Valparaiso evens series with Lady Bulldogs in convincing 48-34 win

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith
1-29-2006

Friday, 1-27-2006 - Duneland Athletic Conference game at Crown Point

VALPARAISO (48)  Emile Naccarato  1-0-3, Lauren Prow 4-9-18, Erica Humes 4-6-15, Brittany Woldt 1-2-4, Becca Hoefler  2-4-8, Megan Steiner 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  12 (21-28) 48.

CROWN POINT (34)  Stephanie Poulos 3-2-9, Ashley Zaucha 3-1-7, Courtney Perry 0-0-0, Anjellica Rospond 1-0-2, Amanda Moore 1-0-2, Jackie Clements 2-0-4, Christie Quigley 0-4-4, Hannah Plumley 0-0-0, Sydney Reeves 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  13 (7-11) 34.

FREE THROWS:  Valparaiso (21-28, 75%)  Prow 9-10, Humes 6-8, Woldt 2-4, Hoefler 4-6;  CP (7-11, 63.6%)  Poulos 2-3, Zaucha 1-2, Perry 0-2, Quigley 4-4.

ASSISTS:  Valparaiso (9)  Humes 3, Prow 3, Hoefler, Woldt, Steiner;  CP (5) Plumley 3, Poulos 2.

STEALS:  Valparaiso (7) Prow 4, Humes 2, Woldt;  CP (15) Zaucha 7, Poulos 5, Plumley 3.

TURNOVERS:  Valparaiso (6-2-5-2) 15;   CP (6-7-2-3) 18.

3-GOALS:  Valparaiso (3) Lauren Prow, Emile Naccarato, Erica Humes;  CP (1) Stephanie Poulos.

CROWN POINT  (1-27-2006)  Two basketball teams got together on a late January night looking for faith, hope and charity. Valparaiso kept the faith. Crown Point had a brief moment of hope. But the visiting Vikings cashed in on charity, sinking 21 of 28 from the foul line in a well-deserved 48-34 win over the rival Lady Bulldogs in front of a quiet crowd in Crown Point.

Valparaiso has seven losses but they also have top guards in 5-11 Erica Humes and 5-10 Lauren Prow and the tall ballhandlers combined for 33 points, controlling the game at key moments.  Valpo (12-7) isn't as bad as their record, which isn't that bad.  The Vikings, who have a combined total of only seven juniors and seniors in the entire program, has lost six games by 10 points or less.

Crown Point (10-9) won't be explained that easily.  The Lady Bulldogs with four senior starters, have now lost four in a row and will need a major upset not to finish the regular season at the .500 mark.  Friday's 14-point loss to Valpo was a marked contrast to the Lady Bulldogs' 9-point win, 51-42 on December 13.

"We just keep falling behind 17 or 18 points and then we start playing," said CP coach Tom May.  "We didn't yell tonight.  Scott (assistant coach Scott Reid) and I just sat there and didn't say much tonight.  I think they wanted me to yell or they wanted me to sit them.  But tonight I didn't yell and I left them out there.  And either they're going to get mashed or they were going to protect themselves and play."

Crown Point fell behind 29-12 at the top of the third quarter and then ran off 10 points in a row to get back into the game, keyed by a pressing defense.

"We are a soft team," said Valpo's 400-win coach Greg Kirby.  "Sometimes when teams get physical with us, we're not very strong with the ball and we tend to make some soft passes and we turn the ball over.  But we were able to do a good job against them defensively. The only time they scored was when we turned it over.  They weren't scoring off their half court offense."

Crown Point's problems are largely against the offensive end. They trailed 5-0 before Stephanie Poulos hit a 20-foot shot with three minutes left in the opening quarter. CP started shooting long range shots immediately and the few times they did get the ball inside, nothing came of it.  Valpo is quicker than they have been and the duo of Humes and Prow got out into the open court and sparked a 12-0 second quarter run that gave Valparaiso a 24-10 lead with 1:40 left in the half.

Crown Point committed 13 first half turnovers against the Valparaiso man-to-man defense.  The Lady Bulldogs have been unable to pull out of bad streaks this year which has contributed to six double digit losses, including a 58-39 loss at Michigan City and a 51-38 loss at LaPorte during the four-game losing streak.

"Against LaPorte whet you saw the first four or five minutes tonight, we did that the entire game," said May.  "We're hearing that all we (coaches) do is yell.  When things go well because we yell at them, that's great.  They want the good, but they don't really want the bad.  I thought that by the score, we outplayed them in the second half.  But they don't want you to yell at them when things are going badly.  We just let them play through it.  They got embarrassed, but they came back and played.  But we were down 17."

"There's symbolism. Parents teach their kids what to do and how to make the right decisions and then they have to put them out there and let them go.  You give them the tools to make the right decisions, but they have to do it.  You can't watch them every second. That's what we decided to do.  With the sectional coming up, they have to decide that this is what we're going to do or they're not."

Valparaiso is confident that they can compete at the Valpo Sectional.  The Vikings have lost two close games to Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) champ Merrillville (17-2).

"We're stronger than we were three months ago, but we're still a little soft," says Kirby. "It was good for us to go through this tonight.   The first time we played Merrillville, we led them (in the fourth quarter).  The second time it was back and forth.  We should have beaten them the second time.  The first time they didn't have (Sharon) Houston.  The second time they did.  We 'held' her to 23.  Confident?  We should be.  But we understand that if Merrillville comes to play, we're all in trouble.  If they don't shoot well, we have a chance."

Crown Point closes the season with Merrillville on Feb. 3.  What can they do there, carrying a somewhat ugly four-game losing streak?  May didn't guarantee it, but with five full practice days before the final game on the road, expect to see a lot of young faces coming off the bench.  The free throw disparity in the game was a product of who was aggressive and confident offensively.

"These are some of the nicest girls we've ever had in the program," said May.  "But they're not breaking the game down into details. They're not doing what they have to do.  You can tell if a team isn't playing well, because they're playing laterally.  They're dribbling away from the basket.  They're passing away from the basket.  We had a little JV girl (Christy) Quigley come in at the end and score four points.  Why?  Because she went towards the basket and got fouled.  We've got so many girls who are passing off and expecting someone else to do it.  But they're seniors.  They're the upperclassmen.  THEY have to do it."

CPLB NOTES:  Seniors Jackie Clements, Stephanie Poulos, Ashley Zaucha and Hannah Plumley were honored in front of the crowd before their final home game.  Each girl received flowers, candy, a photo album of them playing and a framed action portrait of themselves. 

The time to beat Valparaiso was this year.  The future of other contenders in the Duneland Conference must be judged against what Valparaiso has coming.  The Vikings have four freshman who are 6-feet or taller. 

"We have seven freshman on the JV," says varsity coach Greg Kirby.  "And the JV is 17-2.  We'll be even younger next year than we are now.  But in two years.  We'll be on the way up again."

CP has been 78-34 in the five previous seasons (2001-2005) but that has come to an end this year as the Bulldogs will finish with at least 10 losses for the first time since they were 10-12 in 2000.  That was also the last time CP lost more than four games in a row.  The Lady Bulldogs lost six consecutive games in November and December of 1999.

Copyright © 2005 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: January 29, 2006 .