H.S. Girls Basketball: Calumet 54, Hanover Central 46 (OT)

Team	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3rd Qtr	4th Qtr	OT	Final
Calumet (8-6)	12	8	12	14	8	54
Hanover Central (5-8)	14	12	10	10	0	46

Thursday, 1-8-2004 in Cedar Lake

CALUMET (54) Sherika Moore 4-3-12, Liz Crumble 4-1-10, Jenell Echols 2-1-5, Vianca Green 2-0-4, Kiki Bytnar 4-5-15, Cherie Sanders 2-0-4, Jill Spencer 2-0-4, Joi-Lynn Shell 0-0-0, Christina Brumfeld 0-0-0. TOTALS: 20-10-54.

FREE THROWS: 10-31, 32.2 percent.
Crumble 1-2, Moore 3-6, Bytnar 5-6, Echols 1-3, Green 0-1, Sanders 0-8, Brumfeld 0-2, Spencer 2-3.
TURNOVERS: 22
THREE POINT GOALS (4) Kiki Bytnar 2, Liz Crumble, Sherika Moore.

HANOVER CENTRAL (46) Christie Wick 1-2-5, Krysta Rickey 2-4-8, Alisha Staley 0-2-2, Katie Burke 1-1-3, Bess Copak 0-3-3, Karrah Adam 6-2-14, Jill McElmurry 5-0-11, Katie Westerhoff 0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-14-46.

FREE THROWS: 14-22, 63.6 percent - Adam 2-2, Copak 3-4, Wick 2-4, Rickey 4-6, Burke 1-2, Staley 2-4.
TURNOVERS: 21
REBOUNDS: Krysta Rickey - 7
ASSISTS: Krysta Rickey - 3
STEALS: Alisha Staley - 2
THREE POINT GOALS (2) Jill McElmurry, Christie Wick.

CEDAR LAKE (1-8-2004) - Very few games are dramatic, memorable classics. Thursday's Hanover Central-Calumet game sure wasn't one of those. But this was pure, unadulterated Indiana basketball. All the competitiveness. All the flaws. Small town, small crowd, mid-week competition with 29 missed free throws, 43 turnovers and a game that went down to the final minute.

But in that final minute, Kiki Bytnar stole a pass for a potential game-winning shot and Calumet shut out Hanover 8-0 in the extra period for a very entertaining but somewhat forgettable 54-46 victory.

"We're just trying to be the best Calumet we can be," said coach Dori Dowling who coaxed and schemed her way through 22 Calumet turnovers and 21 missed free throws to push the Warriors to 8-6 on the season. "We won the sectional (3A Sectional 17) last year and now everybody expects a lot more from us."

Hanover Central, a smaller school that the defending 3A sectional champion Warriors led by eight at 24-16 with 3:50 left in the first half, led again by eight at 34-26 with 1:26 left in the third quarter. The Lady Cats (5-8) could have won and they should have won. But Calumet, which was upset at Kankakee Valley came back late and stole it on the road.

They didn't make a lot of great plays but Calumet believed they'd pull it out like they have a half dozen games over the last two years. Hanover has only won 13 times in the last two seasons and that showed at the end.

"Now, the expectations are a little higher," she said. "We don't always take care of the ball. But our kids don't quit. They never quit. I told the girls at half-time that if we'd just hit half the bunnies (easy shots) we had that we wouldn't be in the trouble we're in."

"Hanover's tough. We played them five times this summer and we beat them the first three times we played but they beat us the last two."

"Every game on our schedule except maybe two are games we can win. We can't say anything's a win and we can't say anything's a loss. Our largest margin of defeat was by 10 (50-40 to Andrean) and that was a team I thought we'd beat."

Hanover used a half court trapping defensive scheme that limited Calumet's all-time scoring leader Kiki Bytnar to just 15 points. Two players would confront her once she reached the front court and Kiki either had to launch an NBA three-pointer, drive through two defenders or pass off.

"It was the same thing Kankakee Valley did to them the other night," said York, who watched that game. "It wasn't designed to steal the ball. It was just supposed to slow them up. If we trap them back here (at the inbounds line) they'll go right through us. But if we trap her here (at halfcourt), it slows them up."

Hanover trailed only 12-11 with 21 seconds in the first quarter but Christie Wick's three-point shot after a missed double dribble, gave the Lady Cats a 14-12 lead at the end of the quarter.

HC started the second quarter with a 9-2 run as 5-9 senior Jill McElmurry hit two baskets. The Lady Cats' motion offense often freed an offensive player under the basket for a short shot in the first half.

Hanover didn't score for the first 3:50 of the third quarter but Calumet's 2-for-9 foul shooting prevented them from rallying. Karrah Adam's two hoops and a press breaking lay-up from Krysta Rickey gave HC the 34-26 lead with 1:20 left in the third quarter.

Calumet scored six points in a row in the next minute and would have been closer at the end of the quarter had not Liz Crumble fouled Adam on a desperation three-point shot with one second left in the period. Adam made two of three foul shots to end the period with a 36-32 edge.

Hanover led 44-40 with 4:21 to play but did not score another field goal. The biggest play of the game was when Bytnar grabbed a rebound and drove to the top of the foul circle, tossing a behind the back pass to Crumble, who tied the game with a three-point baseline shot with 2:45 left.

Cherie Sanders, who was 0-of-8 from the line, missed two foul shots with 48 seconds left but Hanover was tentative on a last possession and Bytnar stole a pass along the baseline with four seconds left to send the game to overtime.

"I had no time outs so I figured to go with it," said York. "We had the ball at the elbow (where the foul line meets the foul lane) with 10 seconds left. That's about as good as you can do. In the overtime, we just didn't get enough shots."

Hanover senior scoring leader Jill McElmurry (15.6 ppg.) fouled out with 1:34 left in the four minute overtime. The Lady Cats don't have any other aggressive offensive players. They did not score a point in the final 5:41 of the game.

"We've talked about getting good shots and maybe they've taken that to the extreme," said York. "Christie really didn't look for her shot and I wish Krysta would just ball fake and go to the basket with her speed."

"We had them (Calumet) right where we wanted them and we let it get away. We should have had an eight or 10-point lead at the end of the third quarter. At the end of regulation, we had our chances. It's so frustrating. The same things come back to haunt us. It's past time when we can just play well. This is an older group. We've got to get some wins. We played well against a good team but we gave it to them."

LADY CAT NOTES: Hanover Central coach Chris York agreed that Crumble's three-point shot with 2:45 left was the biggest shot of the game. "She hits one of those every game it seems."

York is still confident that HC can go down to the last game with Boone Grove for the Porter County Conference (PCC) regular season championship.

"We've got to beat Washington Township," said York, after the OT loss to Calumet. "But we can. We should be able to win at South Central and we will beat Morgan. That would bring it down to the Boone game. It's possible for us to finish first."

Senior Katie Burke guarded Bytnar most of the game and, with help, did a good job against Calumet's 1,000-point career scorer. "She does disrupt the dribble," said York. "She's got some confidence that she can do that."

Calumet is at least a co-favorite with Griffith (8-7) in Sectional 17. Hammond, Gavit, Morton and Clark are all below .500. The Warriors were hurt by a 19-day layoff after an upset win at Lowell (10-4). Calumet was idled when the Kankakee Valley holiday tournament was discontinued without the Warriors being informed.

"We practiced," said coach Dori Dowling. "But we can't stay in shape all that time. We're not playing very well right now. We probably could have been in the Gary Holiday Tournament. They had a team from outside Gary (Westinghouse). I even called South Bend St. Joseph's. It would have been worth it to go there and get beat because if we get through the sectional, that's probably who we'd see at the (Twin Lakes) Regional. We don't want to be shell-shocked when we get there like we were last year."

Only about 150 people watched the Calumet-Hanover nonconference game on a cold night. Talk turned to the 32nd Porter County Conference (PCC) girls tournament that begins on Jan. 19. The draw for the eight-team week-long playoff will be held Sunday (Jan. 11) at the PCC banquet.

"We don't want Hebron," said York, referring to the 24-point beating HC laid on the Hawks in Hebron on Dec. 5. York joked about being in the side of the bracket with shorthanded Morgan Township and undermanned LaCrosse (1-10).

"We had hoped to be 8-7 going into the tournament and now we're hoping to be 7-8," he said. "We need some wins. I hate to just look at it that way and not about playing well. But we need wins."

Nov. 18: L, 35-45 Gavit (4-7)
Nov. 21: L, 39-58 at Wheeler (13-3)
Nov. 26: L, 49-55 Lowell (10-4)
Dec. 5: W, 73-49 at Hebron (4-7)
Dec. 6: L, 55-57 at Kouts (6-6)
Dec. 13: W, 76-28 LaCrosse (1-10)
Dec. 16: L, 42-56 at North Newton (6-6)
Dec. 18: W, 58-25 at River Forest (3-8)

Porter County Conference Tournament
Jan 19 (M) PCC quarterfinals
Jan. 20 (Tu) PCC quarterfinals
Jan. 23 (F) PCC semifinals
Jan. 24 (S) PCC championship - 6 p.m.

Lady Wildcats fall to Calumet 54-46 in overtime

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Thursday, 1-8-2004 in Cedar Lake