H.S. Girls Basketball: Crown Point 75, Andrean 27

Courtney Kvachkoff (20) tries to get by Andrean's Brittany Gray (0) n last Tuesday's Andrean game at CP. (All photos by Mark Smith)

Andrean's Sheyanne Irvin (23) looks for the ball against Crown Point's Alexis Joseph (40) in CP's 75-27 victory.

CP's Michaela Prough (21) gets some advice from new CP coach Anne Equihua.

Madison Lesch (4) tries to get past CP's Kendall Brown (31) in Tuesdays game. CP led all the way after an 11-0 start. (All photos by Mark Smith)

CP's Abby Kvachkoff (30) sets up on defense late in the win over Andrean. Abby Kvachkoff (14 points) and her sister Courtney (12 points) led CP in scoring.

CP's' Beth Ingram tries to keep the inbounds pass from Andrean's Emma Farkas.

ANDREAN (27) Lauren Stazinski 2-1-5, Brenna Boyle 2-2-6, Jessica Gray 0-1-1, Madison Lesch 4-0-9, Sheyanne Irvin 2-0-4, Emma Farkas 1-0-2, Brittany Gray 0-0-0, Niya Gates 0-0-0. TOTALS: 11 (4-11) 27.

CROWN POINT (75) Michaela Prough 5-1-11, Courtney Kvachkoff 4-4-12, Kendall Brown 3-0-8, Alexis Joseph 3-2-8, Morgan Frame 3-1-7, Abby Kvachkoff 6-0-14, Taylor Equihua 2-0-4, Katija Tarailo 4-2-10, Kara Breuckman 0-1-1, Beth Ingram 0-0-0. TOTALS: 30 (11-14) 75.

FREE THROWS: ANDREAN (4-11, 36.3%) Boyle 2-5, Stazinski 1-2, Farkas 0-2, Jessica Gray 1-2; CROWN POINT (11-14, 78.5%) Courtney Kvachkoff 4-4, Prough 1-1, Joseph 2-2, Frame 1-2, Breuckman 1-2, Tarailo 2-3.

REBPOUNDS: ANDREAN (15) Boyle 4, Stazinski 3, Lesch 3, Irvin, Jessica Gray 3, Gates; CROWN POINT (47) Equihua 9, Joseph 6, Courtney Kvachkoff 6, Prough 5, Frame 5, Abby Kvachkoff 5, Brown 3, Tarailo 3, Breuckman 3, Ingram 2.

ASSISTS: ANDREAN (6) Lesch 3, Jessica Gray 2, Boyle; CROWN POINT (18) Courtney Kvachkoff 5, Ingram 4, Brown 3, Prough, Joseph, Frame, Equihua, Abby Kvachkoff, Tarailo

3-GOALS: ANDREAN (1) Madison Lesch; CROWN POINT (4) Kendall Brown 2, Abby Kvachkoff 2.

CROWN POINT (11-15-2011) With all the talk about new coach Anne Equihua, it's still hard to say exactly how good Crown Point is. We probably won't know until they play Lowell (3-0) in two weeks. The Lady Bulldogs' 75-27 walk over Andrean in the CP home opener Tuesday night was as much a product of some hardships the 59ers squad has suffered as it was good play by Crown Point.

CP romped for the second consecutive game, but basketball games played in November-December have almost no meaning. Crown Point was 9-0 last year, 6-2 the year before and 9-0 three years ago. They won nothing in any of those years. No league titles. No sectionals. Nothing. And they weren't even close.

The game was not close as Andrean only had eight players, even if you count injured (she played with a hand injury) Brenna Boyle. Crown Point was much taller and they coasted after scoring the game's first 11 points. The Lady Bulldogs got 10 players into the game and a got significant time in front of a small crowd in the CP home opener.

"We have great height and we'd be silly not to use it," said Equihua. "We still have some players who are not used to getting the ball inside. That's a habit that we are working very hard to break. Our first look has to be inside. Our second look has to be inside. We have to have an understanding of what goes in eventually will come back outside and everybody will get shots. Habits die hard, but we're getting there."

Senior Courtney Kvachkoff talked tried to explain what it is like playing on a team where the coach is a cousin and her younger sister is playing a significant role on the team.

"You go in the other room and you see eight people and then three of who are related to you. It's a different feeling," Courtney admits. "You know they are your family and you know they're always there for you but it wasn't that much of a change because I've been on teams with them before. And we've just come from volleyball where they were all on the team before."

What also may or may not be a change for Kvachkoff is that she is a guard now. With potential season-ending injures to junior guards Sarah Rivich and Haley Bordui, not only are Courtney's days a as a small forward essentially over, she and Kendall Brown are the only guards on the CP roster. Plus, somebody like 6-foot-1 forward Michaela Prough is going to play some minutes in a 'guard-like' position.

"We're overloaded in the post so we have to make due with what we have," Courtney says, understanding that everybody who can is going to press CP all over the floor now.

"We're trying it make our lineup bigger. Playing Michaela (Prough at guard) at a guard in one way to do it. We know that (pressure defense ) is coming. We're working on it."

They worked on it against Andrean as sophomore Abby Kvachkoff, Courtney's sister, came off the bench to score 14 points and 6-foot sophomore Katija Tarailo also tossed in 10 second-half points. Neither is truly a guard from a dribbling and passing standpoint. Not at the top level of the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) or the DAC-dominated Class 4A Sectional 2.

Crown Point has great depth in the front court for now and for the future. But without injured junior guards Haley Bordui and Sarah Rivich, the Lady Bulldogs have a serious uphill battle ahead in the four meetings against guard-rich Michigan City and Merrillville.

"Those are two huge pieces of our offense," said Equihua of her lost girls. "But one thing you learn in sports is that injuries happen. You have to accept it and adjust and move on. Because of our injuries, we're going to have to go to our bench more than we thought we were going to have to."

Andrean can't go to the bench much these days. Senior guard Shelby Stickler left the squad last week even though she was playing and was one of just three seniors. Another senior, 6-foot-1 center Ana Nicksic, missed Tuesday night's game because she was on a college visit. It would seem that her future attendance is not certain. The eight players who remain, including promising sophomores Madison Lesch, Brenna Boyle and Lauren Stazinski, are physically overmatched against teams like Merrillville and Crown Point, their first two foes. The short bench means the 59ers and coach Ken Markfull will just be building for the revamped Class 3A Sectional 18. Andrean is a little better than they've showed. Boyle played with a wrapped hand after being stepped on against Merrillville in last week's 65-27 loss to Merrillville.

"KV's going to be the favorite," Markfull predicted. "They're very good. I'm just worried about the first digit in our score being higher than a 2. That's the way its been the first two games. It is what it is. I like these girls. I like them all. They all want to play and cooperate. They're good kids."

CPLB NOTES: The more you listen to the description of Haley Bordui's upcoming knee surgery, the less likely it seems that the veteran junior guard can play this season. All knee surgery is somewhat uncharted, but there's no exact diagnosis of what's wrong with her. A best case scenario would have her back playing in January, but there is a worst case scenario.

"Haley is having surgery on Nov. 29 and they won't know the extent of it until they get in there," said coach Anne Equihua. "Depending on how severe it (the injury) is, it could be anywhere from four weeks to four months."

Since the girls basketball postseason begins in the first week of February, two months from Nov. 29 is too long.

Sarah Rivich won't be back until next season. A Division I prospect in soccer, Rivich's knee has major issues.

"They described her as having the knee of a 30-year old or someone who had played professional sports," says Equihua.

CP is going to sink or swim with guards Kendall Brown and Courtney Kvachkoff, plus 6-foot-1 inside-outside player Michaela Prough and senior rookie Beth Ingram.

"She's gaining more confidence," said Equihua of Ingram. "She coming from playing on JV to playing on the varsity. Abby (Kvachkoff) is first off the bench and she usually replaces a forward or post. If Abby goes in for (center-forward) Morgan Frame, Michaela comes outside. If she goes in for a guard,

"Its good for her in the long run because she's going to have to learn to play outside when she gets to college. Its hard because she's used to playing with her back to the basket. But she's working at it."

CP has Michaela Prough headed for Evansville University but the Lady Bulldogs have three or four others who will play at some college, most notably top scorer Courtney Kvachkoff.

"I don't even know where I'm going to go," Courtney said Tuesday. "I was thinking about pharmacy. But I've gone back on that. I want to be in the math or science field. Something like that. But I have no idea where I'm going. I'd like to stay close to home but my options are wherever."

CROWN POINT Lady Bulldogs (2-0), 2011 (14-8)
All night games begin with JV game at 6 p.m. unless indicated
In CAPS are Duneland Conference games
Nov. 12 (W) 63-37 at Kankakee Valley {1-1}
Nov. 15 (W) 75-27 Andrean {0-2}
Nov. 18 (Sat) PORTAGE {1-1}
Nov. 25 (Fri) at CHESTERTON {0-0}
Nov. 29 (Tues) at Lowell {2-0}
Dec. 2 (Fri.) LaPORTE {2-0}
Dec. 3 (Sat.) at Carmel {3-0} JV - 12 noon, varsity 1:30
Dec. 9 (Fri.) at LAKE CENTRAL {1-1}
Dec. 13 (Tues) at VALPARAISO {0-3}
Dec. 16 (Fri.) MICHIGAN CITY {2-0}
Dec. 20 (Tues.) at PORTAGE {1-1}
Dec. 23 (Fri.) Munster {0-2}
Dec. 27 (Tu) at MERRILLVILLE {2-0} 5:30 p.m.(girl/boy double-header)
Dec. 30 (Fri.) at Hobart {1-1}

Jan. 6 (Fri.) CHSTERTON {0-0} 6 p.m. (girl/boy double-header)
Jan. 14 (Sat) LAKE CENTRAL {1-1}
Jan. 20 (Fri.) at MICHIGAN CITY {2-0}
Jan. 24 (Tues) at LaPORTE {2-0}
Jan. 27 (Fri.) VALPARAISO {0-3}
Feb. 2 (Thurs) MERRILLVILLE {2-0)

Team /Record	1	2	3	4	Final
ANDREAN (0-2)	4	9	7	7	27
CROWN POINT (2-0)	23	18	10	24	75

Lady Bulldogs dominate 59ers, win home opener 75-27