Lady Wolves win PCC Tourney with 44-36 victory over Kouts in Girls Basketball

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
01-24-2011

KOUTS (36) Lexi Sippel 3-7-14, Jenna Jessen 4-0-9, Keren Kendel 0-2-2, Paige Tribble 1-0-2, Easten McNeill 1-0-2, Shelby Jones 3-0-7, Katie Parks 0-0-0. TOTALS: 12 (9-10) 36.

BOONE GROVE (44) Jordan Chester 3-4-11, Claudia Cooper 1-0-2, Brittany Shaffer 5-3-13, Emily Bobrowski 3-0-8, Paige Aguilera 1-0-2, Brittany Dewell 1-2-4, Brittany Slicker 1-1-4. TOTALS: 15 (10-14) 44.

FREE THROWS: KOUTS (9-10, 90%) Kendel 2-2, Sippel 7-8; BOONE (10-14, 71.4%) Shaffer 3-4, Chester 4-4, Slicker 1-2, Dewell 2-4.

REBOUNDS: KOUTS (14) Tribble 7, McNeill 3, Sippel 2, Jessen , Parks; BOONE (22) Cooper 5, Chester 4, Dewell 4, Shaffer 3, Bobrowski 3, Aguilera 2, Slicker.

ASSISTS: KOUTS (7) Sippel 2, McNeill, Jones, Tribbel, Jessen, Parks; BOONE (9) Dewell 4, Bobrowski 3, Chester, Aguilera.

STEALS: KOUTS (7) Jones 4, Sippel 2, McNeill; BOONE (6) Aguilera 2, Shaffer, Chester, Slicker, Bobrowski.

3-GOALS: KOUTS (3) Shelby Jones, Lexi Sippel, Jenna Jessen; BOONE (4) Emily Bobrowski 2, Jordan Chester, Brittany Slicker.

"Definitely," said coach Candy Wilson, smiling in the post-game celebration Saturday in the bright blue Boone Grove gym. "Yes. Once in a while it's good to be the underdog. It would be nice to sneak up on people, but there's no sneaking up for us any more."

In some respects that makes Boone's third consecutive Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament championship (and Wilson's 7th in nine years) more impressive. Class 2A No. 5 Boone (17-1) held off a late rally by 1A No. 13 Kouts to win 44-36 and send out seniors Brittany Dwell and Jordan Chester as three-time champions of the most tradition-rich, in-season tournament in the northwest part of the state.

Boone's 1-3-1 half court defense silenced Kouts (12-4), which was not a high-scoring team (just 46.4 per game) to begin with. With tiny Kouts point guard Lexi Sippel hampered by asthma and sitting out, the Wolves scored the first six and the final seven points of the second period to take a 24-15 halftime lead.

In the final quarter, Sippel, a 5-foot-1 junior, sank 4-of-4 from the foul line to cut the lead to 36-32 with 1:55 to play. But Boone executed two high-risk, half court football style inbounds passes for lay ups by Chester and Brittany Shaffer on consecutive possessions to push the lead to 40-34 and turn back the challenge.

"We've worked on that at different times," Wilson admitted. "I thought our kids made a nice read. I'd love to take credit for it, but it wasn't something I called time out and called for. We set something up like that against Morgan, but they did their own thing (tonight) with that. I was proud of them. This was a tough game."

"It was kind of a last second thought," Chester said. "We didn't really have anywhere else to throw it. So I just sprinted down court and I saw Brittany throw it and I tried to catch it. I really didn't know if I was going to catch it. We've done that once before but she didn't throw it quite as far. But it was planned then."

But what if the pass had gone too far? What if Jordan had not been able to catch up to it and Kouts had gained possession at the other end of the floor? Boone might have lost.

"I wasn't going to let that happen," said Chester, a state class distance runner. "I knew the game was on the line."

Boone won for the 13th game in a row but Chester was the big winner Saturday. She was to spend Sunday driving to Southern Indiana for a college visit. The Boone senior is a certain scholarship runner after reaching the Indiana state finals in cross country all four years.

"I know this is my last season," she said. "I know I'm going to college to run. So I'm going to give it everything I have."

Kouts gave it everything they had. Sippel, who seemed to be gasping for breath often during the game, scored 14 points to lead her team after posting 26 in a 55-44 semifinal win over Hanover Central 24 hours earlier.

Boone held Easten McNeill, Kouts' six foot senior, to just two points, although a lot of that was just bad shooting. Boone's Chester, who only averages 3.5 points per game, scored 11, including a three-point shot with one second left in the first half. This was a physical game as Kouts assigned a 'personal escort' to Boone leading scorer Emily Bobrowski (12.3 ppg.), a top three-point shooter. Bobrowski was 'face-guarded,' bumped and tugged at all night by multiple defenders.

"That's not the first time that's happened," said Bobrowski, who scored just eight. "I just try to let as many people (take) shots as I can. I'm used to it now. They did it last year in the sectional. You just have to push through it and try to get other people the ball."

"It was very physical," said Wilson. "Yesterday (a semifinal win over Hebron) and today. You can't get caught up in it and let it take you out of your game. I didn't think we did that."

Wilson wasn't sure how many PCC championships she had coached at Boone.

"I really don't know," she said. "Each one of them is its own little entity, let me tell you. People got their money's worth tonight."

PCC NOTES: Boone Grove was a tall team four years with now-graduated 6-foot Emily Strilich and 5-foot-11 Kelly Dobson, who started on the 2009 and 2010 PCC champs.
Now 5-foot-11 sophomore Claudia Cooper and 5-foot-11 perimeter player Brittany Shafer, a true guard, are the only girls who play who could remotely be called "tall."

"We were a guard-oriented team for years," said Wilson, a former Chesterton guard, "which I'll take any day. Now, we're pretty balanced and very athletic."

Boone's Jordan Chester is better suited than most to discuss the difference between winning in individual sports versus winning in team sports.

"It's more special to share it (success) with your team," she explained. "To have the team atmosphere where you are all together. In it to win it. Nothing can change that. It's way better to share something than to take it all yourself."

The final night of the tournament drew a capacity crowd but many of the Boone fans left at halftime of the boys game. Empty portions of the stands were obvious across from the team benches late in the game. Two reasons were suggested.

Hanover Central didn't bring much of a crowd until the championship game. The bitter cold weather (less than 10 degrees Friday) and distance from Hanover to Boone and Washington Township (the girls quarterfinal and semifinal site) may have convinced some to stay home and listen on the radio. Hanover is the most distant school from Boone in the PCC. Also, Boone's boys team was eliminated in the quarterfinals and that took the host school and the largest nearby fan base out of the tourney early in the week. While no one seemed to know for sure, some believe the host site for the boys tourney and the finals alternates back to Hebron in 2012.

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Revised: January 26, 2011 .