Johnson's return not enough as Lady Devils fall 52-42 at Lake Central

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith
1-18-2006

Tuesday, 1-17-2006 - nonconference game at St. John

LOWELL (42)  Kara Lamb 3-2-8, Rachel Thiel 3-0-6, Kim Bell 0-3-3,  Ashley Cosentino 3-5-11, Julie Swisher 4-0-9, Kate Haberlin 1-0-2, Kelly Johnson 1-1-3, Gabi Goetz 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 15 (11-16) 42.

LAKE CENTRAL (52)  Janelle Kapelinski 6-7-9, Jenny Britton 1-4-6, Angie Funston 4-0-9, Allison Aguilera 0-6-6, Lisa Kruse 1-0-2, Jamie Auer 1-4-6, Brandi Fehrman 0-1-1, Suzanne Huebner 1-0-2, Tabitha Deakin 0-1-1, Krystal Coleman 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 14 (23-35) 52.

FREE THROWS:  LOWELL (11-16, 68.7%) Lamb 2-4, Cosentino 5-6, Bell 3-4, Johnson 1-2;  LAKE CENTRAL (23-35, 65.7%) Kapelinski 7-11, Britton 4-4, Aguilera 6-10, Auer 4-6, Fehrman 1-2, Deakin 1-2.

REBOUNDS:  LOWELL (26) Swisher 6, Bell 4, Thiel 7, Lamb 3, Johnson 3, Cosentino, Haberlin 2.
LAKE CENTRAL (28) Kapelinski 12, Kruse 6, Funston 5, Britton 3,  Auer 2.

ASSISTS:  LOWELL (7) Cosentino 6, Bell; LAKE CENTRAL (6) Funston 3, Britton 2, Aguilera.

STEALS:  LOWELL (8) Cosentino 4, Lamb 2;  LAKE CENTRAL (9) Britton 2, Kruse 3, Kapelinski 2, Funston, Auer.

TURNOVERS:  LOWELL (5-3-6-4) 18  LAKE CENTRAL (2-1-4-3) 10

3-GOALS:  LOWELL (1) Julie Swisher;  LAKE CENTRAL (1) Angie Funston.

ST. JOHN  (1-17-2006)  With the state playoffs on the horizon, Lake Central is on the fast track and Lowell is stalled in the garage.  Neither Lake Central or Lowell played an outstanding game Tuesday night and when that happens, you usually end up going the same way you were going. Lowell's fourth loss in six games was Lake Central's sixth consecutive win, 52-42 over the Red Devils.
  
This might not have been an upset.  Lake Central plays an overwhelming schedule including some of the teams that Lowell is about to play.  It's no shame for Lowell (12-5) to lose to the largest school (enrollment: 2,800) in Northwest Indiana.  The problem is that Lowell hasn't done well against anybody since mid-season, and LC is a sectional rival.

"Our girls aren't stepping up," said Lowell coach Patti McCormack, mincing no words. "They're stepping back. And this is not the time of the season for that."

Lake Central rode the inside play of 5-10 junior Janelle Kapelinski, who went home with 19 points and 12 rebounds, many stolen right out of the hands and reach of Lowell players.  In a game where many of the other statistics were even, Kapelinski's double figure digits made the difference in a quiet midweek game and both sides knew it.

"She does that all the time," said LC veteran coach Tom Megyesi.  "She does that in practice.  It's natural.  She's comfortable with that and she can draw a foul with it.  She's giving everything she has every game and she's getting things done and we need that."

This game was 6-6 at the quarter and 19-18 at the half ,so nobody was setting any world records in the first two quarters.  Lowell led 23-20 with 5:18 left in the third period on a basket by Rachel Thiel before LC hit seven foul shots in a row to go ahead 27-23.  Junior guard Kelly Johnson, making her season debut in game 17 after knee surgery, scored a layup and a three-point play to cut the lead to 27-26. The Red Devils also pulled to within 31-30 with 6:46 to play on a short jump shot by Julie Swisher before the well ran dry offensively.  Unable to get open shots against LC's zone defense, Lowell scored just three field goals the rest of the way, two of them in the final minute when they trailed by 10 points.

LC hit free throws and got offensive rebounds to close it out. The Indians, coming off a 48-41 win at Crown Point (10-6) on Jan. 13, sank 23 of 35 free throws but Lowell didn't complain much about the officiating. The Devils' problem was in the white shirts not the striped ones.

"We have a lot of respect for Swisher," said Megyesi.  "She's a great shooter.  And Cosentino was hurting us in the first half until we made an adjustment to stop fouling her.  You can't put her on the line.  She's automatic.  Fatigue might have been a factor, too down the stretch when they didn't score."

With just 29 field goals in the entire game and only two three-point baskets, this was the defensive struggle Lowell has to have to win in a sectional full of superior offensives.

Lowell's offense will certainly be boosted by the return of Johnson, a dribble-drive threat, a decent rebounder for her size and an 80 percent foul shooter.  Johnson, who played the entire volleyball season with a bad knee before November surgery, wore a large knee brace and ran slowly but she was mobile enough to play Lowell's half court style.  The 5-5 wing player, who averaged 11.4 points per game last season, entered the game with 1:37 left in the first quarter and played about 13 minutes, scoring three points.  The numbers didn't really matter.  Lowell gets their 2005 leading scorer and a double figure offensive threat  back on the floor three weeks before the playoffs.  If Johnson can remain healthy and the Devils can regain some lost confidence, Lowell is a first round bye away from being a sectional contender.

The latter may be a bigger hurdle than the former.

"When you play a team," said McCormack, "You've got to show up.  Seven players.  Eight players.  We told them everything they needed to do to beat Lake Central.  But we didn't do it.  We're not reading the defense.  We ran right into them instead of going up the gap."

"They refuse to go up to each other and challenge each other.  That's what's killing me.  They want it, but they want it to come to them. It doesn't work that way, especially with the schedule we play in January.  We've all told them.  This is not the time to be stepping back."

DEVIL NOTES:  The LC win over Lowell represented an in-season milestone as the Indians got back to the .500 mark. 

"We were 1-6 at one point this season," reminds LC coach Tom Megyesi.  "We did talk about the record.  We made it a goal to get to the .500 mark before the season ended and they did it.  We can't stop now.  We've still got Merrillville (15-1), Valparaiso (10-5) and Chesterton (10-5) left to play."

Last week's Sagarin Computer ratings ranked LC's schedule 21st toughest among 388 basketball teams in the state.  LC plays every sectional rival except Gary West Side and they are 1-3 against sectional foes.

"It's a tough sectional," said Megyesi.  "We want to play them.  Lowell is good competition.  They're well coached.  I like Patti.  She's a friend.  Her teams play hard."

McCormack liked having Johnson back.   

"She wanted to get in there before the Highland game," said the coach. "I expect she'll be a little sore, but she's certainly not afraid.  We tried to play her in little spurts.  She's released by the doctor and she wants to be out there."

Johnson will have to come out if the pace of the game picks up because she is not in shape to run up and down the floor.  But Lowell is not a full court pressure team and won't be against teams like Munster, Gary West Side and East Chicago.  

"She can catch.  She can pass.  She can shoot free throws," said McCormack. "She will help us."

Lowell's Gabi Goetz, a 5-10 sophomore forward, got to play briefly Tuesday, making this the first game this season where all eight of the players Lowell projected to be on the varsity this season were actually available.

LC made a nice adjustment in the win over Lowell when they realized that the long-range shooting that is a key to their offense was not available Tuesday.

"We had a cold shooting night but they hung in there," said Megyesi.  "A shooter's got to shoot.  But they realized that maybe we have to get it inside and get to the line and that's what we did."

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Revised: January 21, 2006 .