Lady Devils capture Carroll Tournament Title with 54-32 win over Carroll

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
12-18-2011

LOWELL (54) MacKenzie Kreutz 3-4-10, Kalyne Godbolt 1-1-4, Sarah Wietbrock 1-1-3, Katie Bobos 7-6-20, Carley Austgen 3-4-11, Hunter Justevitch 1-2-4, Marie Ingbretsen 1-0-2, Sarah Wieser 0-0-0, Sydney Barta 0-0-0, Nicole Sharkey 0-0-0, Samantha Roach 0-0-0, Sarah Fraikin 0-0-0, Amy Fraikin 0-0-0. TOTALS: 17 (18-30) 54.

CARROLL (7-4) Kate Hickner 2-2-6, Kaitlyn Ragan 3-4-12, Carly Kingery 4-0-9, Shelbi Fisher 0-0-0, Bailey Worl 1-0-2, Paige Barnes 0-0-0, Paige Spoesard 1-1-3, Samanta Roach 0-0-0, Sydney Pencek 0-0-0, Courtney Arkisson 0-0-0. TOTALS: 11 (7-12) 32.

FREE THROWS: LOWELL (18-30, 60%) Bobos 6-9, Austgen 4-7, Kreutz 4-8, Wietbrock 1-2, Jusevitch 2-2, Godbolt 1-3.
CARROLL (7-12, 58.3%) Kichner 2-2, Ragan 4-8, Spoesard 1-2.

REBOUNDS: LOWELL (34) Bobos 12, Kreutz 8, Wietbrock 4, Godbolkt 2, Amy Fraikin 2, Jusvitch 2, Ingbretsen, Roach, Barta. Wieser; CARROLL (18) Worl 4, Hickner 3, Kingery 3, Fisher 2, Barnes 2, Spesard 2, Pencek, Ragan.

ASSISTS: LOWELL (8) Godbolt 3, Wietbrock 2, Bobos, Wieser, Sharkey; CARROLL (4) Fisher 2, Ragan 2

STEALS: LOWELL (11) Godbolt 4, Austgen 3, Bobos, Wietbrock, Kreutz, Jusevitch: CARROLL (5) Hickner 2, Barnes, Fisher, Speaser.

FOULED OUT: Carroll (1) Kate Hickner (4th Q) 7:19 left.

3-GOALS: LOWELL (2) Carley Austgen, Kalyne Godbolt; CARROLL (3) Kaitlyn Ragan 2, Carley Kingery.

Carroll County Christmas Classic
12-17-2011 in Flora
Carroll 44, (Indianapolis) Tindley 31
LOWELL 54, University 11
University 38, (Indianapolis) Tindley 32 (3rd place)
LOWELL 54, Carroll (Flora) 32 (championship)

FLORA, IN (12-17-2011) In past years at the Carroll Christmas Tournament, the winning team simply shook hands, smiled, and headed for the parking lot. This year, Carroll coach Mike McCroskey had new nets put on the basket for the final for the expressed purpose of the winner cutting them down afterwards.

"That's the first time we've cut down the nets in high school," said Lowell's MacKenzie Kreutz, after her team topped Carroll 54-32 in the tournament championship game late Saturday afternoon.

McCroskey, who won state titles at Kokomo in 1992 and 1993, told Lowell coach Katie Antcliff, "I expect to see you cutting down more nets this year."

Antcliff agreed, "We told them (her players) we want to be cutting down a couple."

I don't think Lowell is very surprised to be 10-1 at the Christmas break. The Devils have an all-junior starting line-up, but they play like they expect to win and at the end of 3-games-in a three-day stretch, the girls were at their best, especially defensively. The truth is, they are still surprised they lost 49-43 at Hanover Central the night before Thanksgiving.

"But if we hadn't lost at Hanover," said Kreutz, "I don't know if we'd have had that extra motivation against Crown Point and East Chicago. If we hadn't lost to Hanover, I don't know if we'd have beaten Crown Point and East Chicago."

Lowell used the six of Kreutz and leading scorer Katie Bobos plus the perimeter defense of Kalyne Godbolt, Carley Austgen and Sarah Wietbrock to overwhelm Carroll (7-4), which had a four-game winning streak broken.

Bobos, a 5-foot-10 forward, scored 10 of her 20 points in the first half and Kreutz, a 5-foot-10 center, grabbed six of her 12 rebounds in the first two quarters as Lowell led 26-11 with 3:30 left in the half.

Carroll, which had just slim 6-foot sophomore Baily Worl and 5-foot-9 senior Paige Barnes up front, scored just seven field goals in the first three quarters and trailed 45-22 with 5:05 left in the game.

"We had a very good scouting report on them," said Antcliff, "and we knew they had very good shooters. Our girls did a great job of getting out on them. And MacKenzie and Katie were very strong inside."

"They (Carroll) have a good team. They always play very well defensively. But we played the way we did in the final quarter against Highland (a 49-43 win) on Thursday. The girls are buying into the idea that if you play good defense, the offense will come."

Bobos is the focus of everyone's defense, but a Lowell key is keeping Kreutz on the floor. MacKenzie is the true back-to-the basket player and rebounder that a lot of teams lack.
She said she likes to come to Carroll.

"I wish there were more games to play," she admits. "But I like coming here. We get to stay together all day and play. For me, you have to be a lot less physical on the road because they call a lot more fouls. But I thought we played well. When we get selfish and try to do it by ourselves, we have problems. But when we play together, there isn't a team on our schedule we can't beat."

McCroskey took a liking to Bobos when he scouted her three years ago.

"I told you to take it easy on us," he told her after she scored 20 points in the championship game. But you didn't do it. We have some nice players, but we don't have anybody her size (pointing to Bobos). We don't have players like that."

Lowell played with smiles on their faces, as if they knew the outcome of their annual visit to Carroll County, a place so quiet and wide open it makes Lowell look like downtown Chicago.
In what has been their far away, throwback Christmas home, this was the Lowell that has played most of the season and now, they are in the midst of a 19-day schedule break with just nine regular season games left to play. It's crucial they don't lose anything about their quality of play over such a long break in the season.

"We're going to have a little boot camp over the holidays," said Antcliff. "They're going to get some days off, but I think they know we're going to practice hard."

DEVIL NOTES: When Lowell comes off the Christmas break, they will travel to Andrean (0-9) on Friday, Jan. 6. What games are they looking forward to?

"Griffith and Merrillville," said Lowell's Mackenzie Kreutz, picking out the top two teams left on the Lowell schedule. There will certainly be a few Lowell representatives in the stands when Griffith (9-1) takes on Bowman Academy (7-2) in a 12:30 quarterfinal game of the Hanover Central Holiday Tournament on Wednesday, Dec. 28. Griffith has won nine games in a row. There may also be a couple of Lowell people in the stands Tuesday night, Dec. 27 at 6 p.m. when Merrillville (9-0) hosts Crown Point (6-4).

This might be Lowell's last visit to the Carroll County Classic for a couple of reasons. The Devils have won the four-team match up the last two seasons. This year's games were not close and Lowell returns its entire starting lineup next season. University High and Tindley High are all 1A schools with young programs. Lowell may have outgrown this tourney.

"Yes," agreed coach Katie Antcliff. "We were looking around for another tournament this year, but the only ones we found had small schools and if we were going to do that, we might as well come here."

Carroll coach Mike McCroskey, who won two state titles at Kokomo, always has a solid team. But Lowell just has more depth and size and that figures to continue even after the present junior class graduates.

"He has been great to us," said Antcliff, "and everything here is fine. But this is not the level of competition where need to get better. We played the JV most of the game this morning (the semifinal against University High) and we can't do that."

Lowell's ties to Carroll involved former coach Patti McCormack, Carroll's old athletic director, who drove to Carroll to watch the championship game Saturday. It would not be a shock to see Hanover play at Carroll and in a second tournament.

There is no indication that the Northwest Crossroads Conference wants a league championship tournament and the IHSAA allows schools to play in two multiple team tournaments per year.

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