H.S. Girls Basketball: Crown Point 54, Lake Central 49, Tom May 400th career win

Team	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3rd Qtr	4th Qtr	Final
Lake Central (8-7, 5-5)	7	18	12	12	49
CROWN POINT (10-6, 5-5)	10	11	14	14	54

LAKE CENTRAL (49) Jen Vander Zanden 3-7-13, Linsey Smith 5-2-15, Katie Mitchell 2-0-5, Angie Funston 3-2-8, Lisa Kruse 1-1-3, Alissa Duncan 2-0-5, Alison Vajda 0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-12-49

FTS: 12-17, 70. 5 percent - Vanderzanden 7-8, Smith 2-4, Funston 2-3, Kruse 1-2.
FOULED OUT: none
REBUNDS: Jen Vanderzanden - 13
ASSISTS: Katiue Mitchell - 6
TURNOVERS: 20
3-POINT GOALS (5) Linsey Smith 3, Katie Mitchell, Alissa Duncan.

CROWN POINT (54) Kaitlyn Sertich 3-2-8, Hannah Plumley 0-0-0, Cassie Pruzin 6-3-16, Mallory Michaels 0-0-0, Jill Weiand 6-2-14, Blayre Reeves 3-0-6, Stephanie Sandilla 3-1-8, Anjellica Rospond 0-0-0, Stephanie Poulos 0-0-0, Jackie Clements 1-0-2. TOTALS: 22-8-54

FTS: 8-14, 57.1% - Pruzin 3-3, Sertich 2-4, Reeves 0-1, Sandila 1-2, Weiand 2-4.
REBOUNDS: Stephanie Sandilla - 5
STEALS: Cassie Pruzin - 5
ASSISTS: Cassie Pruzin - 8
TURNOVERS: 9
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (1) Cassie Pruzin.

CROWN POINT (1-16-2004) - Crown Point's Lady Bulldogs did the impossible for coach Tom May Friday. Beating Lake Central wasn't impossible. The Bulldogs did it 53-51 five weeks ago. Coming from nine points behind also wasn't unprecedented. CP came from 10 points behind to win on Dec. 12.

What the CP girls did was make May's two week wait between career victories 399 and 400 worth it.

"The thing I like about it is that we beat a great program tonight," said may after accepting extended congratulations after the Lady Bulldogs' 54-49 Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) win in front of as crowd of about 1,000. "Tom's (Megyesi's) teams always play well and they played well tonight."

The victory, sparked by an 11-0 run in the third quarter and an 8-0 starting the final quarter, put the 24th year Crown Point coach (400-143) into the highest plateau of Indiana girls basketball leaders. May follows Warsaw's Will Weinhorst and Clinton Central's into the 400-win bracket among state coaches. He is the first northwest Indiana coach to reach 400, averaging almost 17 wins (16.7) for just under a quarter of a century.

The fact that he's lasted 24 years at the same school is almost as impressive as the 400 triumphs.

"That first game," he said. "That was a long time ago. I'm an old guy. I remember my first team. A fine group of young ladies I inherited from Terri Winchester, who was the former coach, who starred at Indiana University. She went back to get her law degree. We were 18-3 and we got to the sectional title game. We had a four or five point lead with a minute left and lost on the final shot."

"I remembered that day that we were absolutely shattered. I'm thinking, 'is this what it's like?' To have so many wins and have it end like that. I remember thinking that was the worst feeling in the world. That's what I remember from that season."

"The next year, we went to the semistate. They fed off of that. And our program went on from there."

And the wins must've felt like this. Truthfully, when Lake Central (8-7) pulled ahead 32-23 on a fast break jump shot by Angie Funston with 5:12 left in the third quarter, you wouldn't be blamed for peeking at the schedule to see when May's next chance at 400 would come.

But the Lady Bulldogs, who had a three-game DAC losing streak, immediately turned the game around. Junior guard Cassie Pruzin fed classmate Kaitlyn Sertich for two quick baskets to make it 32-27 and force an LC time out. One of the biggest shots of the game came next. After an LC miss, 5-7 senior Stephanie Sandilla, with just three three-point baskets all season, lipped in a 20-footer to cut the lead to 32-30. A Jill Weiand free throw and an offensive rebound basket by Blayre Reeves completed an 11-0 run similar to the one that won the game back on Dec. 12.

LC forged a 37-33 lead in the final minute of the third period, but CP then scored 10 in a row to give the home team a 43-37 lead and force another LC time out with 6:04 left. Crown Point ran the lead to 11 at 52-41 on a spectacular driving lay-up and an immediate steal and another lay-up.

"The thing I like about this is that we were behind and we came back and won this," said May. "Jill Weiand stepped up and shot the ball. Stephanie Sandilla had maybe her best game of the year. They (LC) were tired. I thought our pressure wore them down."

"We've been trying to get over the hump in the last few games. We've been behind. We finally got over the hump and then we had to hold on. And it was a long last minute."

Lake Central made alternating offensive and defensive substitutions and mounted an 11th hour 8-0 run to close the lead to 52-49 on a three-point basket by Linsey Smith with nine seconds left. Pruzin's two free throws with eight seconds left finally iced the game and sparked the post-game glad handing. CP players Mallory Michaels, Blayre Reeves and Stephanie Sandilla presented May with the game ball signed by the entire team. May also received a glass encased basketball honoring the 400th victory and many 'friends of the program' were in attendance to pay respects to the milestone.

"We won 17 games a year and we've won it playing everybody," said May. "There's Warsaw in there. There's Kokomos and Northwoods and Marians. We've played the good teams when they were the best. When we were undefeated we played eight of the top 20 teams. But we could do that back then. Now with the double-round robin, we can't do that anymore. I wish we'd play everybody once and then play a league tournament. That would only count as two games and then we could all go out and schedule other teams."

But May wasn't in a complaining mood on this night. He was happy to win and happy that a player like Stephanie Sandilla (8 points, 5 rebounds) had helped make it happen. "I'm the worst enemy of our best players," admitted May. "Because I expect our best players to have the same work ethic as our players who don't have as much talent. That really is tough. Because if you can get those players to go that hard, they become premier players instead of just 'good.'"

"People say that the really good players won't play for me," said May. "But the ones who want to be Indiana all-stars do. Those are the ones who want to buy in and do the hard work like a Stephanie Sandilla will. That's what happens to the valedictorian. My wife (math department head Nancy May) challenges the best students. She pushes the smartest kids in the school. You do anything you can to reach them."

BULLDOG NOTES: The LC-CP game was tape delayed by Comcast Cable and will be shown at 7 p.m. on Jan. 19 and Jan. 21. LC senior center Jen Vanderzanden, who had 14 rebounds against Crown Point in December, grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds Friday as Crown Point again had no answer for her.

"If we had Vanderzanden," said May, "We'd beat Valparaiso and we'd be going to the semistate. No question."

Crown Point shot 50 percent (21-42) from the floor although many were layups. LC made just 16 of 46 shots and made it close with 5-of-12 from three-point range. Cassie Pruzin led all scorers with 16 points, but she had 10 of them in the first half. In the first 12 minutes of the second half, Pruzin had no points but seven assists. In game 16 of the 20-game regular season, the Lady Bulldogs forced 20 turnovers from a winning team.

Crown Point is 57-23 in the last four seasons and will clinch a fourth consecutive winning season with a win at Michigan City (Jan. 23) next Friday.

	2004 CROWN POINT (10-6, 4-4 DAC) Coach Tom May (25 years -390-137) Assistant coaches: Beth Jacobs JV coach: Scott Reid - Freshman coach: Brian McClanahan 8th grade coach: Mike Malaski - 7th grade coach: Angie Babjak
	2003-2004 Schedule
	Start times are JV starting times
Date	Location ALL CAPS = Duneland Athletic Conference game	Time/Result
Nov. 14	at Hebron (6-9)	W, 66-38
Nov. 15	at Kankakee Valley (3-10)	W, 62-31
Nov. 21	PORTAGE (6-7)	W, 52-39
Nov. 22	at Warsaw (16-2)	L, 47-62
Nov. 28	at CHESTERTON (12-4)	L, 27-36
Dec. 2	at Lowell (11-5)	W, 50-31
Dec. 5	LaPORTE (4-12)	W, 59-42
Dec. 12	at LAKE CENTRAL (8-7)	W, 53-51
Dec. 13	Boone Grove (14-2)	W, 48-35
Dec. 16	at VALPARAISO (14-1)	L, 34-58
Dec. 19	MICHIGAN CITY (3-11)	W, 55-32
Jan. 2	MERRILLVILLE (14-2)	L, 47-50
Jan. 3	Hanover Central (6-9)	W, 84-53
Jan. 7	at PORTAGE (6-7)	L, 33-46
Jan. 10	CHESTERTON (12-4)	L, 27-37
Jan. 16	LAKE CENTRAL (8-7)	W, 54-49
Jan. 23	at MICHIGAN CITY (3-11)	6:00 pm
Jan. 27	at LaPORTE (4-12)	6:00 pm
Jan. 30	VALPARAISO (14-1)	6:00 pm
Feb. 6	at MERRILLVILLE (14-2)	6:00 pm
	CROWN POINT (4A) Sectional
2-10-4 (Tu)	Quarterfinals	6 or 8 p.m.
2-13-4 (F)	Semifinals	6 or 8 p.m.
2-14-4 (S)	Championship	7:30 p.m.
	Valparaiso (4A) Regional
2-21-4 (S)	Semifinals	11 a.m.
2-21-4 (S)	Championship	7 p.m.
	Plymouth (4A) Semistate
2-28-4 (S)	Semistate championship	(TBA)

Lady Bulldogs give Coach Tom May his 400th Career win in 54-49 home victory over Lake Central

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith