H.S. Girls Basketball: Boone Grove 68 Hanover Central 63

Team	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3rd Qtr	4th Qtr	Final
HANOVER CENTRAL (11-11)	16	11	9	27	63
BOONE GROVE (17-4)	10	18	21	19	68

Hanover Central (2A) Sectional Semifinals - Friday, 2-13-2004 in Cedar Lake

HANOVER CENTRAL (63) Christie Wick 5-3-15, Jill McElmurry 2-0-4, Bess Copak 4-1-9, Karrah Adam 5-7-17, Krysta Rickey 4-5-14, Katie Burke 1-2-4, Alisha Staley 0-0-0, Kristy Ostrowski 0-0-0. TOTALS: 21-18-63.

FREE THROWS: 18-30, 60 percent, Wick 3-6, Copak 1-1, Adam 7-11, Rickey 5-8, Burke 2-4.
REBOUNDS: Christie Wick - 10
STEALS: Krysta Rickey - 3
ASSISTS: Jill McElmurry - 3
THREE POINT GOALS (3) Christie Wick 2, Krysta Rickey.

BOONE GROVE (68) Becky Keller 5-0-11, Rachel Jenkins 1-4-6, Courtney Flanigan 5-9-24, Karissa Walter 7-1-15, Kara Kessler 6-0-12, Lani Marsh 0-0-0, Danielle Jacobs 0-0-0, Megan Dewell 0-0-0, Sara Martinovich 0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-14-68.

FREE THROWS: 14-21, 66.7% - Jenkins 4-6, Flanigan 9-11, Walter 1-4.
REBOUNDS: Courtney Flanigan - 8
ASSISTS: Karissa Walter - 9
STEALS: Karissa Walter - 5
THREE POINT GOALS (6) Courtney Flanigan 5, Becky Keller.

2A Sectional 33
Quarter-final
Boone Grove 48, Bishop Noll 34
Semi-final
Wheeler 62, Lake Station 10
Boone Grove 68, Hanover Central 63
Championship
Wheeler 52, Boone Grove 50 (title)

CEDAR LAKE (2-13-2004) - The truth is, you have to lose in the state tournament. Eventually, it will happen. Few teams win state titles. So you want to go out playing a strong game in front of a big crowd against a superior team. Hanover Central got that Friday.

Playing a team that beat them by 35 points two weeks earlier, Hanover Central came up short, 68-63, in a freewheeling offense- minded game in front of about 1,500 fans in the old Wildcat gym.

Boone Grove, the defending 2A sectional and regional champion of northwest Indiana, trailed 11-2 in the first quarter, slowly took control of the game to the tune of 51-37 with 6:37 to play, and held off a couple of late rallies by the home team in a game that had none of the traditional slowdown physical flavor of a playoff game.

"I thought if the score got into the 60s it would be because we were getting blown out," said Hanover coach Chris York, who led his team to a highly eventful 11-11 season that included two 30-point losses and the championship of the prestigious Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament. "We got a lot more offensive performance than we did last time (the 35-point loss) we played. For the most part, the game-plan was good. We got to the foul line as much as we wanted to."

"I knew this would be close after last time," said Boone coach Candy Wilson. "I knew they would come out and play hard. They have a lot of seniors and they're at home. This wasn't a surprise to us."

One of the differences in the game was Boone's guards Karissa Walter and Courtney Flanigan. Walter, the left-handed point guard, scored 15 points with nine assists and five steals. Flanigan, a 5-5 right-handed freshman, scored a career-high 24 points with eight rebounds.

"Courtney's been starting for the last three or four games," Wilson said. "They other girls have been so supportive of her, really encouraging her. And it doesn't have to be that way. It's hard to have a freshman starting ahead of you."

Another boost for Boone was 5-9 sophomore Kara Kessler, who came up to the Wolves' varsity at midseason. Replacing starter Rachel Jenkins in the second quarter, Kessler hit four of five shots as Boone evened the game.

"She did a real good job in that second quarter and then Rachel stepped up again in the second half."

Hanover got a season-best 17 from senior guard Karrah Adam, who scored five points in a row to help cut Boone's 51-37 lead to 52-44 with 4:11 left. Soph lead guard Krysta Rickey scored 14 with three steals in a high-energy night and 5-9 junior Christie Wick, boxed in along with HC leading scorer Jill McElmurry by a triangle-and-two defense, sank two three-point shots in the final two minutes, cutting a 60-50 edge down to 67-63 with four seconds left.

Boone Grove did a lot of damage with Walter, who suffered a concussion in the season-ending game against North Judson, beating her defender and creating plays and fouls. While Flanigan hit a season-best five three-pointers, Walter made seven two-pointers -- mostly layups. "She doesn't need to score," said Wilson, "although sometimes she thinks she does."

The game highlighted the immediate future of the PCC. Of the 10 players Boone played, only Jenkins is a senior. Boone will return a top-10 team next year, no matter what happens the rest of the season.

Hanover now loses a lot of familiar faces on the basketball court although Rickey, Wick and 5-8 lefty guard Alisha Staley give them three returning starters. The reality is that in an eight-team league that had only 15 senior girls basketball players at the recent PCC tournament, Hanover graduates six of them. The Lady Cats will have a lot of first time varsity players next year in a league with seven other teams that will have very few rookies.

"I think we're going to surprise people next year. A lot of people may look at what we lose and think we'll be down. Everything has been much more positive this year," said York. "The program is moving in the right direction and I told the seniors that they had a lot to do with that."

LADY CAT NOTES: Wheeler won the sectional title Saturday night with a wild double-overtime 52-50 win over Boone on the Hanover Central floor. Neither side led by more than six at any time but Wheeler, trailing by five points with two minutes left, rallied to tie the game 41-41. In the first overtime, Boone led 45-43 when Alyse Bruszewski scored on a baseline jump shot with 23 seconds left. In the second overtime, Boone led 50-49 when Karissa Altaras, a 5-1 substitute who had not played in the first five periods, banked in a running 10 foot shot to put Wheeler ahead to stay at 51-50.

Karissa Walter's 15-foot shot from the left wing bounced off the rim and time ran out, leaving Wheeler with the first sectional basketball title in the entire history of either the boys or girls state basketball tournament.

Wheeler (19-3), without question, got the best draw in the entire state. They drew a bye and winless Lake Station, which they beat 62-10. Wheeler coach Tim Powers played 12 players and 10 scored including 18 for 6-foot-1 freshman Becca Bruszewski. The Bearcats, due to the bye, and two consecutive cancellations of a season-ending nonconference game with North Newton, did not play for two weeks before meeting the Eagles. But Wheeler did go the entire tournament without 5-8 multi sports star Ali Roper (12.3 ppg.), who had surgery this month for an ACL injury.

Hanover, which went all season without starting guard Amanda Wendlinger, who had reconstructive knee surgery in December, had as eventful an 11-11 season as you can experience.

"The ups were as high as you can get and the downs were pretty low," said York, who finished his third season. "The atmosphere tonight was what basketball should be. We used to have a real, good fan following and I think we're getting back to that point again. Once they see that we can win, they'll be here every night."

A nice touch by athletic director Dave Seils. The bracket-style pairings for the sectional were placed on the gym wall in foot tall letters, visible throughout the gym. Hanover's second venture as a state tourney host seemed to go well. The only consistent complaint was that the gym capacity (1,500) was too small for state tourney basketball. HC does not actually have the seating or parking for a major basketball game with 500-kid schools like Boone and Wheeler. The new Hanover gym that is in the planning stages, will seat over 2,500.

Nov. 18: L, 35-45 Gavit (6-15)
Nov. 21: L, 39-58 at Wheeler (18-4)
Nov. 26: L, 49-55 Lowell (15-9)
Dec. 5: W, 73-49 at Hebron (8-12)
Dec. 6: L, 55-57 at Kouts (14-8)
Dec. 13: W, 76-28 LaCrosse (3-17)
Dec. 16: L, 42-56 at North Newton (11-10)
Dec. 18: W, 58-25 at River Forest (5-16)

Momence (Ill.) Tournament
Dec. 26: L, 45-62 Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley
Dec. 27: W, 68-38 Peotone
Dec. 27: W, 62-45 Paxton-Buckley-Loda
Jan. 3: L, 53-84 at Crown Point (14-8)
Jan. 8: L, 46-54 (OT) Calumet (16-10)

Jan. 10: W, 41-25 at Washington Township (12-11)
Jan. 15: L, 55-62 at South Central (14-9)

Porter County Conference Tournament
Jan. 20: W, 42-40 Boone Grove (17-5) PCC quarterfinals
Jan. 23: W, 46-35 Morgan Township (5-16) PCC semifinals
Jan. 24: W, 53-52 (OT) Kouts (14-8) PCC championship

BOONE GROVE (17-5)
Coach Candy Wilson (7th year) 22-5 (2003) 17-5 (2004)

South County Tournament (at Hebron)
Dec. 22: W, 72-23 Morgan Township (6-16)
Dec. 23: W, 33-31 Hebron (9-11)

Hanover Central (2A) Sectional
Feb. 10: 48-34 Bishop Noll (12-11)
Feb. 13: 68-63 Hanover Central (11-11)
Feb. 14: 50-52 (2 OTs) Wheeler (18-3)

Hanover Central and Boone finish up girls basketball season with sectional 2A losses

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Hanover Central (2A) Sectional Semifinals - Friday, 2-13-2004 in Cedar Lake