Michigan City overwhelms Lady Bulldogs 63-44 to capture 4A Sectional 2 Championship

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
02-13-2012

CROWN POINT (44) Michaela Prough 5-0-10, Kendall Brown 3-0-8, Alexis Joseph 2-3-7, Courtney Kvachkoff 7-3-17, Moran Frame 1-0-2, Beth Ingram 0-0-0, Abby Kvachkoff 0-0-0, Katija Tarailo 0-0-0, Lauren O'Keefe 0-0-0. TOTALS: 18 (6-11) 44.

MICHIGAN CITY (63) Toni Murphy 4-7-16, Keshyana Cooper 4-2-10, Jameka Collins 5-2-12, Michal Miller 2-6-11, Dejania Evans 4-0-8, Raven Wood 1-0-3, Aubria Smith 1-0-3, Dakota Leslie 0-0-0, Diamond Thompkins 0-0-0. TOTALS: 21 (17-26) 63.

FREE THROWS: CP (6-11, 54.5%) C. Kvachkoff 3-4, A. Kvachkoff 0-2, Joseph 3-5; MICH CITY (17-26, 65.4%) Murphy 7-9, Cooper 2-4, Collins 2-2, Miller 6-11.

REBOUNDS: CP (27) Joseph 10, Prough 7, C. Kvachkoff 5, A. Kvachkoff 2, Ingram 3; MICH CITY (51) Cooper 22, Evans 11, Murphy 7, Collins 5, Miller 2, Smith, Thompkins, Leslie, Wood.

ASSISTS: CP (13) Joseph 4, Brown 4, Ingram, Prough, Tarailo, Frame, C. Kvachkoff; MICH CITY (5) Murphy 3, Collins, Miller.

3-GOALS: CP (2) Kendall Brown 2; MICH CITY (4) Aubria Smith, Toni Murphy, Raven Wood, Michal Miller.

Crown Point Lady Bulldogs vs. Michigan City game statistics

Class 4A Regional at VALPARAISO
Penn [23-1] vs. Michigan City [18-6]
Elkhart Memorial [20-5] vs. East Chicago [17-6]

Class 4A Regional at KOKOMO
(FW) Snider [20-3] vs. (FW) South [22-1]
McCutcheon [20-3] vs. North Central [19-5]

Class 4A Regional at DECATUR CENTRAL
Ben Davis [19-6] vs. Lawrence North [18-4]
Mooresville [13-9] vs. Anderson [19-5]

Class 4A Regional at BEDFORD NORTH LAWRENCE
Castle [11-11] vs. Bedford North Lawrence [22-2]
Columbus North [20-3] vs. Greenwood [20-2]

Friday, February 10, 2012 - Class 4A, Sectional 2 Girls Basketball Semifinal at PORTAGE, IN

CROWN POINT (44) Alexis Joseph 4-2-10, Michaela Prough 2-5-9, Courtney Kvachkoff 6-5-17, Beth Ingram 1-0-2, Kendall Brown 0-1-1, Abby Kvachkoff 2-0-5, Lauren O'Keefe 0-0-0. Totals: 15 (13-17) 44.

LaPORTE (33) Jaclyn Heath 2-3-7, Danielle Alcorn 6-0-16, Taylor Thompson 3-0-6, Kelsey Gushrowski 1-1-3, Kelsey Sule 0-1-1, Maddie Voekler 0-0-0. TOTALS: 12 (5-13) 33.

FREE THROWS: CP (13-17, 76.4%) C. Kvachkoff 5-6, Prough 5-6, Joseph 2-2, Brown 1-2, Ingram 0-1; LaPORTE (5-13, 38.4%) Sule 1-2, Heath 3-8, Gushrowski 1-3.

REBOUNDS: CP (23) Prough 10, Joseph 6, Brown 3, C. Kvachkoff 2, A. Kvachkoff, Ingram; LaPORTE (28) Gushrowski 12, Sule 6, Thompson 5, Heath 2, Alcorn 2 Voekler.

ASSISTS: CP (7) C. Kvachkoff 3, Brown 3, Prough; LaPORTE (3) Heath 3.

FOULED OUT: LaPORTE (1) Taylor Thompson (4th Q) :20 left.

3-GOALS: LaPORTE (4) Danielle Alcorn 4; CP (1) Abby Kvachkoff.

CP failed in the effort to win the school's first sectional basketball title since 2001, while Michigan City advanced to play 4A No. 2 Penn (23-1) in the Valparaiso Regional semifinals Saturday at 11 a.m.

Michigan City (18-6), which lost four of five games during a late season stretch, rallied at the sectional with a forceful 70-56 upset of undefeated Merrillville (20-0) and the win over CP seemed just a spillover.

Crown Point pulled to within 42-31 with 6:10 to play, but playing for the second time in two nights and with just eight players they could rotate, a complete comeback against the faster Wolves was unlikely. And CP-MC has been a bad match up for CP for years. Until the Lady Bulldogs won at Michigan City late last month, CP had lost 13 games in a row to Michigan City.

The Wolves lost themselves late in the year and found their game in time.

"Late in the year," said MC coach Mike Megyese. "We were looking for a leader. Didn't matter who it was. Toni became that leader. She's out there taking the ball."

Murphy, who scored 36 in the upset of Merrillville, added 16 against the Lady Bulldogs. And even though the Lady Bulldogs topped a short-handed Michigan City team (center Keshyana Cooper missed that game due to a suspension) in the final week of the season 67-53, Megyese considered his team the favorite in the eight team sectional 2 tournament.

"We had some internal suspensions that hurt us a little bit," said Megyese of the revival. "We lost some game we wouldn't have lost otherwise. I hope the girls see now that those things were for the good of the program. It's easy to say that now that we've won the sectional. But I hope the girls see that now and maybe they do."

When asked if Michigan City had a closed-door meeting to get back together as a group, Megyese answered "Oh, we had more than one of them. We had quite a few. And we may have another one this week. That's okay."

Cooper had 22 rebounds in 31 minutes of play against CP as the Wolves out rebounded CP 51-26. The 6-foot junior did not play on Jan. 31 when CP won on a Tuesday night at Michigan City.

"We never felt we were underdogs," said Megyese. "We were a little ticked off that we didn't do what we needed to do during the regular season. I've said before that I didn't care how many wins you get. I don't care about the DAC title. I care about the sectional. We got the one that mattered."

Michigan City shot just 21 of 58 (36.2%) from the field and they committed 21 turnovers, but CP was so tired from trying to rally all night that they could not mount any consistent rallies.

The rebounding numbers were vivid, but that wasn't the basis of the title game victory. Since MC was a faster team, CP gave up some outside shots off of penetration in the first minutes. The Wolves were 4-of-9 on three-point baskets in the first half. As the game wore on, CP, which has six players 5-foot-9 or taller, had to chase Michigan City, which often plays Cooper and four guards. There was a speed mismatch. CP has the guards to counter MC. But other than leading scorer Courtney Kvachkoff, they were on the disabled list as they have been all year.

The Lady Bulldogs may have over-achieved, considering the two girls who were out all year plus injuries that cost playing time for backup Taylor Equihua, guard Beth Ingram and center Morgan Frame.

CP graduates all five senior starters so next year's team will adopt more of the style that coach Equihua played when she was an all-state player in the 1980s.

"I want to press full court and get in your face," she said. "We changed our style this year to fit our players. Number one. Our numbers were low due to injuries and we couldn't press. Number two, our speed wasn't conducive to us playing a full court game. We had more size than speed. Next year's team will be a bit different. But I'm proud of these girls. I absolutely love 'em. They played so hard."

SECTIONAL NOTES: Crown Point pushed out leads of 9-1 and 14-2 and were never really challenged by a LaPorte team that had defeated them twice during the regular season. CP held LaPorte senior Kelsey Sule, who scored 37 points in the two regular season meetings, to just one point, a free throw with nine seconds remaining in the game.

CP, playing without senior forward Morgan Frame, who was home ill, kept the pace slow and never led by less than 10 in the fourth quarter. LaPorte had defeated CP 60-45 on Dec. 2 and 50-46 on Jan. 24, but the Slicers did not score from the field until Danielle Alcorn hit a three-point basket with 6:20 left in the half. The win marked the first time CP has reached the sectional championship game since 2005.

Coach Mike Megyese said that even though undefeated Merrillville had already defeated his girls twice that he 'knew' they would win the third meeting. Merrillville had defeated MC 76-71 and 74-57.

"We felt very confident going into the third game," said Megyese. "We didn't have Keshyana (center Keshyana Cooper) the second time. I'm a pretty brass person at times. I knew we were the best team coming into this tournament and we proved it."

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Revised: February 17, 2012 .