Lady Bulldogs drop non-conference road game to Warsaw, 61-45

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith
11-21-2005

Saturday, 11-19-2005 - nonconference at Warsaw, Indiana

CROWN POINT (45)  Hannah Plumley 2-0-4, Courtney Perry 4-1-9, Jackie Clements 3-0-7, Stephanie Poulos 4-4-13, Katie Kvachkoff 3-1-7, Anjellica Rospond 1-0-2, Michelle Lipton 0-2-2,  Ashley Zaucha 0-1-1,  Amanda Moore 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 16 (11-17) 45.

WARSAW (61)  Jen Scherer 4-1-10, Amy Abbott 3-1-7, Kim Clay 2-2-6, Daniele DeGeeter 3-2-9, Julie Seiss 8-2-20, Katie Denlinger 0-6-6, Tasia Smith 1-0-3, Katie Logan 0-0-0, Megan Wood 0-0-0, Carly Snider 0-0-0.   TOTALS: 21 (14-17) 61.

FREE THROWS:  Crown Point  (11-17, 64.7%) - Poulos 4-4, Perry 1-2, Kvachkoff 3-3, Clements 0-1, Lipton 2-4, Zauhca 1-2.   

Warsaw (14-17, 82.2%) - DeGeeter 2-3, Seiss 2-3, Clay 2-2, Denlinger 6-6, Abbott 1-2, Scherer 1-1.

REBOUNDS:  Crown Point (32)  Plumley 5, Clements 5, Perry 7, Poulos 2, Rospond 7, Zaucha 3, Kvachkoff 2, Moore
Warsaw (20) Scherer 6, Denlinger 5, Smith 4, Seiss 4, DeGeeter

3-POINT GOALS:  Crown Point (2) Clements, Poulos;  Warsaw (5)  Seiss 2, DeGeeter, Scherer, Smith.

FOULED OUT:  Courtney Perry - 3:07 (4th Q).

CROWN POINT (60)  Hannah Plumley 4-8-19, Courtney Perry 3-1-7, Jackie Clements 0-0-0, Stephanie Poulos 3-1-7, Katie Kvachkoff 1-2-4, Anjellica Rospond 1-0-2, Michelle Lipton 1-2-5, Ashley Zaucha 0-0-0, Amanda Moore 4-6-16, Danialla Tarillo 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 17 (22-27) 60.

PORTAGE (21)  Brittany Buzea 1-0-2, Kacey Kornacki 1-0-2, Gloria Hernandez 1-1-3, Lisa Samplawski 4-1-11, Tiffany Keil 0-1-1, Stacy Levack 1-0-2, Hannah Pajor 0-0-0, Ashley Thompson 0-0-0.  TOTALS 8 (3-5) 21.

FREE THROWS:  Crown Point  (22-27, 81.4%)  Poulos 1-1, Plumley 10-12, Moore 6-8, Pery 1-2, Lipton 2-2, Kvachkoff 2-2.

Portage (3-5, 60%) Hernandez 1-2, Samplawski 1-1, Keil 1-2.

REBOUNDS:  Crown Point (41)  Perry 9, Moore 8, Kvachkoff 6, Plumley 5, Rospond 5, Zaucha 4, Clements 2, Poulkos, Lipton.

PORTAGE (22) Hernandez 8.

ASSISTS:  Crown Point (9) Plumley 3, Zaucha 3, Perry 2, Moore;  PORTAGE (1)

STEALS:  Crown Point (15)  Plumley 7, Zaucha 3, Poulos 2, Moore, Kvachkoff, Rospond.  PORTAGE (18) Buzea 4,

3-POINT GOALS:  Crown Point (2) Clements, Poulos;  Warsaw (5)  Seiss 2, DeGeeter, Scherer, Smith.

Warsaw, IN (11-19-2005) - Theoretically, your nonconference schedule is an opportunity to go out and find someone capable of beating you.  After three failed tries, Crown Point's Lady Bulldogs were successful Saturday night as they fell, behind early and lost 61-45 at Warsaw.

"I told the girls that we got a lot more out of this than we did beating Portage last night," said veteran coach Tom May.

CP (3-1) was faced with an equal for the first time in the young season and they handled it poorly early, falling behind 43-22.  But by the end of the contest, Crown Point was again an equal.  Warsaw got the win and CP got a reading on the reality of it all.

Warsaw used a full court press all night to disrupt the CP attack.  Crown Point committed 18 turnovers in the game, but it was the disruption of their attack that won the game.  The Lady Bulldogs (3-1), who had dominated Portage 24 hours earlier, scored just five first half field goals.  Veteran Warsaw guards Julie Seiss and Michelle DeGeeter combined for 16 first half points and 29 for the game.

"I thought going into the game that could be a factor," said Warsaw coach John Snyder. "They (CP) are going to miss those two guards (Cassie Pruzin and Kaitlyn Sertich) they had last year.  Those are hard players to replace and you don't replace them early on.  We spread them out to eliminate their size factor. We didn't want a shoving match with them."

CP junior center Courtney Perry scored on an offensive rebound with 6:21 to play, the only Lady Bulldog field goal in the first four minutes as Warsaw built a 12-2 advantage.  Warsaw was very strong in the opening quarter as Seiss, a 5-9 lead guard, scored nine points and kept the Tigers turnover free.

"She decided that her team would get off to a good start," said CP coach Tom May.  "The first ten points she scored about all of them. We were back on our heels and everything they did was attacking us."

At the half, we sat there and we said, Let's take a look at this. Where are we at here?  It should have been 10 at the half except that we missed an easy layup. They came down and we had a defensive breakdown and they kicked it out to DeGeeter and she buried a '3'.  That was a five point swing there and we were down 15."

"We'd played horrendous.  You always look at the score," noted May.  "But we have to look at 'Why did we play horrendous? Why is the score what it is?"

"I said, 'Let's make some (defensive) corrections.  Then we've got to get some looks where we want the ball.  Get it inside and start hitting the boards like we want to believe.  I thought we played even with them in the second half."

The second half was good for the Bulldogs.  Perry was effective inside despite foul trouble that limited her to about 15 minutes for the night.  Senior Stephanie Poulos scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half and 5-11 junior Katie Kvachkoff scored all seven of her points after the intermission.  The Lady Bulldogs slowed the game and got shorter shots, using their size more effectively.

"I thought that Perry was going at the glass like a demon," May said of his junior center.  "I thought (guard Michelle) Lipton had her best game of the year."

May is looking ahead to the big and strong defensive teams like Chesterton, Valparaiso and Merrillville. He wants his girls to work on their 'mid range game.' 

"You've got to beat your girl with one or two dribbles and then put it up," advised May.  "If you think you're going to get all the way in there (in lay up territory) you're going to have every monster confronting you.  And that's why we're changing shots.  "Poulie" (Stephanie Poulos) tried very hard to do that in the second half."

"Sarah Zondor (CP's new JV coach) was telling me, 'Coach, they're taking five dribbles. Just take two and let it go," recalled May.  "That's what I'm talking about.  We're seeing the same thing.  I thought Michelle (Lipton) played her best game of the year. I thought we came back in the second half.  I told them I was proud of the way they came back and played in the second half.  We have to think what we want every single time.  We can't just look up after three times down the floor and be down 6-2.  If we do that, people aren't going to want to play us.  They may beat us but they won't want to play us.  I told the girls I was more proud of them in the second half tonight than I was when we beat Portage last night."

CPLB NOTES:  Unofficially, CP out-rebounded Warsaw 32-20. Former Lady Bulldog guard Cassie Pruzin played  25 minutes in a 72-61 loss to No. 14 Washington in the championship game of the Tipoff Classic at Washington.  Pruzin scored eight points with four rebounds, two steals and one turnover.  In her debut, a 72-60 Washington Classic semifinal win against Illinois Wesleyan, Pruzin, an Indiana all-star last season and a four-year varsity player for CP, scored 13 points with three turnovers, three rebounds two steals and an assist.  DePauw, a Division III team, is ranked 19th nationally.

Warsaw coach John Snyder noted that the Tigers formerly were the tall team and CP had smaller players. That has reversed as CP has three players 5-10 or taller.  "We're going to be small for awhile," Snyder said, noting that 5-11 Tigers Katie Logan and Tasia Smith are seniors. "We won't be tall again until this year's seventh graders get here."

Julie Seiss, who scored 17 last Friday in Warsaw's 57-33 victory over Tippecanoe Valley, is going to play at Butler University.  Seiss has been a four-year starter for Warsaw and is a candidate for the 2006 Indiana all-star team.  Snyder thought that Plymouth (3-0) might be the favorite in the Northern Lakes Conference, of which Warsaw is a member.  Northwood (5-0) has already completed 25% of their schedule.

Crown Point is still going with nine varsity players.  When Courtney Perry got into foul trouble at Warsaw, the Lady Bulldogs were not especially shorthanded because 5-10 Katie Kvachkoff can play the post defensively as can 5-9 senior Jackie Clements. When new players are added to the CP varsity, they will be in the backcourt as the Lady Bulldogs only have two true guards.

USA-365.com Notes:  The Crown Point at Warsaw girls basketball game was originally on our posted schedule of games to be broadcast via the Internet on USA-365.com.  Our plans were side-tracked due to an unscheduled, but safe birth of a little baby girl early Saturday morning, November 19th.  Congratulations to Danielle Woodworth on the birth of her daughter, Lindsay.  Both mother and daughter are doing well.  'Grandpa Dave' is now okay, as well.  (Editor's note from Dave Woodworth.)

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Revised: November 22, 2005 .