H.S. Girls Basketball: Lowell 48, Calumet 37

Team	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3rd Qtr	4th Qtr	Final
LOWELL (8-2)	12	7	14	15	48
Calumet (6-5)	14	7	7	9	37

CALUMET (37) Sherika Moore 1-0-2, Liz Crumble 3-3-11, Kiki Bytnar 6-0-15, Jenell Echls 1-1-3, Cherie Sanders 3-0-6, Vianca Green 0-0-0, Jill Spencer 0-0-0. TALS: 14-4-37.

FREE THROWS: 4-6, 66.7% (Crumble 3-4, Echols 1-2, Bytnar 0-2)
FOULED OUT: None
3-POINT GOALS (5) Bytnar 3, Crumble 2.

LOWELL (48) Natalie Hanas 0-2-2, McKensey Wietbrock 1-0-3, Mary Erpelding 1-0-2, Brooke Bell 1-2-4, Ashley Cosentino 3-8-14, Rachel Thiel 3-0-6, Lisa Schulfer 7-3-17, Whitney Magley 0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-15-48.

FREE THROWS: 15-22, 68.1% percent - Schulfer 3-5, Cosentino 8-10, Bell 2-2, Hanas 2-2, Thiel 0-1, Magley 0-2.
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (0)

Team	1st Qtr	2nd Qtr	3rd Qtr	4th Qtr	Final
LOWELL (7-2)	7	7	9	6	29
Highland (8-3)	10	23	8	8	49

HIGHLAND (49) Georgian Michaels 2-2-8, Cassi Siska 2-2-6, Katie Lewis 4-3-11, Jody Shimanek 1-1-3, Ashley Sampson 1-4-6, Katie Kane 2-2-6, Jennifer Vukovich 1-0-2, Tina Traczyk 1-0-3, Anne Kvarta 1-2-4 Babe Simkus 0-0-0, Emily Cieslak 0-0-0. TOTALS: 15-15-49

FREE THROWS: 16-22, 73.6 percent. Michaels 2-2, Siska 2-3, Siska 3-4, Shimanek 1-2, Ashley Sampson 4-7, Kane 2-2, Kvarta 2-2
FOULED OUT: None
3-POINT GOALS (3) Michaels 2, Traczyk

LOWELL (28) Rachel Thiel 3-2-8, Lisa Schulfer 2-0-4, Whitney Magley 1-1-3, Mary Erpelding 1-0-3, McKensey Wietbrock 1-3-5, Ashley Cosentino 1-1-3, Natalie Hanas 0-1-1, Kelly Johnson 1-0-2 Megan Bachinski 0-0-0, Wendy Broukal 0-0-0, . TOTALS: 10-8-29

FREE THROWS: 8-17 percent - Johnson 1-4, Wietbrock 3-5, Thiel 2-2, Magley 1-1, Cosentino 1-4, Bachinski 0-1.
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (1) Mary Erpelding.

HIGHLAND (12-14-2003) - Lowell's girls come out of the first December version of the Lake Athletic Conference (LAC) basketball tournament with an 8-2 record. Normally 8-2 is the road to miles of smiles, but the Red Devils sit uneasy on that 8 of 10 throne.

There is a good chance that the Devils' record can expand to 11-2 or maybe even 14-2 before they are confronted with an overmatch again. But the two losses, 50-31 at home to Crown Point (7-2) and 49-29 to Highland (9-3) in Saturday's semifinals of the LAC playoffs, have Lowell looking to be better than they are.

"We weren't ready play," said a frustrated coach Patti McCormack, who came into the Saturday morning breakfast (10 a.m.) time start with thoughts of a two-game Saturday sweep and Lowell's first LAC title. "I know is early, but it was 10 a.m. for them, too."

The Red Devils were within 11-10 after a driving three-point play by sophomore Ashley Cosentino, but the breakfast window closed at that point with the taller Trojans (9-3) scoring 19 of the next 21 points to put the slow-paced game away. Highland, which has won all three LAC tournaments so far, utilized a half court trap headed by 5-10 Katie Lewis and 5-10 Ashley Sampson who stole the ball repeatedly.

"I thought we were a step slow all day," said McCormack. "And we just kept walking right into the trap. We needed to reverse the ball to the the other side of the floor but we didn't do it. We had seniors doing the same thing every time."

To be fair, it is much easier for the home team to play a 10 a.m. game than it is for a team coming from 30 miles away. It's an excuse, but Lowell seemed to sleep walk through the game mentally. On the other hand, the Devils resembled many teams that have played Highland in this tournament. They seemed afraid to attack the taller, stronger Trojans, almost posting more turnovers (22) than points.

Lowell never got closer than 15 points in the second half of a boring game that tipped off before about 37 fans at a ridiculous hour. The Devils rebounded in the consolation game to beat Calumet 48-37 behind 17 points from Lisa Schulfer, who sat during most of the morning game with illness and foul trouble. Lowell also got a career high 14 points by Cosentino, who McCormack vowed would get more playing time because of her speed and aggressiveness.

"We can play like this," said McCormack. "We did the same thing against Crown Point. I don't know if we're intimidated or what? But it won't stay like this. You know I'll make changes."

That record again: Eight wins. Two losses.

LAC NOTES: Highland won a third consecutive LAC title with an easy 39-22 win over Wheeler (8-3) Saturday night. The Bearcats, who have a strong front court including sisters Becca and Elyse Bruszewski were held to nine field goals and trailed 27-15 after three quarters. No one came within 10 points of Highland in any of the four tournament games.

Lowell coach Patti McCormack was not happy about having to play a consolation game which required the morning losers to sit around for hours far from home.

"I thought we'd voted that out," she said. "I don't know what purpose it serves. There's no difference between third and fourth place. Now we're going to play Calumet again and then we play them next Friday. We don't want to do that and they don't want to do that."

The Lake Athletic Conference tournament is getting better in its third year, but they have to make a couple of very makable changes.

The LAC seeded the top two teams, but that still allows the top-ranked team to play the third ranked team in the early rounds. That's a tourney killer. I know you're not supposed to say this in Indiana, but the blind draw is as stupid as six episodes of the 'Simple Life.' Tournaments are supposed to make money and create fair and exciting playoff competition, not necessarily in that order. To pull the names out of a hat for pairings defeats all those purposes. Seed the top four teams so they could not possibly meet before the semifinals. That's fair and it still allows a last place team a chance to get an easy game in tourney play.

The concept of playing the semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday morning instead of 6 p.m. Friday night was rejected by parents and fans. Nobody showed up. Maybe 35-40 fans and some of them may have been sleeping custodians. For years, adults have insisted that children can play athletic events at early morning hours and it has NEVER been true. But in a league championship tournament, it's unfair to ask the players start a game at 10 a.m.

Why not play the semifinal double-header in prime-time Friday night starting at 6 p.m? Fans from four schools will show up on the traditional Indiana basketball night. You'd have to schedule the boys out of town or have them be idle one Friday night? Poor babies. They'll get over it. This tournament will NEVER be a success playing the semifinals at 10 a.m. Saturday.

3.) FORGET THE THIRD PLACE GAME

First round losers should play a consolation game but semifinal losers have already played three times in five days. Three months before the state tourney, there is absolutely no value to a 12 noon loser sitting around six hours to play for third place.

Players usually play with about as much enthusiasm as Eddie Curry and everyone in the building prays for the game not to go into overtime. Even the winners lose because they wore themselves out for the next week's games.

With no third place game, the title matchup can start at 6:30 and everybody can end the long tournament week at a decent hour.

Lake Conference Tournament
Dec. 9: 43-41 Hammond (3-5) (LAC 1st round)
Dec. 11: 47-33 Griffith (7-3) (LAC quarterfinals)
Dec. 13: 29-49 at Highland (9-3) (LAC semifinals)

Carroll Classic
Dec. 20: (S) Rossville 12:30 p.m.
Dec. 20: (S) Consolation 6:00 p.m. / Championship 7:30 p.m.

Lady Red Devils take Consolation title at LAC Tourney, 48-37 over Calumet

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith