Michael Ertel is shown here during his college basketball career at UAB.
UAB Athletics
Staff report
After an outstanding rookie season with Lahti Basketball in Finnish Korisliiga, former Mt. Vernon standout Michael Ertel will play his second professional basketball season in another league and in another country.
Announced yesterday on Twitter by Rising Stars Sports Agency, Ertel has signed to play with Vichy-Clermont Metropole in the French Pro B League, a second-tier professional basketball league in France.
For Lahti, Ertel, a 6-2 guard, averaged 20.3 points per game and had 105 3-pointers in 32 games. He shot 49.8 percent (123-247) from the field and 84.6 percent (88-104) from the free-throw line. He added 4.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game. He finished the season strong by averaging 31.5 points per game in his club’s final four contests in March. During that span he had a season high 41-point game.
After a standout career for the Marauders, the 2017 Mt. Vernon grad and Indiana All-Star played collegiately at Louisiana-Monroe and UAB. In his senior season at UAB, the Blazers advanced to the NCAA tournament.
Leary picks up Sprint Week win
After an accident put him out of the race the previous night, Greenfield’s C.J. Leary came back to pick up a win at the Darland Classic in Kokomo Saturday, the fourth race in USAC’s annual Indiana Sprint Week.
It was the seventh career Sprint Week win for the 2019 Indiana Sprint Week champion. He is tied on the career win list with the late Bryan Clausen and Justin Grant, who has two wins this week and leads the Sprint Week standings. Leary is currently 11th.
Along with Saturday’s race in Kokomo, Indiana Sprint Week has visited Gas City, Lawrenceburg and Circle City race tracks. Remaining events will be held at Terre Haute (Wednesday), Lincoln Park (Thursday), Bloomington (Friday) and Tri-State (Saturday).
Leary came back on Saturday after having a big accident at Gas City Friday. Saturday’s race was won in a backup car that was built new in 2020 and never raced. Leary had the top time trial runs in qualifications both at Circle City and Lawrenceburg. He was second at Kokomo.
Locals compete in Women’s State Amateur
Three former Hancock County girls golf players of the year competed in last week’s Women’s State Amateur Championship, held at Otter Creek Golf Course in Columbus.
Former New Palestine standout Annaliese Fox, a four-time county and Hoosier Heritage Conference champion now playing at IUPUI, tied for third at 2-over-par.
Fox led after the first of three rounds, carding a 3-under-par 69. She had a three-round total of 218.
Now at Ohio University, former Mt. Vernon golfer Alaina Nugent, the 2021 golfer of the year, tied for 20th at 13-over-par. Her best round was a second-round 3-over-par 75.
Tied for 35th, former Greenfield-Central High School golfer Caroline Gibson, the 2020 golfer of the year, shot a 23-over-par 239. Her third round was her best, a 5-over-par 77. Gibson is playing at Indiana Wesleyan.
