Josh Barnett - Sports Editor

Batesville was the site of this year's annual 40 & 8 Boys and Girls All-Star Basketball game. The game was played this past Saturday, April 10 with the girls' game starting at 6:30 pm.

This year's Ripley County team was made up of Batesville's Amy Maple and Kelly Weiler, Milan's Courtney Bruns, Jac-Cen-Del's Ashley Lord and South Ripley's Jessi McConnell, Leann Wilson and Danielle Demaree. They were coached by Milan head coach Jeff Stutler. The Tri-County team was made up of Switzerland County's Leslie Green, Patience Meyer, Becky Phipps and Lindsay Stultz, and East Central's Desiree Martinez and Caitlin Callahan.

Tri-County won this year's girls' game defeating Ripley County 59-54. Tri-County took a three point lead at halftime then went on to outscore Ripley County 28-26 in the second half to get the five point victory.

Tri-County was led in scoring by Lindsay Stultz with 23 points followed by Patience Meyer with 20, Becky Phipps with 10 and Caitlin Callahan with 6.

Jessi McConnell led the Ripley County team with 18 points followed by Amy Maple with 14, Ashley Lord with 8, Leann Wilson with 7, Courtney Bruns with 4 and Kelly Weiler with 3.

Tri-County's Patience Meyer was
named the MVP for the game.

In the boys' portion of the game the Ripley County team was made up of Batesville's Mark Lee, East Central's Gabe Focke, Danny Kleckner and Steve Lewis, Jac-Cen-Del's Kyle Hackman and Brent Pettit, Milan's Rex Parker, Stephan Laub and Matt Swisher and South Ripley's Chris Buchanan, Josh Grossman and Joel Pflum.

Tri-County's team was made up of South Dearborn's Brad Cutter and Zach Brogan, Lawrenceburg's Eric Kinnett and Adam Wolf, Switzerland County's Clayton Carter, Corey Dunaway and Jason Craft and Oldenburg's Jeremy Roell.

The Ripley County team defeated the Tri-County team by a score of 96-95. Tri-County had a two point lead going into halftime, but were outscored 51-48 in the second half.

Joel Pflum led the Ripley County team with 16 points followed by Rex Parker and Danny Kleckner with 12 apiece, Matt Swisher with 10, Steve Lewis with 9, Stephan Laub and Gabe Focke with 7 apiece, Kyle Hackman, Chris Buchanan and Josh Grossman with 6 each, Brent Pettit with 3 and Mark Lee with 2.

Jason Craft led Tri-County with 32 points followed by Jeremy Roell with 13, Brad Cutter with 12, Corey Dunaway with 10, Clayton Carter and Eric Kinnett with 9 apiece, Justin Hunefeld with 6 and Zach Brogan and Adam Wolff with 2 each.

Ripley County's Rex Parker was named the MVP of the contest.

JOSH BARNETT PHOTO

SR's Jessi McConnell wrestles with Switz. Co.'s Patience Meyer for a loose ball during the 40 & 8 All-Star game.