Lady Wildcats up record to 3-0 with 57-39 win over Lowell
 

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
11-30-2008

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 - Non-conference game  and Lowell home opener at LOWELL, IN

HANOVER (57)  Danielle Graham 3-5-11, Abby Schweitzer 5-3-13, Jordan Kramer 4-8-18, Courtney Pattison 3-1-7, Lindsay Martinez 2-0-4, Kayla Higgenbotham 1-0-3, Lauren Jacobsen 0-1-1, Ashley Hahn 0-0-0, Sammy Huffnagle 0-0-0, Kayla Garthus 0-0-0, Becky Fortner 0-0-0.   TOTALS: 18 (18-31) 57.

LOWELL (39) Jessica Schiessle 3-0-7, Amanda Underwood 0-1-1, Mallory Lampa 4-3-11, Kaitlyn Utley 4-3-11, Brooke Kuiper 1-1-3, Erin Gavelek 1-0-2, Carissa Thiel 2-0-4, Gretchen Barker 0-0-0, Jessica Sharkey 0-0-0, Anna Sacco 0-0-0. TOTALS: 15 (8-13) 39.

FREE THROWS:  HANOVER: 18-31, 58.0% - Graham 5-9, Kramer 8-11, Schweitzer 3-5, Pattison 1-4, Lauren Jacobsen 1-2.
LOWELL: 10-13, 76.8%  -  Lampa 3-4, Utley 3-4, Kuiper 1-2, Underwood 1-3.

REBOUNDS:  HANOVER (30)  Graham 7, Pattison 7,  Schweitzer 7, Martinez 4, Huffnagle 2, Kramer 2,  Garthus; 
LOWELL (32) Lampa 11, Utley 6, Kuiper 6, Underwood 3, Barker 2, Thiel 2, Gavelek 2.

ASSISTS:  HANOVER (8) Martinez 3, Kramer, Schweitzer, Higgenbotham, Huffnagle, Graham. LOWELL (4) Lampa 3, Utley.

STEALS:  HANOVER (6) Graham 2, Kramer 2, Martinez, Pattison;  LOWELL (8) Utley 4, Gavelek 2, Schiessle, Sharkey.

3-GOALS:  HANOVER (3) Jordan Kramer 2, Kayla Higgenbotham;  LOWELL (1) Jessica Schiessle.

LOWELL, IN (11-26-2008) These are definitely two teams that are going in different directions.  The question is:  When do they stop?

Hanover Central (3-0) started slowly but finished strong, posting a third consecutive victory, 57-39 at Lowell in the Red Devils' home opener, the Lady Cats' first road game of the year.  Nobody's getting too excited (HC also started 3-0 last season and finished 12-10), but the undersized HC girls are playing with such an air of increasing confidence on offense it seems almost certain that Hanover is headed for a wining season.

Lowell (0-4), on the other hand, is still looking for that first win and with only one more home game before the first of the year (Kankakee Valley on Dec. 5) it may be tough to find.

"The first quarter wasn't good at all," said HC coach Doug Nelson.  "It was slow.  We were playing slowly and I told them we've got to pick it up.  When we did our offense correctly, we were okay.  We got somebody in the high post in the second half (and) we were able to go through her.  If we didn't turn it over before we got there we could have scored like that all night."

HC led just 23-19 at the half, but they started the second half with a 10-1 run that forced Lowell to play man-to-man defense to chase their ball handlers.  Hanover led 45-37 with 3:50 to play and scored 11 in a row to create the final margin.

"Lowell has given people fits with that 2-3 zone," said Nelson.  "But when we could put someone in the high post and keep her there, we broke them down."

Lowell coach Patti McCormack admits there's no 'silver lining' in still being winless after two weeks of play.

"We've never been 0-4 since I've been here," she said.  "These were definitely games we thought we could win.  We actually played better tonight.  We are taking small steps.  But we've got so far to go.  We got tired tonight.  Hanover spread us out and ran us around.  We lost '11' (Jordan Kramer) a couple of times on defense and we just kept putting them on the foul line."

Kramer, who scored just four points in the first half, posted six quick points in the third quarter on a three point basket and three free throws when she was fouled on a three-point shot.  When junior Kayla Higgenbotham hit a three-pointer, the lead was suddenly 33-20.

Lowell junior Mallory Lampa and Kaitlyn Utley scored occasionally on 'run outs', length of the court drives for layups, but the Devils could not run a productive offense.

Hanover got another strong game out of 5-foot-9 junior Abby Schweitzer, who collected 11 with seven rebounds after scoring 11 with eight rebounds in a win over Wheeler on Nov. 21.
Schweitzer is the best athlete Hanover has. and because they start three small guards they need her to score and rebound in double figures every game.

"She's playing well," said Nelson.  "She's hard to guard on the perimeter.  She can catch it and go.  She's averaging seven or eight rebounds a game.  The next step is to get her to play well against really good forwards.  She's not going to average 20 (points) and 15 (rebounds), but we need her to play like this against good big forwards."

Lowell has players who want to be good, big forwards, but while Hanover has three girls who have played in 60 or more varsity games each, the Red Devils have girls who are just adjusting to starting any games at all.

"We just don't have a lot of girls who have played a lot on the varsity," said McCormack.  "Basically there's Jessica (Schiessle) and that's it.  You recognize a lot of names that have been on the varsity, but they haven't played.  Maybe Mallory (Lampa) a little bit at the end of last year."

CAT/DEVIL NOTES:  Lowell had three players last year who did not return this season in Mallory Pratt, Kelsi Blankenship and Megan Bolanowski, all of whom were on the varsity roster last year.  Pratt is probably the biggest surprise because she started several games last winter.  None of those three girls would have dominated anybody but the three would have added depth that Lowell now does not have.

"We don't have a very deep bench," admitted Red Devil coach Patti McCormack.  "There is not a lot of girls on the bench to go to.  A couple of them are freshmen.  We're just going to go with what we have."

Clearly, sophomore center Carissa Thiel is going to see more time.  The youngest sister of graduated track state champ Rachel Thiel and senior volleyball captain Nicole Thiel, Carissa is the only true back-to-the-basket player they have.  Senior Gretchen Barker, who had started the first month, will probably be needed to pair with Thiel against taller foes until and unless six foot freshman Anna Sacco is ready for varsity action.

Oddly, Hanover, which has been defined by the tiny trio of Danielle Graham, Jordan Kramer and Lindsey Martinez (all 5-foot-5 or smaller) for three years, is in line to become a much bigger squad in the future.

Assuming Schweitzer and 5-foot-9 Courtney Pattison return to starting positions next season, HC could show up for the 2010 PCC tournament with 6-foot freshman Kayla Garthus and 6-foot JV center Kim McKeague.

HC faced the toughest stretch of the season after Thanksgiving with back-to-back games with Crown Point (4-0) Saturday (Nov. 29) afternoon and Calumet (3-1) on Dec. 3 followed by the boys-girls double-header and the league opener against rival Hebron (3-2) on Dec. 5.

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Revised: December 03, 2008 .