, Fisher 11, Cutlett 6, Marshall 2, Ewing 2, Phillips 4, Marshall 2, Kinnaird 2, Williams 2.

Rebounds — Evansville North 15 (Spears 5); Jeffersonville 38 (Adams 8).

Three-point field goals — Evansville North 4 (Pauley 2, Whitler 2); Jeffersonville 2 (Coleman 2).

Turnovers — Evansville North 25, Jeffersonville 6.