Merrillville Girls control Lady Bulldogs en route to 57-41 win

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith
12-30-2005

Thursday, 12-28-2005 - Lake Athletic Conference game at Crown Point

MERRILLVILLE (57)  Jamesha Harris 2-2-6, Raquel Guerrero 1-1-3, Chrissy Lobodinski 5-1-11, Sharon Houston 3-2-8, Gina Howard 1-2-4, Brittney Cruse 3-4-12, Britney Moore 4-03-11, Angela East 0-0-0, Gabrielle Walton 0-0-0, Tamara Gaddy 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 20 (15-23) 57.

CROWN POINT (41)  Stephanie Poulos 4-0-10, Courtney Perry 3-8-14, Hannah Plumley 1-1-4, Michelle Lipton 1-2-4, Anjellica Rospond 0-2-2, Ashley Zaucha 1-0-2, Jackie Clements 1-0-2, Melissa Spisak 1-0-2, Amanda Moore 0-1-1, Sydney Reeves 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 12 (14-21) 41.

FREE THROWS:  MERRILLVILE (15-23, 65.2%)  Harris 2-2, Cruse 4-4, Guerrero 1-1, Lobodinski 1-3, Houston 2-4, Howard 2-2, Moore 3-5;  CROWN POINT (14-21, 66.7%) Rospond 2-2, Lipton 2-2, Plumley 1-2, Moore 1-2, Poulos 0-2, Spisak 0-1, Perry 8-10.

3-GOALS:  MERRILLVILLE (2) Britney Cruse 2;  CP (3) Stephanie Poulos 2, Hannah Plumley.

FOULED OUT:  Amanda Moore (CP) 4th Qtr.

CROWN POINT  (12-28-2005) -  The worst thing that happened to Crown Point's Lady Bulldogs may have been the previous week's 53-51 Munster upset of Merrillville.  Merrillville came down to Crown Point Wednesday night feeling they had something to prove.

And Crown Point wasn't ready.

Racing to an 11-2 start and never trailing, Merrillville finished the first half of the Duneland Athletic Conference season with their best game of the year, a very decisive 57-41 win over their southern neighbors.

The records indicated the Pirates (10-1, 7-0 DAC) had the better squad but Crown Point, (7-5, 4-3 DAC) on a four-game winning streak, had shown enough for 600-700 fans to show up for a mid week holiday matchup.

They saw Merrillville's tall and quick lineup hold CP to just 12 field goals and build a 20-point lead in the third quarter.  The feeling in the gym in the second half was that Crown Point just couldn't score enough baskets to mount any kind of rally.

"It's a mindset," said CP coach Tom May, who called Merrillville the best team he has seen against his squad personally this year.  "The reason we shot so poorly was the same reason they came at us strong.  We were in a defensive mindset.  Tonight, we apologized to them because we didn't put our junior varsity in at the end.  They had played so poorly this week that we weren't going to put them into this game.  So she (Pirate coach Amy Govert) stayed with her kids.  She did put some others in at the end.  The score wasn't as close as the score indicated.  Basically, we took a beating."

"The question is, how do you respond from a beating? We have to play them two more times."

Govert, the Highland and Valpo University grad who is the Pirates' first year varsity coach, found out how her team responded from a 'beating.'  They turned around and handed one out.

"This is the first game we actually came out and attacked," said Govert.  "We know what they are capable of.  We knew it would take a little while with this group.  They need to play together."

Lew Wallace transfer Sharon Houston, a 6-2 senior, had seven rebounds in the first quarter and 6-3 center Britney Moore was a powerhouse underneath all night.  But it was 5-5 sophomore guard Brittney Cruse who was the difference in the game.  Cruse scored nine points in the first quarter and consistently defeated CP's trademark weapon, their full court pressing defenses.

"This group is very unselfish," said Govert, who played the point guard position at Highland.  "She's coming along.  She's listening.  She's taking everything in.  But she's taking everything in.  She's done a great job.  Coach (Stephanie) Nelson gets after the posts and I get on the guards.  I'm very happy with her."

Merrillville led 42-25 early in the third quarter and Crown Point could not string consecutive baskets together.  The crowd sat largely quiet waiting for the Bulldog rally that never came.  The lead reached 20 points in the fourth period.

"We watched them make moves," said May.  "Houston and Moore turn to the basket and we just looked.  It wasn't Xs and 0s.  It was a matter of getting in front of them.  You have to stay in there, dish it out.  We didn't dish anything out.  We took a whooping."

Merrillville had not been a great team through the first half of the season despite a great record.  The Pirates beat Highland by one point and LaPorte just 34-31.  They trailed Valparaiso (8-3) by 11 points before winning by five.  That was before Houston, a Division I college recruit,  joined the team (she was ineligible according to the IHSAA for the first seven games).  But the loss to Munster came with Houston in uniform.

"Most of those games came because we couldn't shoot," Govert explained.  "Against Munster, we shot 21 percent from the field.  Highland, LaPorte.  Munster.  Our guards could not hit a shot.  They're good shooters.  But sometimes it gets in their heads, 'We've got to get the ball into the posts.'  Well, if they are double and triple teaming the post, you have to take your shot.  They're good shooters."

May didn't want to hear about how 10 days off with a four game winning streak stopped any momentum the Lady Bulldogs may have had.

"I don't think it had anything to do with the time we had off," he answered quickly.  "The last few days in practice, we've been walking through it, like 'We're here. Look at us.'  We got lucky in some of the wins we had.  I'm disappointed that we didn't compete."

"I'm not saying that if we played our beat and they played our best that we'd win.  But we didn't compete and I was very disappointed in that."

CPLB NOTES:  Merrillville coach Amy Govert may be blessed with two Division I forwards in her first year but she reports that the future is now for the purple Pirates. 

"We've got a couple of weak classes in a row after this one," Govert admits.  "The seventh grade class is fairly decent and we've got a couple of kids who can play in eighth grade.  So I don't know what we're going to have for awhile."

Merrillville has been blessed with two Division I forwards (Julie DeMuth in 2003 and Sharon Houston in 2005) transferring in from other Lake County schools in the last six years.  Moore is becoming more polished.  She doesn't rush her shots or hack on defense anymore and she responds to double-teams.

"We have a lot of people capable of putting up big points," Govert said.  "But everybody can't score 20 points a game.  Brittney (Moore) is the best passer for a big person that I've seen.

Crown Point has lost 5-11 junior forward Katie Kvachkoff, probably for the season.  She has contracted a severe case of mononucleosis among other physical problems and isn't even in school right now.  Kvachkoff missed virtually all of last season with leg problems.

Sophomore Melissa Spisak, a 5-10 soccer player, has joined the varsity to replace Kvachkoff and she played about 10 minutes against Merrillville.

Govert sheds some insight on how her Pirates could dominate a Crown Point team which beat Valparaiso by nine after Valpo had held an 11-point fourth quarter lead on Merrillville in what turned out to be a narrow Pirate 52-47 home win in November.

"We were down 11,"  Govert said of the Valpo game.  "Cruse didn't play in the first half.  She sat the first two quarters.  Not that that made all that difference.  I don't think (VHS star Erica) Humes missed a field goal in the third quarter, but then we stepped up defensively."

CP coach Tom May thought that Houston, who did not play against Valparaiso, made the difference in that three-game scenario.

"When she's in there, that allows the other girls to board and do stuff when otherwise they'd be matched up against a girl that's bigger than they.  I knew they were going to come at us tonight.  We needed to match intensity with intensity and we didn't do that."

"Munster's a good team but I wish we'd have given them a better game.  Next day in school, I have a couple of them (her players) in class.  They know I'm very intense.  I'm fairly quiet on the sidelines but I'm normally not like that.  They were walking in the classroom peeking at me.  Like they weren't sure.  But they came up to the desk and said, 'We'll fix it.'  And that's what I wanted to hear.  They showed some weaknesses and that's what we worked on the last two days."

"But we really do attack people.  That's the difference between this team and the others we've had since I've been here as an assistant.  This team still really attacks you."

May said that he likes Merrillville's chances in the upcoming post-season.

"I like them.  I like Amy.  They haven't had (post-season) success for awhile," said May.  If not us, I hope it is them."

USA-365.com Notes:  0ur Internet broadcast is on a New Year's holiday break, then returns to action for the Portage at Crown Point boys basketball game to be broadcast via the Internet on USA-365.com on Tuesday, January 3.  Live coverage begins with the pregame show at 7:15 p.m. and the tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., CST.  

The next Crown Point girls basketball game to be broadcast via the Internet on USA-365.com will be Chesterton at Crown Point in a rare boys/girls varsity double-header on Friday, January 6.  Live coverage begins with the pregame show at 5:45 p.m. and the tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 p.m., CST.  The Chesterton-CP boys game will follow 20-minutes after the conclusion of the girls game.

Dave Woodworth (play-by-play) and Mark Smith (analysis) return to call the action. The PODcast and story will be posted later that weekend on www.USA-365.com.  

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Revised: December 30, 2005 .