Lady Wolves defeat Crown Point 58-42 in Girls Basketball

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
12-17-2011

MICHIGAN CITY (58) Jameka Collins 2-0-4, Michal Miller 7-2-16, Keshyana Cooper 5-1-11, Aubria Smith 1-0-3, Toni Murphy 8-7-24, Cheyanne Gerron 0-0-0, Dejania Evans 0-0-0. TOTALS: 23 (8-19) 58.

CROWN POINT (44) Beth Ingram 1-2-4, Michaela Prough 3-0-6, Morgan Frame 1-0-2, Alexis Joseph 4-0-8, Courtney Kvachkoff 7-1-15, Taylor Equihua 2-0-4, Abby Kvachkoff 1-0-3, Katija Tarailo 0-0-0, Lauren O'Keefe 0-0-0, Katie Howarth 0-0-0. TOTALS: 19 (3-9) 42.

FREE THROWS: MICHGAN CITY (8-19, 42.1%) Murphy 7-10, Keshyana Cooper 1-5, Collins 0-2, Evans 0-2; CROWN POINT (3-9, 33%) Ingram 2-4, Kvbachkoff 1-5.

REBOUNDS: MICHIGAN CITY (38) Cooper 19, Collins 7, Murphy 4, Miller 3, Smith 3, Evans 2; CROWN POINT (27) Joseph 13, Equihua 5, Prough 3, Kvachkoff 3, Frame 2, O'Keefe.

ASSISTS: MICHGAN CITY (5) Collins 3, Murphy. Miller; CROWN POINT (14) Ingram 4, Joseph 4, Kvachkoff 3, Equihua, O'Keefe, Tarailo.

STEALS: MICHIGAN CITY (12) Miller 5, Murphy 3, Collins 2, Cooper. Smith; CROWN POINT (6) Frame 3, Kvachkoff 2, Prough.

FOULED OUT: CP (1) Beth Ingram (4th Q) 4:04 left.

3-GOALS: MICHIGAN CITY (4) Michal Miller 2, Toni Murphy, Aubria Smith; CROWN POINT (1) Abby Kvachoff.

"I know that sounds arrogant," he admitted, "but I never had any doubt we would win. They have a couple of girls out and the way we matched up against them, I knew we would win. I didn't have any doubts."

Truth is: He was right. Michigan City (7-1), which started four guards against CP, after junior starting forward Aubria Clifton (9.4 per game) suffered a season-ending knee injury three days earlier against Merrillville, held an even more injury-depleted team in CP to just 18 second half points in a 58-42 victory.

Michigan City junior Toni Murphy scored 15 of her 24 points in the second half and 6-foot junior Keshyana Cooper finished with 19 rebounds as the Wolves stayed one game behind Merrillville 9-0, 5-0 in the DAC.

Crown Point finished a roller-coaster first half of the season with a loss that could not have shocked them. CP lost starting guard Kendall Brown to a concussion in their 49-33 win at Valparaiso three days earlier and that left seniors Courtney Kvachkoff and varsity rookie senior Beth Ingram and JV guard Lauren O'Keefe as the only available guards in a game against one of the quicker teams in this part of the state.

The surprise wasn't that Michigan City won. It was that the game was tied at halftime. When you look it up, you find that Michigan City has defeated Crown Point 13 times in a row. This game proved little except something most folks already knew. Having a basketball team with almost all guards is better than having a basketball team with almost all forwards.

Michigan City was coming off its first loss of the season 78-72 three days earlier at Merrillville but Megeyse, in total 'coach speak' insisted that loss had absolutely nothing at all to do with the slow start against Crown Point.

"They (CP) did some good things defensively with their zone defense," he said. "You've got to understand that we've had pretty much the same starting lineup for two years. And then we have a girl out and we had to adjust."

Crown Pont has two regular guards who have been out all season so they probably understand being shorthanded. Losing Brown (hopefully temporarily) left CP unable to defense the 5-foot-4 Murphy, who averages 20 points a game, or 6-foot-5 freshman guard Michal Miller, who averages 12 per game. Those two sliced through the CP defense after the Wolves took the lead and pulled CP out of their 2-3 zone.

"There are some very good players in this area and Toni is one of them," said Megeyese. "She's able to make plays and make shots. We wanted to concentrate on (CP senior Courtney) Kvachkoff because she is very good. We felt that with who they had out, she was the only one who could really hurt us."

Kvachkoff was 7 of 15 for 15 points facing more than one defender and some of her teammates were reluctant to make offensive moves. Other than 6-foot-1 Michaela Prough (who was 3-for-10 from the field, no one else on Crown Point took more than five shots.

Joseph had one of her best games with eight points, 13 rebounds an four assists but she only took five shots, something coach Equihua couldn't explain.

"We got the ball into her in the first half," said the coach "and she scored. But in the second half she seemed to concentrate on kicking it back out. We had to start three post players (Prough, Joseph and Morgan Frame) because we really didn't have anybody else."

"We did not look to score a lot offensively, a lot which is understandable since our best outside shooter was on the bench."

CPLB NOTES: Senior Kendall Brown (10.7 points, 4.5 assists per game) could not play because of a concussion. "I don't know when she'll be back but her health is obviously more important than her playing. Its not worth it," said coach Equihua.

Senior Beth Ingram, who has started from the seventh game of the season on, played 25 minutes against the four guard attack of Michigan City. She had four points, four turnovers and four assists, which is pretty good for a senior who was on the junior varsity last year. Had junior guards Sarah Rivich and Haley Bordui and now senior Kendall Brown not been injured, Ingram would have been the fifth guard and she might have played 50 minutes all season. The 5-foot-5 senior had played 164 minutes after 10 games and she's obviously in the starting lineup until Brown can play.

"She was saying, 'I don't want to sit back down.'" reported coach Anne Equihua. "I said, 'Fine, just keep doing what you're doing.' She's playing well."

Crown Point also brought up sophomore guard Lauren O'Keefe off the junior varsity and she played almost 11 minutes without scoring a point or making a turnover.

"We needed some quickness defensively," said Equihua, "so we brought her up and I thought she did a great job. She made some nice passes into the post."

Five CP girls scored seven points or more in last week's 49-33 CP Tuesday night (12-13-11) win at Valparaiso. Kendall Brown led the Lady Bulldogs with 11 points.

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Revised: December 17, 2011 .