Lady Devils beat Carroll 60-57 to capture Christmas Classic Championship

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
12-21-2010

LOWELL (60) Sarah Wieser 1-2-5, Sarah Wietbrock 4-3-11, Mackenzie Kruetz 3-4-10, Kalyne Godbolt 1-1-3, Carley Austgen 1-2-5, Carissa Thiel 0-0-0, Katie Bobos 11-0-22, Marie Ingebretsen 1-0-2, Savannah Summers 1-0-2. TOTALS: 23 (12-17) 60.

CARROLL (57) Paige Barnes 1-0-2, Kate Hickner 4-3-13, Shelbi Fisher 2-0-5, Kaitlin Ragan 2-0-5, Bailey Worl 0-1-1, Quinci Eller 7-12-31. TOTALS: 16 (16-19) 57.

FREE THROWS: LOWELL (12-17, 70.5%) Wietbrock 3-4. Kruetz 4-6, Wieser 2-2, Godbolt 1-2, Bobos 0-1, Austgen 2-2.
CARROLL (16-19, 73.7%) Eller 12-12, Hickner 3-5, Worl 1-2.

REBOUNDS: LOWELL (29) Bobos 8, Thiel 5, Summers 4, Wieser 4, Wietbrock 3, Kruetz 2, Ingebretsen, Austgen, Godbolt; CARROLL (20) Worl 6, Eller 5, Barnes 3, Hickner 3, Fisher 2, Ragan.

ASSISTS: LOWELL (9) Godbolt 4, Austgen 2, Bobos, Wieser, Summers; CARROLL (6) Hickner 3, Ragan, Fisher,Barnes.

STEALS: LOWELL (6) Godbolt 4, Bobos, Kruetz; CARROLL (7) Eller 4, Hickner, Worl, Ragan.

3-GOALS: LOWELL (2) Carley Austgen, Sarah Wieser; CARROLL (9) Quinci Eller 5, Kate Hickner 2, Kaitlin Ragan, Shelby Fisher.

LOWELL (49) Sarah Wieser 1-1-3, Sarah Wietbrock 2-2-6, Mackenzie Kruetz 4-3-11, Kalyne Godbolt 3-0-7, Carley Austgen 0-5-5, Carissa Thiel 2-0-4, Katie Bobos 6-1-13, Sarah Edwards 0-0-0, Savannah Summers 0-0-0. TOTALS: 18 (12-22) 49.

CLINTON PRAIRIE (41) Kara Werner 2-0-5, Gabby Klippel 2-0-5, Emily Hollis 1-0-2, Kelsey Dunham 3-4-11, Beth Seagraves 1-2-4, Liz Geurs 1-5-7, Jasmine Hanna 3-0-7, Stephanie Schrock 0-0-0. TOTALS: 13 (11-15) 41.

FREE THROWS: LOWELL (12-23, 52.1%) Bobos 1-6, Kruetz 3-4, Wieser 1-2, Weitbrock 2-2, Godbolt 0-1. Austgen 5-6, Thiel 0-2; CP (11-15, 73.3%) Dunham 4-4, Geurs 5-6, Seagraves 2-3, Hanna 0-1, Werner 0-1.

3-GOALS: LOWELL (1) Kalyne Godbolt; CP (4) Kara Werner, Kelsey Dunham, Jasmine Hanna, Gabby Klippel.

FLORA (12-18-2010) Three wins in three days. Lowell girls basketball actually finished out the first half of the 20-game regular season with three wins in about 60 hours. You don't want to make too much of the first half of the season. But Lowell, which won only seven basketball games the last two seasons, improved to 8-2 late Saturday afternoon with a 60-57 victory over Carroll in the championship game of the Carroll Christmas Classic in tiny Flora, Indiana.

The Devils won both games in the four-team Carroll tourney for just the third time in the 13 years they have come to this far away 'throw back' Indiana town where athletic director and former head basketball coach Patti McCormack formerly led the Carroll County Cougars.

One of the most impressive things about the win over Carroll (8-3) was Lowell's calm survival under pressure. The home team trailed 51-42 before they scored 15 of the next 21 points to tie the championship game 57-57 on a lay up by Kaitlin Ragan with 47 seconds to go.

Lowell, a team with just one senior and only two juniors on the roster, did not call time out. Leading scorer Katie Bobos, who finished with 22 points, took a pass at the top of the key and, instead of shooting, fired it under the basket to sophomore forward Mackenzie Kruetz, who was fouled. Kruetz made two free throws for a 59-57 Lowell lead with 18 seconds to play. After a Carroll turnover, Kruetz held the ball just beyond mid-court until she was fouled and the 6-foot sophomore spilt two free throws to create the final score.

Not many sophomores want to shoot free throws in the final 20 seconds of a close game. Where did that confidence come from?

"Coach always says walk with swagger," Kruetz said. "You've got to look confident. I wasn't afraid of missing. When I was shooting them, in said 'I'm not missing these.'"

Lowell should have won the second game decisively, but Carroll, playing without starting guard Jessica Yoder, mounted a major rally behind 5-foot-7 senior Quincy Eller, a strong senior guard who scored 11 of her game-high 31 points in the third quarter and 11 more in the fourth quarter.

"You can talk about this being a 2A team," said Lowell coach Katie Antcliff. "But there's nobody like that up where we are. On some of those shots, (Sarah) was up on her. She just made some shots."

Eller, who is coming north to play for Purdue-Calumet next season, has lifted her game since Yoder was hurt. Last week she scored 26 against Delphi.

"Since Yoder got hurt," Carroll coach Mike McCroskey said, "Quinci as been averaging 26, 28 a game. Yoder got hurt against Tri-County. We were up 15-2 (on Nov. 22) and got beat 45-40. Two nights later against Delphi, we saw a box-and-one and they just took us out of everything. But since then, we're 6-1. She (Eller) has put everybody one her back and just carried us on offense. She's increased her range."

The second most impressive thing about Lowell is that they have begun to beat senior-laden teams with a team full of sophomores. The second half of the Devils schedule is notably tougher than the first 10 games and Lowell's basketball revival was expected since they played a lot of freshman when they went 6-15 last season. The 8-2 record might be a game or two better than Lowell figured on at this point, considering their youth. But don't tell Antcliff that.

"I wish the newspapers would stop saying that," she will tell you. "We don't consider anybody here too young. That's an excuse and we never use it. We never mention that. There's no reason we shouldn't be winning."

Antcliff also wasn't surprised that Kruetz wanted the ball at the end. The suggestion is: She'd better want it.

"I've seen them drop their heads," she said. "I've seen them back off. And if you do that, you'll be sitting next to me. We don't allow that. You don't have any business being on the floor."

"She's played with this sophomore group (that won the AAU state title two years ago in eighth grade) since I've known her. She's been able to focus in and control what she does on the floor. She used to commit a lot of fouls and get called for traveling. She always had the right idea, but she used to have a lot of trouble getting there. She was excellent against Highland."

Bobos, who had one of her best games of the season, said the weekend winning streak means things are working.

"We're executing what coach says," she commented. Bobos is well aware of Lowell's past records. How many games did Lowell win last season? "Six," she says. The year before, "One", she replied without looking it up. "So this is great."

Lowell put Bobos, a 5-foot-10 forward in the high post and let her create plays. The Devil sophomore only got to the foul line one time but she scored 11 field goals against the smaller Carroll girls.

"Their big people hurt us," said Carroll coach Mike McCroskey of Bobos, Kruetz and senior Rachel Thiel. "We can't do anything about their size inside."

Lowell did not play well in the semifinal, trailing 19-13 to Class 1A Clinton Prairie in the second quarter. But the size of Kreutz and Bobos in the foul lane boosted the Devils and they were able to hold CP to just seven fourth quarter points.

"I think playing a 1A school, the girls kinda acted like it," said Antcliff. "But then they saw we needed to play and they said, 'Okay, let's play.' It's hard to get two wins down here. We left at 6:30 in the morning. Down here, they play Saturday games at 11 a.m. They're used to this time slot."

The end result was so good that it's almost like the Devils don't need the 19-day break that was originally scheduled between the end of the Carroll tournament and the Jan. 7 game against Andrean. Late news is: They no longer have that break. It has not been announced, but Lowell's Jan. 25 game at 2A No. 9 Boone Grove (9-1) has been moved to Valparaiso University to be part of the 'Region Rumble' basketball showcase. Boone and Lowell will play at 7 p.m. When did this happen?

"You look about as surprised as I was when I got the email," smiled Antcliff.

"I love it. It's a great opportunity for the kids. My only concern was that we were practicing in the first week of the break and I gave them the second week of (Christmas) break off. I told them, I need to make sure that you are going to be here. All bodies are on board. So we're giving them time out now (the week before Christmas). I think they're feeding into the fact that they have a chance to make a name for themselves here."

"They don't ask bad teams to be there. Boone is good. And they are going to shoot the '3'. That's their game. We want to do everything we can to win."

CARROLL NOTES: You would think that Lowell's girls might not all like coming to a tiny place like Flora (population: 2,200) to spend an all day basketball Saturday.

"No, I love coming here," said Lowell's Mackenzie Kruetz. "We all get to hang out together all day."

Katie Bobos added, "You get to see new people. We play the same teams all the time. Here there's somebody new."

Class 2A Carroll defeated University High 52-21 in the semifinals and Clinton Prairie topped University 52-26 in the third place game. University, now 1-9, won this tournament three years ago.

Carroll coach Mike McCroskey, who won state championships with Kokomo in the 1990s, has been Carroll's coach for four season now.

"I retired from teaching this season," he said. "Thirty-seven years. I still love being here with these girls."

McCroskey, a Hall-of-Fame coach at Kokomo, wasn't that surprised that Lowell didn't call time out when the score was 57-57 in the final minute.

"I dont like to call time out," he said. "Most of the time, what you set up doesn't work. When we called time (when the score was 59-57) we set up what was supposed to be a double screen for Eller. It ended up driving to the other side of the floor and having a turnover."

Lowell may have added some depth in 6-foot sophomore Marie Ingebretsen.

"We were just going to get her in there to give Thiel (Rachel Thiel) and Kenzie (Mackenzie Kruetz) a couple of minutes," admitted Lowell coach Katie Antcliff about inserting Ingebretsen in the second quarter of the championship game. "She was actually holding her hold. She finished out the half and she gave us good minutes in the second half. That's what we're looking for."

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Revised: December 23, 2010 .