Saturday, 11-20-2004 at Crown Point

WARSAW (53) Danielle DeGeeter 4-3-11, Rebekah Reichard 5-4-14, Amy Abbitt 1-0-2, Julie Seiss 5-7-17, Jen Scherer 1-0-3, Kim Clay 2-0-4, Tasia Smith 1-0-2, Laura Heiman 0-0-0, Katie Logan 0-0-0. TOTALS: 19-14-53.

CROWN POINT (58) Kaitlyn Sertich 6-1-13, Cassie Pruzin 4-3-11, Hannah Plumley 1-2-4, Jill Weiand 3-3-9, Stephanie Poulos 2-0-4, Kaitlin Sautter 0-0-0, Michelle Lipton 0-0-0, Jackie Clements 2-0-4, Anjellica Respond 3-0-6, Courtney Perry 3-1-7. TOTALS: 24-10-58.

FREE THROWS:   WARSAW (14-19, 73.6 %) Seiss 7-8, Reichard 4-7, DeGeeter 3-3, Abbitt 0-1.
                        CROWN POINT (10-19, 52.6%) Pruzin 3-5, Plumley 2-4, Weiand 3-4, Perry 1-3, Sertich 1-3.

REBOUNDS: Rebekah Reichard (W) 8; Hannah Plumley (CP) 7.

ASSISTS: Julie Seiss (W) 5; Cassie Pruzin (CP) 8

STEALS: Julie Seiss (W) 3; Cassie Pruzin (CP) 9

3-POINT GOALS – WARSAW (1) Jen Scherer; CROWN POINT (0)

CROWN POINT (11-20-2004) -  The burden of great expectations is that a team can start 4-0 and it's not that big a deal. That's the case for Crown Point's Bulldogs as they head home for Thanksgiving undefeated after Saturday's 58-53 victory over long distance rival Warsaw.

Coming off a 63-21 rout of Portage Friday night, the Lady Bulldogs trailed significantly for the first time before rallying to turn back the defending Class 4A Northern Semistate champions in a game that probably did both sides a lot of good.

“Crown Point is a very good team this year,' said new Warsaw coach John Snyder. “Coach may has done an excellent job with this group. they've been destroying people. So, from that standpoint, you can call this a moral victory.”

“But it's really frustrating when you have the lead we had at halftime (seven points). They made some minor adjustments but really, it was some of the young girls we had who just weren't willing to step up and make plays. I'm a new coach and this is a new system and they're still a little hesitant.”

Crown Point, led by senior guards Cassie Pruzin and Kaitlyn Sertich, forced 24 Warsaw turnovers, including 10 in the third quarter when the home team outscored the Tigers 17-4 to take control of the game.

“This was a bench mark for us,” said CP coach Tom May. “We expected a tough game from Portage last night, especially after their game with Penn. This was a game where we found out some things we need to do offensively and defensively.”

This was a well-played game. The Lady Bulldogs, who lost by 16 at Warsaw last year, jumped to a 12-6 lead but the Tigers fired up a 10-2 run to take the lead at the end of the first period.

Julie Seiss, a 5-9 junior guard, spearheaded a three-guard attack that broke through CP's trapping presses and expanded the lead to 29-22 late in the second period.

Crown Point trailed 33-26 at the half and appeared to be in bad shape against a team that wasn't intimidated by their extended defense.

“They were getting layups on us,” said May. “Julie (Seiss) was just going by us. We told our kids. Control the dribbler. Make her give it up and then we had them in a half court situation. They took some quick shots and we took advantage. I also thought they got a little tired at the end.”

They were probably tired of Pruzin and Sertich, who both scored in double figures for the fourth time this season. Sertich (15.0 ppg.) continued to double her average of last season (8.5 ppg.) and helped hold Warsaw to just six second half field goals. Pruzin (13.2) collected nine steals and eight assists, several of them either leaping out of bounds or diving on the floor to disrupt whatever the Tigers tried to do. The Bulldogs' lead was down to 51-49 in the final three minutes when Sertich hit a leaping 10-foot shot from the right side and Pruzin got fouled and sank two free throws to make it 55-49.

“She (Sertich) is getting better every game,” said May, “She always draws the best assignment. Kaitlyn is pretty strong but Seiss is a little beast. She's very strong. That was a tough game for her. She's also handling the ball more this year which I'm asking her to do.”

“The thing I like is that, if you look at the one (point guard) position, we're in double figures. At the '2', we're in double figures. At the five, we're in double figures. At the '4', we're in double figures and at the '3', we were close.”

“That's what we always talk about. If you're going to play, you have to be able to contribute offensively and defensively. We're getting better.”

With state-ranked neighbors and rivals Boone Grove (4-0) and Valparaiso (4-0) on the schedule next month, better is the only way to go.

CP NOTES:  Even though Warsaw's coach has changed, CP coach Tom May indicates that the CP-Warsaw series will not.

“Coach Will Weinhorst, he was one of my best friends in coaching,” said May. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, he's out now but I'm sure he'll be coming back in another position soon. He took the South Newton 'Running Rebels' to the semistate the first year we won the state title. But he did a great job with that program. I was offered the Warsaw job but I said, no, I wanted to stay at Crown Point. But I recommended him and Will got the job. They have won a state championship and they've been to the final game twice.”

“We've just maintained the relationship. Warsaw people like coming over here and we like going to Warsaw every other year. The sad thing is, with the double-round robin (14 league games) in the Duneland Conference, it takes away all these nonconference games.”

“We used to play Indianapolis Brebuef. Alan Vickery. He's at North Central. We'd love to play them now. We'd like to go to Evansville and play two games. We cant. We've got to play all these league teams twice. We get good competition in our league but we don't get much exposure outside this area.”

CROWN POINT Girls Basketball

	Coach Tom May  (25 years, 406-146)
	Start times are Varsity starting times
Date	Location ALL CAPS = Duneland Athletic Conference game	Time

Nov. 12	Hebron {1A}	W, 67-48
Nov. 13	Kankakee Valley {3A}	W, 60-24
Nov. 19	at PORTAGE {4A	W, 63-21
Nov. 20	Warsaw {4A}	W, 58-53
Nov. 26	CHESTERTON {4A}	W, 55-35
Nov. 30	Lowell {4A}	7:30 pm
Dec. 3	at LaPORTE {4A‡	7:30 pm
Dec. 10	LAKE CENTRAL {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Dec. 11	at Boone Grove {2A}	7:30 pm
Dec. 14	VALPARAISO {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Dec. 17	at MICHIGAN CITY {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Dec. 18	at Hanover Central {2A}	7:30 pm
Dec. 29	at MERRILLVILLE  {4A}‡	6:00 pm
Jan. 5	PORTAGE {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 8	at CHESTERTON {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 14	at LAKE CENTRAL {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 21	MICHIGAN CITY {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 25	LaPORTE {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 28	at VALPARAISO {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Feb. 4	MERRILLVILLE {4A}‡	7:30 pm

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Revised: November 27, 2004 .