Lady Bulldogs beat Chesterton 80-74, go to 5-0 on season

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
11-28-2010

CHESTERTON (74) Brooke Gardner 9-6-28, Claire Holba 7-4-18, Lindsey Gorman 0-3-3, Alyssa White 4-4-14, Ryan Bozak 2-0-4, Riley Taubert 3-1-7, Antoinette Frank 0-0-0, Caroline Puntillo 0-0-0. TOTALS: 25 (18-24) 74.

CROWN POINT (80) Kelly Gross 1-2-5, Michaela Prough 6-2-14, Courtney Kvachkoff 11-5-29, Kendall Brown 3-1-9, Madeline Moore 4-3-11, Lisa Kurth 2-5-9, Hayley Bordui 0-1-1, Sarah Rivich 1-0-2, Zarah Cecich 0-1-1. TOTALS: 28 (19-31) 80.

FREE THROWS: CHESTERTON (18-24, 75%) Gardner 6-6, Holba 4-7, Gorman 3-4, White 4-4, Bozak 0-1, Taubert 1-2. TOTALS: CROWN POINT (19-32, 59.3%) Kvachkoff 5-9, Brown 1-2, Prough 2-3, Gross 2-2, Bordui 1-2, Moore 3-4, Joseph's 0-2, Kurth 5-8.

REBOUNDS: CHESTERTON (30) Taubert 10, Holba 7, Bozak 4, Gardner 3, White 4, Gorman, Frank; CROWN POINT (26) Moore 5, Prough 5, Brown 4, Kurth 4, Kvachkoff 3, Gross 2, Joseph 2, Rivich.

ASSISTS: CHESTERTON (11) Gardner 4, White 4, Bozak 2, Holba; CROWN POINT (11) Kurth 3, Kvachkoff 2, Brown 2, Gross, Prough, Moore, Rivich.

STEALS: CHESTERTON (6) Gardner 3, Bozak 2, Holba; CROWN POINT (18) Kvachkoff 7, Prough 2, Bordui 2, Brown 2, Moore 2, Rivich 2, Gross.

3-GOALS: CHESTERTON (6) Brooke Gardner 4, Alyssa White 2; CROWN POINT (5) Courtney Kvachkoff 2, Kendall Brown 2, Kelly Gross.

FOULED OUT: CHESTERTON (1) Ryan Bozak (4th Q) :17 left; CROWN POINT (none).

CROWN POINT (11-26-2010) There was a time when Chesterton games against Crown Point put people to sleep. That's changed. But Friday night, the first of two Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) match-ups between these two league rivals had a little too much action.

Crown Point was on the verge of embarrassing Chesterton, leading 74-54 with four minutes to play. But the Trojans put some fight back into the night with a 17-1 run that closed the lead to 76-72 with 39 seconds to play before CP held on for an 80-74 victory.

It was hard to tell whether Crown Point coach Mike Cronkhite was truly OK with this game or not.

"The one thing we're trying to instill is, when you have them on the ropes, put them away," he said. "It didn't happen tonight. They (Chesterton) are a well-coached team. They made shots. When you have the three-point basket, you're never out of a game. The fourth quarter just didn't go our way."

I've been around varsity basketball coaches since cats were kittens and that is an extremely subdued response to that big a late game meltdown. Cronkhite is normally very vocal on the sidelines, pacing back and forth and shouting orders in the tradition of CP coaching icon Tom May.

"It's a win. We're 5-0. My wife (Christie) told me I was too energetic on the sidelines," Cronkhite smiled, "and I had to tone it down a bit."

Cronkhite was trying to accentuate the positive. In CP's first game against a winning team, they forced 23 turnovers, collected 18 steals and built a 20-point advantage. The second half of the 20-game regular season schedule is much tougher than the first half and the Lady Bulldogs (5-0, 2-0 DAC) need all the help they can get. And CP was a victim of circumstance in the late going.

"You and I both know that those last four minutes are a lot different if Gross' '3' from the corner goes in and we go back up 21 with four minutes left," Cronkhite said. "She's one of the best shooters in the conference and it just didn't go in. That's the way we play."

That's just the way they play now. CP shoots the ball at first opportunity. They have good shooters and they attempt a lot of three point shots early in the game going for the 'knockout'.

That style is going to lead to 80-point games and 20-point leads but it's also going to fuel 17-1 runs the other way against good teams. Cronkhite is a little defensive about losing 80% of a 20-point lead in three minutes but he explains that this style, which had CP averaging 73 points a game after five wins, is what the Lady Bulldogs must have to win in the DAC. In the recent past, everybody (including Chesterton) tried to drag MC and Merrillville into a half court game where they were beatable. Crown Point is going to try to beat Merrillville and Michigan City at their own game. That was the main thing to take away from this evening.

"Obviously the Duneland likes to slow it down," Cronkhite says. "So we're trying to get up and down the floor. Michigan City, Merrillville and Chesterton (now) will run with us, but I don't think LaPorte and Portage and Valpo will. We'll see. We're 5-0."

Cronkhite has suggested before that he knows that being 5-0 at this point means nothing considering recent Lady Bulldog history. CP was 8-0 two years ago and finished at 12-10. The Lady Bulldogs were 7-3 last year and finished at 10-11. It's not their fault. It's the schedule. The Lady Bulldogs play DAC powers Michigan City and Merrillville twice each in the last 10 games of the 20-game schedule. But the present players, other than Kvachkoff, are underclassmen who are a little disconnected from that.

"I think we're more a part of it now," said Kvachkoff, who was a varsity player the second half of the 12-10 season. "I played in the last five or six games but we weren't really a part of it. It was exciting, but it wasn't as exciting for us because we weren't really a part of it then."

Crown Point made just 2-of-10 three-point shots in the first quarter, but 5-foot-9 junior Courtney Kvachkoff scored 12 in the second quarter as the Lady Bulldogs finished the half with a 12-6 run for a 43-31 lead. Chesterton's Brooke Gardner led a 7-0 run that closed the gap to 52-46 midway through the third quarter, but CP's 1-3-1 half court zone continued to force turnovers. Kvachkoff, 6-foot-1 junior Michaela Prough and backup point guard Lisa Kurth sparked an 11-4 run that closed out the quarter with a 13-point CP advantage.

The Lady Bulldogs' depth (they used nine players most of the night to just six for Chesterton) seemed to wear out the visitors during an 11-4 run that built the biggest lead, 74-54 with 4-1/2 minutes left.

But Gardner, a senior guard who missed all last season with a knee problem, got to the foul line and made four consecutive free throws. Her three point shot cut the lead to 74-63 with 2:18 left.

After a free throw from Kvachkoff, the Trojans' Alyssa White hit two three-point shots, inducing a crazy shot that banked in off the corner of the backboard to make it 75-71 with 59 second to go.

It was 78-74 when Kurth split two fouls shots with 26 seconds to go and 80-74 when Kurth again split two foul shots with 11 seconds left. Gardner fouled out with 32 seconds left, stunting the Chesterton rally.

Kvachkoff, who scored 29 points and now averages 19.2, acknowledged that CP's three-point shooting style is more fun but a little taxing.

"You definetly have to be in shape," she said. "It takes a lot more running. But I like it."

Coach Jack Campbell had been the king of slowdown style at Chesterton. In 2004, the Trojans defeated CP 36-27 and 37-27. In 2006, they won 46-39, and 47-31. After four games, Chesterton was averaging 67 points a game and allowing 70 points a game. A total reversal in form. The 23-year veteran coach says that his team's change to a more up-tempo style came from players he had. He didn't have any regrets after big numbers losses to Penn and CP.

"They made a lot of shots. One pass and then a shot. No passes and then a shot. We gave them a lot of offensive rebounds in the first half. When you score 74 and don't win, that's not good."

"You've got to do what you do with what you have," he said. "You want to take advantage of your skills. We scored enough points. It was a good comeback. It would have been basically easy for our girls to cash in their chips."

DOG NOTES: Chesterton lost to Penn 88-52 on Nov. 22 and they left an impression.

"Penn is that good," said coach Jack Campbell. "I don't think they were 36 points better than us. Maybe 18 or 20 points better. But they're good."

Chesterton is looking for more scoring.

"On any good team at this level, you need three people scoring," he said. "We have two (Broke Gardner and Claire Holba) and we're looking for that third scorer."

Crown Point started sophomore Sarah Rivich at guard with senior Kelly Gross and junior Kendall Brown. Crown Point has four girls who are 6-foot or taller and none of them started the game Friday. Senior Madeline Moore started at center and had a strong game with 11 points and four rebounds.

Michaela Prough, a 6-foot-1 junior, came off the bench to score 14 points. Kendall Brown had 11 three-point baskets after five games. She had two 3's against Chesterton.

The last time Crown Point scored 80 points in a varsity girls basketball game was when they topped Hanover Central 84-53 on Jan. 3, 2004. The last time CP scored 80 points in a Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) game was when they won 84-57 at Michigan City on Jan. 23, 2004. That 2004 team was 14-8.

CP beat Lowell 80-12 on Nov. 28, 2000 and the Lady Bulldogs won 93-34 over Horace Mann on Jan. 4, 1997.

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Revised: November 28, 2010 .