Lady Wildcats capture 2A Sectional 33 crown with 44-36 victory over Wheeler

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
02-17-2010

WHEELER (36) Lanay Parks 4-2-10, Marcy Medina 3-2-10, Brittany Stelter 3-2-8, Emma Farlow 3-0-6, Sammy Stern 0-0-0, Tijana Raketic 1-0-2, Lauren Johnson 0-0-0. TOTALS: 14 (6-7) 36.

HANOVER CENTRAL (44) Courtney Pattison 1-3-5, Kayla Higginbotham 3-0-9, Sammy Huffnagle 1-0-3, Abby Schweitzer 1-5-7, Becky Fortner 1-0-2, Kayla Garthus 2-0-4, Blayr Poston 2-9-14. TOTALS: 11 (17-26) 44.

FREE THROWS: WHEELER (6-7, 85.7%) Parks 2-2, Medina 2-2, Stelter 2-3; HANOVER (17-26, 65.3%) Poston 9-15, Schweitzer 5-6, Pattison 3-5.

REBOUNDS: WHEELER (17) Stelter 5, Farlow 4, Parks 3, Medina 3, Stern, Johnson; HANOVER (16) Pattison 4, Fortner 4, Poston 3, Schweitzer 3, Higginbotham 2, Huffnagle.

ASSISTS: WHEELER (10) Raketic 6, Median 3, Parks; HANOVER (6) Poston 3, Garthus, Pattison, Fortner.

STEALS: WHEELER (9) Parks 2, Medina 2, Stelter 2, Stern 2, Raketic; HANOVER (15) Poston 4, Higginbotham, Schweitzer 2.

TURNOVERS: WHEELER (8-2-2-13) 25; HANOVER (7-5-7-3) 22.

TECHNICAL FOUL: Wheeler bench (3rd quarter) 2:07 left.

RIVER FOREST (51) Katie Buehler 5-0-10, Margaret Diaz 3-2-8, Melissa Menchaca 1-0-2, Beth Galligan 8-2-21, Mary Salinas 3-2-8, Vanessa Collazo 0-2-2, Jessica Perez 0-0-0, Ashley Nieves 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  20 (8-15) 51.

HANOVER CENTRAL (56) Kayla Higginbotham 3-0-6, Sammy Huffnagle 4-1-12, Abby Schweitzer 5-2-12, Becky Fortner 2-0-4, Blayr Poston 4-13-22, Courtney Pattison 0-0-0, Kim McKeague 0-0-0, Kayla Garthus 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  18 (16-30) 56.

FREE THROWS:  RIVER FOREST (8-15, 53.3%) Galligan 2-2, Diaz 2-3, Colazzo 2-4, Salinas 2-2, Buehler 0-4; HANOVER (16-30, 53.3%) Poston 13-22, Schweitzer 2-5, Huffnagle 1-2, Fortner 0-1.

REBOUNDS:  RIVER FOREST (21) Buehler 7, Galligan 6, Diaz 2, Perez 2, Salinas 2, Collazzo, Menchaca; HANOVER (29) Schweitzer 6, Fortner 6, Pattison 6, Higginbotham 4, Huffnagle 3, Poston 3, Garthus.

ASSISTS:  RIVER FOREST (10) Galligan 4, Salinas 3, Perez 2, Buehler; HANOVER CENTRAL (7) Higginbotham 2, Poston 2, Schweitzer 2, Fortner.

3-GOALS:  RIVER FOREST (3) Beth Galligan 3; HANOVER CENTRAL (4) Samantha Huffnagle 3, Blayr Poston.

FOUILED OUT:  HANOVER (1) Courtney Pattison (4th Q) :36 left.

3-GOALS:  WHEELER (2) Marcy Medina 2; HANOVER (4) Kayla Higginbotham 3, Sammy Huffnagle.

CEDAR LAKE, IN (02-15-2010)  If you were not one of the 300 or so in the stands Monday night for the Class 2A Hanover Central Sectional Championship, you really missed something.  My problem is to describe exactly what.  Hanover trailed Wheeler 10-1.  Hanover scored 16 points in a row for a 20-14 lead.  Hanover trailed 28-20. Hanover scored eight in a row to tie the game 28-28.  Finally, Hanover trailed 34-30.  And with the entire season on the line, the Lady Cats scored 11 points in a row to grab a wild 44-36 victory over rival Wheeler, grabbing the home team's third consecutive sectional championship.

"I never doubted," said Hanover senior Samantha Huffnagle.  "But it was just tough.  I was nervous."

The night was a mess of turnovers and streaks, ending with Hanover girls dancing in the middle of the floor after earning a third consecutive sectional championship.  Other than the girls softball team, which won four consecutive sectionals from 2002 to 2005, no other Hanover team in the 43-year history of the school has won three consecutive IHSAA sectionals.  And now, a Hanover team which started the season in disarray after a blowout loss to River Forest, takes their shot at school immortality.

Only one Hanover basketball team, the 1999 Lady Cats of coach Dennis Foster, has ever advanced beyond the regional level.  The HC girls, with a modest record of just 13-9, stand now just two wins Saturday from the small school tiny town 'final 4' in the 35th Indiana state basketball tournament.

"Man, I don't know how we won this one," admitted third year coach Doug Nelson.  "Having some seniors who have been in this environment helped a lot.  Having a freshman guard who can handle the ball is big.  She's come a long way this season.  I'm happy for these kids.  I'm happy for these seniors.  Nobody thought we were going to do it this year after all the girls we graduated last year."

"It was bad," agreed Huffnagle of the season opening 51-39 loss to a River Forest team that had never previously defeated Hanover.  "That's how I felt.  It's almost better to come back and win after you start out that badly.  We only had two starters coming back.  Nobody expected this.  We did it.  We were down and we came back and did it."

Nobody (myself included) thought Hanover was going to win when it was 10-1.  Wheeler's Marcy Medina sank two three-point baskets to boost the Bearcats to a nine-point edge and they seemed to be outplaying the nervous home team.

"We were playing terribly," said Courtney Pattison.  "Then we just started to click.  I don't know why we get ourselves in these holes.  We've got to do better than that."

With the score 12-4, the big Hanover gym was 'Monday night' quiet, Abby Schweitzer scored on a layup.  Blayr Poston stole the ball and Sammy Huffnagle hit a three point basket to cut the lead to 12-10 and wake everybody up.  The game was loosely called and a rough-and-tumble second quarter led to a 22-20 Wheeler halftime edge, a lead they quickly expanded to 28-20 on two free throws by Medina and two offensive rebound baskets by six foot senior Emma Farlow.  Counting the end of the first half, Wheeler scored 16 points in a row.  Then things got out of hand.

After two foul shots by Schweitzer and a steal and layup by Poston, Wheeler's Brittany Stelter grabbed a rebound and appeared to be fouled.  She was called for a double dribble, a call Wheeler coach Marc Bruner told the referee was horrible.  That drew a technical foul.  Schweitzer hit two more free throws and an offensive rebound basket by HC junior Becky Fortner tied the game 28-28.

Bruner thought the technical foul was a pivotal point for a factor that is not obvious.  Once a coach draws a technical foul, he must sit on the bench or he will be ejected.  Coaches standing and shouting instructions to their team are pivotal to high school basketball success.

"Having to sit on the bench the final quarter and a half does not help," said Bruner, who was still upset with the 'T' afterwards.  "I said 50 things worse than 'horrible'.  That was a pivotal point in the game to make a call like that.  We got passive when I had to sit.  I'll take the blame for that, but 'horrible' is not a four letter word."

The one major factor in the game was Hanover's full court press which double-teamed the Bearcat who caught the inbounds pass and trapped Wheeler into turnovers.

"I told the girls before the game, there was going to be ups and downs," said Nelson.  "There was going to be ebbs and flows.  Block out.  Hit free throws.  And we finally did that at the end."

The length and quickness of players like the 5-foot-10 Schweitzer and 5-foot-8 Poston broke down Wheeler.  The Bearcats were better in the front court, but in much of the second half, they didn't get the ball safely into the front court.

"We couldn't get the ball in bounds," said Wheeler's Bruner.  "That (the ref's calls) didn't keep us from getting the ball up the floor.  We couldn't handle the press and I don't know why.  Lowell pressed us and we went right through it.  We just didn't handle it.  In a half court game, we were fine.  But in a full court game, we were in trouble.  And I don't know why."

Hanover would have pressed Wheeler the entire game but they didn't have the quantity of players to do it.

"Our two leading scorers (Schweitzer and Poston) were on the sidelines with two fouls early in the second quarter."

Hanover used only seven players in the game, and obviously, they'll need more than seven this Saturday.  But it was the five of Kayla Higginbotham, Becky Fortner, Courtney Pattison, Sammy Huffnagle and back-up center Kayla Garthus, that closed the gap in the second quarter.  Schweitzer had two fouls with 1:35 left in the first quarter and she didn't play the rest of the half.

"Kayla gave up some important minutes tonight," Nelson said.  "She hasn't always done that.  Tonight, we needed her and she gave up a couple of baskets and a couple of rebounds."

The hope for Hanover is that their goal was not to just win the sectional.  There's a theory that, when talent is relatively equal, teams go as far in the state tournament as they had hoped to.  If HC's pre-season goal was to win the sectional, they can't beat Westview Saturday.

"They have the same record as we do," said Nelson, who was planning for the regional while his girls were still celebrating the sectional at 9:30 Monday night in the floor of the brightly lit Hanover gym.  "I don't know much about them, but I have some friends out east who can send me some tapes.  We've got to plan on being there all day."

"Our goal is to get to the next level," said Pattison, meaning they want to go further than the last two years.  "That's exactly what we want to do.  Get to the next level."

SECTIONAL NOTES:  Hanover plays Westview (13-9) in the 11:00 a.m. (CT) second game in the 2A Culver Sectional Saturday (2-20-2010).  In the entire history of the entire Hanover athletic program, only three teams (2003-2004 softball and 1999 girls basketball) have ever won regional championships.  The last two times Hanover Central advanced to the regional, they were crushed by Garrett 69-38 and 76-41.  That most definitely has not been forgotten by HC's seniors and their coaches.

"I think we can definitely win a game," said HC's Samantha Huffnagle.  "I'm not going to say we're going to win it all.  But I definitely think we can win one game Saturday."

"That's been their goal since day one," said coach Doug Nelson.  To get back there and go one game further than we've gone the last two years."

HC freshman Blayr Poston averaged 18 points in three sectional games, but she has an odd habit of starting slowly and shooting poorly early.  She was 0-for-6 in the first half from the line against River Forest.

"I don't know," she said of her second half revivals. "I just started to going to get the ball. I just wanted the ball."

Hanover is an oddly constructed team because, among the top seven varsity players, they have a freshman, a sophomore, a junior and four seniors.  That doesn't happen often.  And it's even less likely to have a team largely of seniors led by a freshman guard.

"It did take a while for us to get together," said HC senior Sammy Huffnagle.  "Blayr told us she didn't feel that comfortable because she didn't think we'd get along with her.  But we do."

"I think she just realized that she knew what to do and we expected her to play her game."

What is lost in Hanover's winning the sectional is that senior Courtney Pattison plays a major role.  Pattison plays with a heavy brace on her leg and you can see her walk change as the game goes on.  She missed the first two weeks of the season with a soccer injury and has dragged that big brace through the season.  Watching her limp, you wouldn't blame her it she'd have quit.

"I never thought about it," Courtney said.  "There was never a doubt in my mind that I was going to play."

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Revised: February 17, 2010 .