Lady Wildcats fall 51-39 in season hoops opener to River Forest

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
11-16-2009

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - Non-conference game  and season opener at River Forest - HOBART TWP, IN

HANOVER CENTRAL (39) Samantha Huffnagle 2-2-7, Blayr Potson 3-2-8, Megan Kirn 2-0-4, Becky Fortner 8-1-17, Kayla Higginbotham 1-0-3, Kayla Garthus 0-0-0, Alison Kubiak 0-0-0, Kim McKeague 0-0-0, Rachel Orsini 0-0-0. TOTALS: 16 (5-18) 39.

RIVER FOREST (51) Margaret Diaz 2-5-9, Beth Galligan 8-0-16, Jessica Perez 4-0-8, Katie Buehler 7-0-14, Cassie Sul 1-0-2, Melissa Menchaca 1-0-2, Mary Salinas 0-0-0. TOTALS: 23 (5-17) 51.

FREE THROWS:  HANOVER (5-18, 27.7%) Potson 2-6, Huffnagle 2-6, Fortner 1-4, Orsini 0-2. RIVER FOREST (5-17, 29.4%) Diaz 5-14, Perez 0-1, Buehler 0-2.

3-GOALS: HANOVER CENTRAL (2) Samantha Huffnagle, Kayla Higginbotham; RIVER FOREST (0).

HOBART TOWNSHIP, IN (11-10-2009) In past yearS, Hanover Central tried not to make too much of the season opening victory over Rover Forest.

Hopefully that works both ways.

In a surprise, but not necessarily a shock, Hanover Central fell behind early and River Forest never surrendered the lead, winning 51-39 in the basketball season opener for both schools.

Hanover, the two-time defending Class 2A Sectional champion, had defeated River Forest eight years in a row and some of the games hadn't been close.  But senior guard Beth Galligan made key plays ball-handling and scored 16 points to lead River Forest to a rare season-opening win.

"I do not remember that last time we beat Hanover," said new River Forest coach Courtney Quigg, who seemed a little stunned by the win.  "The only time I remember us ever winning in their gym was in the sectional because we were playing Lake Station at the sectional."

River Forest did defeat Hanover 50-45 on Dec. 13, 2001 and Hanover only won 54-49 last season.  But two year ago, Hanover won 79-28 at River Forest.  There wasn't a lot of thought that River Forest would defeat the Lady Cats.

"We were focusing on this all week" said Quigg, whose husband Jake coaches River Forest's boys team.  "It's been nine years since River Forest girls basketball had ever started with a win.  They played hard today and they proved themselves a little."

River Forest jumped to an 11-3 lead and the gap reached 21-9 in the middle of the second quarter before Hanover made any kind of a run.  HC's Becky Fortner, a 5-foot-7 junior guard, stole the ball three times in a row in the final minute of the second quarter to pull the Lady Cats, who were 12-10 last year, to within 22-17 at halftime.

But if you can't score, you can't score.  River Forest, which played no one taller than 5-foot-8, scored just six points in the first six minutes of the third period.  But Hanover, with 6-foot center Kayla Garthus and Kim McKeague, tallied just five.

Take away Fortner's 17 points and it was a long night at the shooting range.  Hanover had an unofficial 60 shots and only 16 went in.  Add to that a dismal 5-of-18 from the foul line and it's no wonder they went home on the loser's bus.

"It was the first game," said HC coach Doug Nelson.  "We did have a couple of seniors out there.  But I guess they hadn't been the reason why we won or lost in the past.  It's always been other people.  Not having Schweitzer hurt us, but that's not why we lost.  We've just got to get better."

Hanover, which also missed injured 5-foot-8 senior forward Courtney Pattison due to injury, had plenty of chances to rally.  River Forest made 20 turnovers and HC did appear to be in position to rally in the second half several times if a shot would fall.  But wide open three-point shots failed to go in.  Free throws didn't fall either.  The Lady Cats could not utilize their height advantages inside and River Forest regained their footing in the late going.

In the final four minutes Galligan, who transferred to River Forest from Portage Christian high school three years ago, passed out four assists as HC tried to full court press their way back into the game.

This was the debut of Hanover freshman lead guard Blayr Potson, a 5-foot-6 ball-handler who showed promise, even though she drew four fouls in the first 3:45 of the third period.  It's not fair to say that Potson replaces Jordan Kramer, a four-year varsity player, now at IU-South Bend.  But she is the only true lead guard HC appears to have and she played most of the game in the opener.

"She can score," said Nelson, "but she can foul, too.  She's got to play under control.  She's got a good little crossover.  Blayr's going to get a lot better.  Some of the things she does worked in eighth grade and they just won't work now.  She scored eight and she could have had more.  She got her shots."

For River Forest, it was happy times.  The Ingots have won just 24 games in the last four seasons and they haven't had a winning year since 2002.  They were not an overwhelming force in the opener, but RF was 8-13 last year and, against 2A schools their own size, clearly they won't just be walked on.

Hanover obviously needs seniors Pattison and Schweitzer on offense and Nelson thought they could have done more defensively as well.

"Our decision making wasn't very good," said Nelson, who watched RF get some late layups in situations where they could have been forced to make jump shots.

"There were 2 on 1s, 3 on 2s, we could have played better.  Our skills are not good right now.  Not as good as I thought they'd be.  The plays were there.  We just didn't make them."

Katie Buehler, a 5-foot-8 junior, had an unofficial 16 rebounds for River Forest.  Some had Hanover with more rebounds than points.  Fortner had 10 rebounds and six steals.  Huffnagle, who missed a half dozen three-pointers, grabbed eight rebounds, Megan Kirn, a 5-foot-6 junior guard, made her Hanover varsity debut with four points and eight rebounds for the Lady Cats although, to be honest, it's not hard to collect rebounds when everybody's missing shots.

Hanover again has the odd opening schedule where they begin with River Forest and then take nine days off before they play Wheeler in non-conference action.  It will be difficult to sit with this loss for nine days, but HC obviously accepts the need for a lot of work on the practice floor and they may be able to benefit from a second 'training camp.'

"We can only get better after this," added Nelson.  "We've got to get more from the big kids.  We took a lot of shots.  We shot any time we wanted to.  We've got to find out who our shooters are. Right now, I don't know."

LADY CAT NOTES:  Hanover is unlikely to get Abby Schweitzer, who was projected to be the team's leading scorer this season, back for Wheeler (the home opener Nov. 25 against Wheeler is a more likely prospect).  So they clearly benefit from not playing again quickly.

Schweitzer has not practiced at all this month and she'll need to complete the required practices before she can legally play.  Porter County Conference play begins on Dec. 4 with the annual Homecoming double-header against Hebron, and while HC has four more games before then, the Lady Cats need to be at full strength at that time.

When Hanover Central plays at Crown Point on Saturday. November 28, the girls junior varsity game will begin at 3:30 p.m. followed by the boys junior varsity game at 5 p.m.
The HC varsity will take on Crown Point at 6:30 p.m. and the boys varsity squads hit the floor at 8:00 p.m.

2010 HANOVER CENTRAL (0-1)
Coach: Doug Nelson, 32-33 (4th season) 12-10 (2009), 12-11 (2008) 8-12 (2007)

Nov. 10 (L) 39-51 at River Forest (1-0)
Nov. 20 (F) at Wheeler
Nov. 25 (W) Lowell
Nov. 28 (Sat) at Crown Point (boy/girl) double-header
Dec. 2 (W) Calumet
Dec. 4 (F) at Hebron (boy/girl) double-header
Dec. 11 (F) Washington Twp. (boy/girl) double-header
Dec. 12 (Sat) LaCrosse - afternoon - 1:30 p.m. .
Dec. 15 (Tu) at North Newton
Dec. 23 (W) Andrean

Hanover Central Tournament
(with Covenant Christian, Beecher, Ill. and Bishop Noll)

Dec. 29 (Tu) semifinals
Dec. 30 (W) consolation and finals

Jan. 6 (W) at Gavit

Jan. 14 (Th) at South Central Porter County Conference Tournament
Jan. 18 (M) quarterfinals - 5:30 p.m.
Jan. 19 (Tu) quarterfinals - 5:30 p.m.
Jan. 22 (F) semifinals - 6 p.m.
Jan. 23 (Sat) PCC Championship - 6 p.m.

Jan. 28 (Th) Boone Grove
Jan. 30 (Sat) at Kouts (afternoon -1 p.m. JV)J
Feb. 2 at Kankakee Valley
Feb. 6 Morgan Twp.(afternoon) - 1 p.m. JV)

HANOVER CENTRAL (2A) Sectional
2-12 (Fri) HC Sectional semifinals
2-13 (Sat.) HC Sectional finals

Culver (2A) Regional
2-20 (Sat) Culver Regional semifinals

Copyright © 2009 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: November 24, 2009 .