VERSAILLES — The Versailles Tigers rang in the new year in emphatic fashion Tuesday night, rolling past the Indian Lake Lakers 65-35 in a non-conference varsity boys basketball matchup on New Year’s Eve.
“We shot the ball extremely well,” said Versailles coach Travis Swank. “We’ve been working on it in practice, getting enough shots up. We didn’t shoot a ton of threes, but we shot at a high clip early in the season, and tonight we shot a little bit more and were able to make it at a good rate as well.”
Versailles set the tone early, jumping out to a 6-0 lead on back-to-back three-pointers from Maddox Stonebraker and Kade Schwartz in the opening two minutes. A second Stonebraker triple and a Schwartz bucket gave the Tigers an 11-6 advantage after one quarter.
The Tigers widened the gap in the second period, outscoring the Lakers 19-10 behind eight Schwartz points, two Reed Ratterman three-pointers, Stonebraker’s third triple of the night, and an Ethan Wilker basket. Versailles went into the locker room with a commanding 30-16 halftime lead.
Versailles continued to apply pressure in the third quarter, taking the period 16-10. Junior Maddox Stonebraker led the way with seven points, including his fourth three of the game and a perfect 2-for-2 showing at the free-throw line, pushing the Tigers’ lead to 46-26 heading into the final frame.
Seven Tigers found the scoring column in the fourth quarter, highlighted by two more Ratterman three-pointers — his third and fourth of the game — as Versailles cruised to a 30-point New Year’s Eve victory.
Despite scoring just two points, leading scorer Drake Ahrens made his presence felt throughout the night with multiple assists.
“When Drake walked off the court, I said, ‘That’s a good two-point effort game that you had,’” Swank said. “He got everybody else involved. They were loading up on him. He draws a lot of attention, and at times, there were four guys clearly surrounding him. He was able to make the extra passes and make his teammates a lot better tonight.”
The Tigers’ defensive effort also earned praise, as Versailles held Indian Lake’s leading scorer, Brody Reisinger, scoreless.
“Between Reisinger and Pequignot, those are the guys that really get it going for them,” Swank noted. “We did an extremely good job on both of them. We made both of them work extremely hard to get good looks.”
With the calendar turning and the 2025-26 season nearing its midpoint, Swank reflected on his team’s progress.
“We want to make sure we can continue to get healthy,” he said. “We want to get Blake (Monnin) back in our system, and then hopefully Schwartz can be back for us on Saturday. Being healthy is always a good thing to have.”
Stonebraker led all scorers with a game-high 18 points, including four three-pointers. Ratterman followed with 14 points, knocking down four shots from beyond the arc.
BOX SCORE:
VERSAILLES 65, INDIAN LAKE 35
VERSAILLES – M. Stonebraker 18, R. Ratterman 14, K. Schwartz 13, C. Bergman 5, E. Wilker 4, C. Ahrens 4, S. Hess 3, D. Ahrens 2, J. Borchers 2 – TOTALS 15 8-10 9 65
INDIAN LAKE – T. Tidwell 14, A. Pequignot 9, C. Bender 4, B. Golliday 4, C. Hall 2, R. Strayer 2 – TOTALS 6 8-13 5 35
3-POINTERS
Versailles 9 (R. Ratterman 4, M. Stonebraker 4, K. Schwartz 1)
Indian Lake 5 (T. Tidwell 3, A. Pequignot 1, B. Golliday 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
11-19-16-19 65 Versailles
06-10-10-09 35 Indian Lake
