Lady Wildcats come from behind to defeat Gavit, 58-52

Tuesday, January 7, 2009 - Non-conference girls basketball in CEDAR LAKE, IN
 

GAVIT (52) Kelly Cantrell 3-0-6, Ashley Evans 6-3-15, Keisha Tubbs 3-0-6, Breanna Rivoli-Johnson 4-1-10, Michelle Florentine 7-0-15, Dolshae Townsend 0-0-0, Hayley Andrews 0-0-0, Brittany Taylor 0-0-0.  23 (4-11) 52.

HANOVER (58) Danielle Graham 4-3-12, Abby Schweitzer 8-2-18, Lindsay Martinez 6-0-12, Jordan Kramer 1-8-11, Courtney Pattison 0-1-1, Ashley Hahn 0-2-2, Becky Fortner 1-0-2, Sammy Huffnagle 0-0-0, Kayla Higginbotham 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 20 (16-24) 58.

FREE THROWS:  GAVIT (4-11, 36.5%) Cantrell 0-2, Evans 3-6, Johnson 1-1, Andrews 0-2. HANOVER (16-24, 66.7%) Graham 3-5, Schweitzer 2-3, Kramer 8-12, Hahn 2-2, Pattison 1-2.

REBOUNDS:  GAVIT (18) Tubbs 6, Florentine 4, Cantrell 3, Evans 2, Townsend 2, Andrews;  HANOVER (29) Schweitzer 9, Pattison 6, Kramer 5, Graham 3, Huffnagle 3, Fortner 2, Martinez.

ASSISTS:  GAVIT (7) Evans 3, Johnson,  Florentine, Tonwsend, Taylor;  HANOVER (12) Kramer 7, Graham 3, Martinez, Pattison.

CEDAR LAKE (1-7-2009) This was not a game where Hanover Central played well, but Wednesday night's come-from-behind 58-52 win over Gavit hit several positive notes for the second half of the high school basketball season.

Hanover made 25 turnovers, scored 35 points in the first three quarters and seemed like a tired team heading into the final eight minutes.  But HC (6-5) roared to life offensively with a 15-2 run to start the fourth quarter and held on for a 58-52 victory over a fairly quick Gavit squad.

"How many turnovers did we make?," asked Hanover coach Doug Nelson, who watched his team fall 18 points behind before rallying in a game against Beecher, IL.  "It wasn't good.  Maybe we should just start all games with the other team leading 12-0.  This was a big win for us, but we sure don't play with any sense of urgency until we fall behind.  That's not something we can keep doing."

Hanover led 4-0, 13-9 and 34-30 early, but Gavit, a 3A school which had not lost to any school smaller than Class 3A this season, used a trapping press to close the third quarter with a 12-1 run to take a 42-35 edge on a very cold night in front of a very small crowd.

Guard Ashley Evans and Michelle Florentine outran the home team and when HC's second leading scorer Abby Schweitzer drew her fourth foul with 54 seconds left in the third period, Gavit seemed ready to pull away.  But 5-foot-5 senior Danielle Graham, who had gone scoreless in the first half, scored seven points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to defeat the Gladiators' double-team defense against Kramer, who had scored 53 points in HC's two previous games.

"Danielle got two fouls early tonight and she had to sit down quickly," said Nelson.  "We've got to keep her out there.  She's hard to defend off the dribble.  We had four players score in double figures again.  That makes us pretty tough."

The biggest plus about this game may have been that the Lady Cats injected another serviceable player into the mix.  Sophomore soccer player Becky Fortner entered the game in the fourth quarter with the Lady Cats trailing and looking bad.  Fortner, a 5-foot-5 wing player, stole the ball twice, scored a breakaway lay up and basically ran hard up and down the floor to juice up the home team.

"Becky only plays at one speed," said Nelson.  "Our bench is not very long.  When Abby (Schweitzer) got her fourth foul, I didn't have anybody else I hadn't used."

Nelson had not used any freshman or sophomores other than 6-foot freshman Kayla Garthus, who is being groomed to be HC's first true center in several years.  Fortner, who is more a forward than a guard, may now reel into the varsity rotation as the games pile up this month.

There are actually two Porter County Conference (PCC) championship tournaments.  One for the varsity and one for the junior varsity.  No player is allowed to play in both.  Those might be Fortner's final games on the JV.  She seems to be a strong player who doesn't get tired and the Lady Cats are a team that must push the ball up the floor to be effective.

"I've tried to give the upperclassmen as much playing time as I can," Nelson said.  "But Becky's going to be with us."

Lindsay Martinez tied the game with a 10-foot jumper at 44-44.  Kramer's two foul shots gave HC the lead with 4:50 to play.  Graham stole a pass, dribbled the length of the floor and scored to make it 48-44 with 3:50 left.  Gavit, which seemed to be wearing down Hanover, failed to score for five minutes in the final quarter.  The Lady Gladiators' scoring drought endied only after two Kramer foul shots put Hanover ahead 50-44 with 44 seconds to play.

"Gavit's a good team," said Nelson.  "They're quick.  We couldn't guard Evans and Florentine's a good shooter.  I don't know how much defense we played in the first three quarters.  But we came back again.  We took some charges.  Once we get excited about it, we're pretty good."

NET NOTES:  Hanover junior Abby Schweitzer continues to improve.  Schweitzer, a 5-foot-9 forward who played little last season, scored 18 points with nine rebounds against Gavit and she'd have scored more without second half foul trouble.  HC has put her in the high post where she has found room to attack the defense and make life hard on opposing post defenders.

"Abby can put the ball on the floor and go right by centers," said coach Doug Nelson.  "She's just quicker than they are.  She's getting confident.  I really think she can score 18-20 points a game."

Hanover has an odd schedule the rest of the year with two games on Thursday night and a Tuesday, Feb. 3 home finale against Kankakee Valley (8-5).  Hanover hosts Washington Township Saturday night.  WT (7-4) lost three of their first four games of the season before they upset Kouts (10-2) on Dec. 6.  The Senators will carry a 7-game winning streak into Cedar Lake Saturday night.  Hanover has lost to Hebron in PCC play, but the Hawks (and Kouts) now have two league losses.  If the Lady Cats win their final five PCC games, they will, at least, tie for first place.

"That's a big game for us," said Nelson.  "Every game is big, but this one is really big and all of our really big games are still ahead of us."

The draw for the annual Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament will be announced Sunday (1-11-9) at the annual PCC banquet.

Hanover will host South Central on Jan. 15 and then play a rescheduled game against North Newton (8-3) on Jan. 17, which may be a problem.  HC could be scheduled to play a quarterfinal game in the PCC tournament on Monday night, Jan. 19, which would give them an unwanted three-games-in-five-nights scenario.

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Revised: January 15, 2009 .