Tuesday, 12-14-2004 in Crown Point

VALPARAISO (36) Lauren Prow 1-2-4, Ashley Glaser 1-2-5, Lindsey Humes 2-0-4, Erica Humes 5-3-13, Cassie Kerns 4-2-10, Grace Sutherland 0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-9-36.

CROWN POINT (26) Hannah Plumley 1-0-2, Kaitlyn Sertich 2-0-4, Michelle Lipton 1-0-3, Anjellica Respond 1-0-2, Cassie Pruzin 4-6-15, Stephanie Poulos 0-0-0, Kaitlin Sautter 0-0-0, Jill Weiand 0-0-0, Courtney Perry 0-0-0, Jackie Clements 0-0-0. TOTALS: 9-6-26.

REBOUNDS – Valparaiso (29) Erica Humes 13, Cassie Kerns 8, Lauren Prow 3, Ashley Glaser 3, Lindsey Humes 2.

CROWN POINT (18) Anjelica Rospond 7, Cassie Pruzin 4, Hannah Plumley 3, Jill Weiand 2, Kaitlyn Sertich, Courtney Perry.

ASSISTS - Valparaiso (7) Prow 2, Erica Humes 3, Kerns, Lindsey Humes. CROWN POINT (4) Pruzin 2, Weiand 2.

BLOCKED SHOTS – Valparaiso (7) Lindsey Humes 3, Cassie Kerns 3, Erica Humes. CROWN POINT (0)

STEALS – Valparaiso (7) Cassie Kerns 3, Lauren Prow 2, Lindsey Humes, Erica Humes. CP (7) Kaitlyn Sertich 3, Cassie Pruzin2, Stephanie Poulos, Jill Weiand.

TURNOVERS – Valparaiso 3-1-6-3 (13); Crown Point 1-0-5-3 (9)

THREE-POINT GOALS - Valparaiso (1) Ashley Glaser; CP (2) Cassie Pruzin, Michelle Lipton.

CROWN POINT (12-14-2004) - This is one close game that you left not wondering who had the better team.

In the first of what will almost certainly be three meetings this season, Valparaiso scored the final 10 points of the game to pull away from Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) rival Crown Point 36-26.

In a game that was played at Valparaiso's traditional patient pace, the Vikings made plays when they had to and grabbed rebounds when they needed them to take the lead in the DAC gong into the Christmas break.

Junior guard Erica Humes scored on a fast break pass and scored on an offensive rebound, sandwiched around a missed jump shot by CP's Cassie Pruzin, to give then Vikings a 30-26 lead. CP missed two shots before Ashley Glaser sank two free throws to make it 32-26 with 1:08 to play. CP's Kaitlyn Sertich missed a three-point shot and Lauren Prow sank two foul shots with :46 left. Two more missed shots led to Erica Humes sinking two more foul shots for the 10-point victory.

“That's the best defensive game we've had all season,” said Kirby, who is 299-49 in 15 years at Valparaiso high school. “We've been inconsistent. We have some new players out there and they're inconsistent. That's the best 32 minutes of defense we've played all year. I assume they've been averaging almost 60 points a game. We do well for a while and then we break down. This was the best game we've had.”

Crown Point, coming off a 57-52 overtime loss at Class 2A No. 6 Boone Grove (9-0), could not handle Valpo's slow pace as well as they dealt with Boone's quickness. “This is a little bit better defensive team we've been playing,” said CP coach Tom May, who knows that Valpo is the standard by which CP must be judged. “You've got to come to play and you can see we only had one kid come to play tonight.”

Guard Cassie Pruzin scored 15 against the defense of Erica Humes, who is five inches taller, but the remainder of the CP squad totaled just 11 points. Valparaiso collected seven blocked shots and out-rebounded CP 29-18. Five CP players, including two starters, played but did not score.

Coming off a 22-3 season where they graduated both starting guards, the big Valparaiso question was the move of forward Erica Humes to point guard. The word was that the younger Humes (sister Lindsey Humes is a senior) had been a lead guard in grade school and was a natural guard.

But many people grow out of the point guard position. Complicated pressing defenses and experienced quickness can force a six pack of turnovers out of players who have played the position all their lives.

But midway through a 20-game regular season, Valpo, admittedly with a 6-3 all-stater in Kerns, is 9-1 and Humes, though not turnover-free, is alive and well at the point guard position.

Humes scored 13 with three assists and she was credited with 13 rebounds. but those numbers aren't the issue. Valparaiso committed only 13 turnovers against CP's full court presses. Humes clearly does not have a lot of confidence in her left hand on the dribble in the backcourt. But just 13 turnovers. Valpo will win most games where they stay below 15 turnovers.

“Our big question mark was our guard play,” said Kirby. “They've been getting better every game. She (Erica) is not going to face a better press than she faced tonight. We were pleased with the way she played tonight.”

CP led 7-4 when they hit a major drought. Standing around against the taller man-to-man defense of Valpo, good shots were hard to come by. The VHS girls held CP scoreless over a 7:52 span and slowly pulled away to a 15-7 lead. CP sub Michelle Lipton's three-point shot started a 7-2 run but Cassie Kerns' basket before halftime gave the Vikings a five-point lead at the break.

CP has been very strong in the third quarter all season and this night was no exception. The right-handed Pruzin, who drove the lane and shot with her left hand occasionally, had a basket and two free throws inside a 6-1 run that tied the game 22-22 late in the third quarter. Pruzin tied the game 26-26 with two free throws at the 5:14 mark for the game. But with only one player creating her shot, the Lady Bulldogs (8-2, 3-1 DAC) were shut down offensively.

“We knew exactly what she'd do when she had the ball,” said May. “We didn't cover. Erica Humes outscored the entire remainder of our team. Pruzin could hardly walk at the end she was so tired. And we've got a lot of other kids who had nothing to show for their efforts.”

“You've got to put the ball in the basket at crucial times. That's what the game comes down to. Tied 26-26, we had two shots. Good ones. They get a put back (by Humes) that we were furious about because that's what beat us at Boone.”

“They hit two and we didn't and that's the game because then there's just three minutes to go and we're chasing.”

CP scores a lot of points of transition, stealing the ball and getting easy points. That free lunch window was closed Tuesday night. There were no more than two steals for baskets against Valparaiso, which always seems very skilled at breaking the press. Their height has something to do with that but it's naive to believe that coaching does not also have something to do with it.

“I wouldn't say we spend a lot of time working on it,” Kirby said of CP's pressing ways. “We maybe worked one day Saturday on it. A little on Monday. We changed the way we break the press a little because of what they do. But we really don't spend that much time on it.”

It may not take long for Valpo to prepare for CP because they play them so much. Valparaiso won 2-out-of-3 from CP last year and the two teams meet again Jan. 28 in Valparaiso. In the Chesterton Sectional in February, it will be a shock if Valpo and CP don't meet a third time. There is no mystery to this matchup anymore and the relatively quiet Tuesday crowd of about 500 might indicate that folks are getting tired of seeing the annual three-game series, which features more style points than actual basketball points.

“They made it tough for us to score points in the third quarter,” said Kirby. “Obviously, we made it tough for them too. It was a typical Valpo-Crown Point game. We just happened to come out on top tonight.” 

Valparaiso has not allowed more than 40 points in any of the first 10 games of the season. May knows that lately, the 'typical' Valpo-Crown Point games have mostly been ending with Valparaiso winning.

“At the start of the year,” May said. “I picked three teams. Valpo, Gary West Side and East Chicago. Everybody said I was crazy. Record had nothing to do with it. We can't generate points. We want to hold teams under 40. But our goal is scoring 60 points.”

“If we don't step up and do what we have to do against them, we're going to be out quickly at the sectional.”

CP NOTES:  Crown Point finished a stretch of three games in five nights. Counting games at Michigan City (3-5) and Hanover Central (4-2) this (Dec. 17-18) weekend, CP actually has five games in nine days. Most teams in that situation would have more excuses than Donald Rumsfeld but CP doesn't have any.

The Lady Bulldogs use 11 players every night and the team is built to handle a heavy schedule. “The pace of this game was not one that would wear you out,” added May after the Valpo game.

Valpo senior Lindsey Humes, coming back off an injury-lost season, scored four points and blocked three shots in about 25 minutes of play. The 6-2 center is crucial to the Vikings because it allows 6-3 Cassie Kerns to play forward and the 6-0 Erica Humes to play guard, arguably their natural positions.

I was pleased with Lindsey's play tonight,” said coach Greg Kirby. “That's the most she's played since she's come back. She's coming along. She's not there yet. Cassie's just Cassie. We know what she can do.”

The win over CP gave coach Greg Kirby a record of 414-135 in 24 years of coaching at Portage (boys) and Valparaiso (girls). The loss left CP coach Tom May at 412-147 in 25 seasons. The top winning coach in northwest Indiana is Gary West Side's Rod Fisher who is 424-129 in 28 seasons.

May still hadn't forgotten the foul-filled fun fest at Boone Grove last Saturday night. “It was Sumo wrestling,” he said. “I'm surprised that four or five kids didn't get hurt. It was the most competitive game I've ever seen.”

“She (Boone coach Candy Wilson) is going to be 21-0. the only team that has a chance to beat them is Wheeler and Wheeler's not playing very well right now. People said, 'Hey, they knocked off Crown Point.' That wasn't an accident.”

“Hanover Central has two girls who could start for us and Michigan City has two girls who can start for us. Emma Tucker is about 6-2 and she's unlike anyone we have in our program. They are going to throw everything they have at us and then we have to go to Hanover Saturday night.”

Senior Jill Weiand played but did not score. She sat more than usual and appeared to be having trouble running. Weiand was undercut late in Saturday's game at Boone Grove in one of the many battles for the ball. “She's got a bad ankle,” said May.

CROWN POINT Girls Basketball (8-2)

	Coach Tom May  (25 years, 412-147 )
	Start times are Varsity starting times

Date	Location ALL CAPS = Duneland Athletic Conference game	Time / Result
Nov. 12	Hebron {1A}	W, 67-48
Nov. 13	Kankakee Valley {3A}	W, 60-24
Nov. 19	at PORTAGE {4A	W, 63-21
Nov. 20	Warsaw {4A}	W, 58-53
Nov. 26	CHESTERTON {4A}	W, 55-35
Nov. 30	Lowell {4A}	W, 60-42
Dec. 3	at LaPORTE {4A‡	W, 41-30
Dec. 10	LAKE CENTRAL {4A}‡	W, 53-38
Dec. 11	at Boone Grove {2A}	(OT) L, 52-57
Dec. 14	VALPARAISO {4A}‡	L, 26-36
Dec. 17	at MICHIGAN CITY {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Dec. 18	at Hanover Central {2A}	7:30 pm
Dec. 29	at MERRILLVILLE  {4A}‡	6:00 pm
Jan. 5	PORTAGE {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 8	at CHESTERTON {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 14	at LAKE CENTRAL {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 21	MICHIGAN CITY {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 25	LaPORTE {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Jan. 28	at VALPARAISO {4A}‡	7:30 pm
Feb. 4	MERRILLVILLE {4A}‡	7:30 pm

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Revised: December 15, 2004 .