Lady Wolves snap Crown Point's unbeaten streak, 53-52

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
12-15-2008

Team /Record 1 2 3 4 Final
CROWN POINT (9-1) 13 8 18 13 52
BOONE GROVE (5-3) 5 12 18 18 53

Saturday, December 13, 2008 - Non-conference girls basketball at PORTER TOWNSHIP, IN

CROWN POINT (52) Flori Garcia 2-0-4, Madeline Moore 3-2-8, Maegen Maloney 5-0-14, Daniela Tarailo 6-4-17, Kelly Gross 1-0-2, Zarah Cecich 1-1-3, Alle Geisen 0-2-2, Clare Grubnich 1-0-2, Sydnee Reeves 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  19 (9-19) 52.

BOONE GROVE (53) Kelly Dobson 1-2-4,Emily Strilich 2-4-8, Brittany Shaffer 2-3-8, Brittany DeWell 4-18-26, Mary Kiefer 0-2-2, Jordan Chester 0-5-5. TOTALS: 9 (34-45) 53.

FREE THROWS:  CP (9-19, 47.3%) Tarailo 4-6, Moore 2-5, Geisen 2-2, Cecich 1-2, Reeves 0-4:  BOONE (34-47, 72.3%)  DeWell 18-20, Chester 5-10, Strilich 4-7, Dobson 2-4, Shaffer 3-4. Kieffer 2-2.

REBOUNDS:  CP (34) Reeves 11, Moore 9, Tarailo 9, Gross 2, Cecich, Garcia, Maloney;  BOONE (30) Strilich 12, DeWell 8,  Dobson 4, Shaffer 4, Chester 2.

ASSISTS:  CP (10) Tarailo 4, Reeves, Moore, Maloney, Gross, Geisen, Cecich; BOONE (2) Kiefer, Dobson.

STEALS:  CP (7) Tarailo 5, Geisen, Maloney; BOONE (3) Dobson; DeWell, Chester.

FOULED OUT:  CP (3) Sydnee Reeves (4th Q) 3:11 left; Flori Garcia (4th Q) 1:16; Kelly Gross (4th Q) 2:09..

3-GOALS:  CP (5) Maegen Maloney 4, Daniela Tarailo; BOONE (1) Brittany Shaffer.


PORTER TOWNSHIP (12-13-2008) When Boone Grove plays at Crown Point they usually get beat decisively in a quick, quiet game.  When the two teams meet at Boone it's not like that.  In a game that played out like a Boone home court upset of an undefeated Crown Point team four years ago, the underdog, seemingly out-manned Wolves came from 10 points behind to upset unbeaten Crown Point 53-52 in another chapter from one of Northwest Indiana's best rivalries.

In front of a slim Saturday crowd on a cold, rainy night, the Wolves (5-3) used a double high post delay offense and a lot of foul shots to hand CP, the mid-season Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) leaders, their first loss of the season.

"A lot of it was Boone," said CP coach Scott Reid, who took the first loss hard.  "We did not rebound well in the second half and we missed some easy shots.  They played well.  There are little things you have to do that we didn't do."

This was a pure upset.  DeWell hit a 10-foot shot from the baseline to put Boone ahead 50-49 with 1:12 left.  CP's Flori Garcia missed a jump shot and DeWell, who was a bench player last season for Boone, split two foul shots with 10 seconds to go and sank two free throws to ice the game with four seconds left.  The Wolves, who have lost to Hebron, Calumet and Highland, celebrated at the end like they'd won a championship.

"All of us were down today," DeWell said with a laugh.  "Even me.  We just said there's no way we can win this game.  We were behind and I was really worried.  This was a great win. We needed it."

There was this little thing about 47 free throws for Boone Grove.  Forty-seven.  It was a poorly officiated game and that's being kind.  The Wolves were 34-of-47 and sophomore guard Brittany DeWell was 18-of-20.  The CP fans complained bitterly throughout the second half as they watched the Lady Bulldogs lose even though they gave up just nine field goals.

"We got fouled, too," said Reid, who saw no value in discussing the officiating after the game was over.  "We got free throws.  We've got to make those.  But I am proud of our girls.  They could have gotten down and gotten chippy.  You want to act with class and I thought that the girls did."

"You have to adjust to the officiating.  We got called for a half dozens fouls 40 feet from the basket.  You can't do that."

CP, which was coming off a 54-48 home court victory over Lake Central Friday, led Boone 13-5 after one quarter and 36-28 with 2:32 left in the third quarter on Maegen Maloney's fourth three-point basket of the game.  But CP drew their 10th foul of the half with 6:21 to play and Boone scored steadily from the foul line.

How bad was the officiating?  It was pretty bad.  CP was playing pressure defense while Boone, with a short bench, was not.  DeWell earned most of her 10 trips (she sank two shots eight times) to the line, but the CP backers wanted Tarailo, who was closely guarded all night, to get the same free shots.  You can imagine what 47 foul shots in a 32-minute game was like.  But, folks, like they say in the movie, 'Welcome to Indiana basketball'.

And Boone coach Candy Wilson did a couple of things which played into the foul fest.

Boone used a box-and-one defense against CP's Daniela Tarailo (17 ppg.), CP's 5-foot-10 guard.  The move encouraged the other Lady Bulldogs to take some open perimeter shots and you aren't going to get fouled out there.

"That's one of my 'junk' defenses," smiled Wilson.  "I live and die with those junk defenses.  Mary Kieffer guarded her (Tarailo) in the beginning and later it was Jordan Chester."

"It's something that's hard to prepare for.  It's a strange defense.  Our girls moved really well.  We lapsed on rebounding sometimes, but we stepped up when we needed to."

"I told the girls that we're going to see more and more of that," said Reid about the trick defense.  "Some of the other girls have to become scorers in situations like that.  We got the shots.  We had a lot of shots that we should have made.  We've got girls that hit them before and will hit them again."

Wilson also used a high post delay in the fourth quarter where DeWell and Jordan Chester used screens at the foul line to drive and get fouled.

"That's really a stall," DeWell said.  "It's just a play when the defense keys on the guard.  The post sets a screen and if the defense all comes to the guard, the post can go to the basket and get open.  We work on that a lot."

Thee is a school of thought that says that high school teams don't need to be undefeated because the pressure simply builds.  If you have to lose any games, losing a non-conference game on the road by one point is about as good as you are going to get.

"We play Valparaiso Tuesday and that's much bigger for us," said Reid.  "But take nothing away from them (Boone).  They played hard and they did what they had to do."

DOG-WOLF NOTES:  Crown Point outscored Lake Central 16-6 in the third quarter to improve to 4-0 in the DAC with a 54-48 victory Friday night.  CP's forward combination of Sydnee Reeves (10 points and three steals) and Madeline Moore (nine rebounds) backed up Daniela Tarailo, who scored 17 points and six rebounds.

Boone will go the rest of the season without 5-foot-7 junior forward Kaitlyn Wilcox, who tore her ACL in the first period of the first game this season against Calumet.

"She won't be back until the end of her softball season," said coach Candy Wilson.  "She hit her only shot of the year.  Her shooting percentage is 100%."

Wilson says that her team drew host Kouts (5-1) in the semifinals of the South County Tournament on Friday, Jan. 2.  The Wolves would like to avenge a 44-41 Porter County Conference (PCC) loss to Hebron on Nov. 22, but Boone could see Hebron four times this season.  There's no rush.

"Our league is so even," said Wilson.  "It doesn't matter who we play.  I liked the good old days when we killed everybody."

Four years ago, CP was 8-0 when they lost a 57-52 overtime game to undefeated Boone in December of 2004.  In that game, Brittany DeWell's older sister Megan guarded CP's Indiana all-star guard Cassie Pruzin in the upset victory on Dec. 12, 2004.  Like Saturday's 53-52 verdict, that 2004 contest was also a very physical game with controversial officiating.  Two years ago, Boone held off a Lady Bulldog rally and beat CP 51-49.  Those are believed to be Boone's only three victories over Crown Point since girls basketball became an IHSAA sport in the early 1970s.

Boone's 49-39 win over Washington Township on Dec. 5 was part of the school's first boys-girls homecoming double-header.  It won't be the last.

"I liked it," said athletic director Doug Knutson.  "There was real good atmosphere in the building.  We had a real good crowd.  It was a good night."

Crown Point has five boys/girls double-headers this season.  The next one is Friday, Dec. 19 against Michigan City.  The girls game between CP (9-1) and Michigan City (6-1) will start at 6:00 p.m.


CLASS SECTIONAL JOHN HARRELL'S INDIANA HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL GIRLS' SEASONS
4A 2 E-MAIL CORRECTIONS MAP TO SCHOOL 12-8
TOURNAMENT HISTORY
CROWN POINT
BULLDOGS
Coach: Scott Reid, 18-23 in 2nd year at school
DATE OPPONENT RESULT / CST OA 51.0, DA 44.2
Nov. 14 Hebron {2A}  W   56-  38  
Nov. 15 Kankakee Valley {3A}  W   53-  41  
Nov. 21 at Portage {4A}  W   54-  51  
Nov. 22 Warsaw {4A} ot W   70-  57  
Nov. 28 Chesterton {4A}  W   45-  36  
Nov. 29 at Hanover Central {2A}  W   49-  37  
Dec. 2 Lowell {4A}  W   45-  19  
Dec. 5 at LaPorte {4A}  W   63-  40  
Dec. 12 Lake Central {4A}  W   54-  48  
Dec. 13 at Boone Grove {2A}   L   52-  53  
Dec. 16 Valparaiso {4A}   L   49-  56  
Dec. 20 Michigan City {4A}   L   47-  56  
Dec. 30 Merrillville {4A}  W   58-  46  
Jan. 2 Portage {4A}   L   29-  43  
Jan. 9 at Chesterton {4A}   L   40-  45  
Jan. 17 at Lake Central {4A}   L   34-  39  
Jan. 23 at Michigan City {4A}   L   54-  60  
Jan. 27 LaPorte {4A}  W   79-  32  
Jan. 30 at Valparaiso {4A}   L   34-  47  
Feb. 5 at Merrillville {4A}  W   54-  40  
Feb. 11 (n)Michigan City {4A} 6:00 pm  sectional
DUNELAND CONFERENCE GAME



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