Lady Cats back to .500 after impressive 47-33 win over River Forest
A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002 in Cedar Lake

RIVER FOREST (33)  Tonya Westmoreland 3-4-10, Amanda Alexander 4-1-9, Krystal Montes 1-0-2, Mary Willis 3-0-6, Mikal Minarich 1-0-2, Melody Myers 0-2-2, Amber Morris 1-0-2, Paulina Ballesteros 0-0-0, Danielle Kempski 0-0-0. TOTALS: 13-7-33.

FTS: 7-12, 58, 3%
REBOUNDS:  Krystal Montes - 14
STEALS: Krystal Montes, Tonya Westmoreland - 3
ASSISTS: Tonya Westmoreland - 2 assists
TURNOVERS: 26
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (0) none

HANOVER CENTRAL (47)  Jill McElmurry 6-2-14, Melissa Braner 1-0-2, Karrah Adam 3-1-7, Amanda Wendlinger 2-0-4, Alisha Staley 2-0-4, Christie Wick 1-3-5, Sarah Csikos 0-0-0, Krysta Rickey 4-0-8,  Bess Copak 1-1-3, Rachel Williams 0-0-0.   TOTALS: 20-7-47.

FTS: 7-14, 50 percent
TURNOVERS: 16
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (0) none

CEDAR LAKE (12-19-2002) - This was the first really positive victory for Hanover Central this season.  Not that the RF was significantly better than the Lady Cats' three previous victims (Hebron, LaCrosse and Kouts), but this was a River Forest squad with a couple of experienced seniors in Tonya Westmoreland and Amanda Alexander.  For Hanover to overcome some early problems and win 47-33 indicated that they are making progress.

"I thought that defensively we did very well," said second year coach Chris York. "The fact that they don't have any ball handlers (read: point guards) really showed up when we started to put on some pressure."

"There's no way we could've kept going with that 2-3 (zone) and been as effective.  Alexander scored nine points?  She scored 36 on Saturday (against South Central)."

Hanover, which will now carry a .500 record into the Momence Holiday Tournament on Dec. 27, opened up in a zone defense to try to control Alexander and 5-8 sophomore Krystal Montes, who did grab 13 rebounds.  But once they opened up their trademark full court pressure, the Ingots (3-6) had major problems. Tonya Westmoreland, who is truly a forward, could not get the ball up the floor consistently against Hanover's Amanda Wendlinger and Krysta Rickey.

"We had to call a time out (early) in the game," York said, "because she (Alexander) got four quick points. I told them. I don't want to see her number. If somebody else is going to be their leading scorer, you've got a good chance of beating them."

HC led 11-10 with 1:14 left in the first quarter but, with RF's offense stymied, they led 20-14 at the half.  Hanover missed a lot of open shots but the lead steadily increased to 28-17 with 2:30 left in the third period.  It was 38-29 with 3:10 to play before baskets by Melissa Braner and Jill McElmurry sparked HC's best stretch of the game, a 9-2 run that made it 47-31 with 1:20 to play.

"Two games (Kouts and Hebron) we shot the ball very well," York commented. "We shot about 50 percent. Against LaCrosse, we didn't shoot as well.  And we definitely didn't shoot well against North Newton (a 79-38 loss on Dec. 17)"

"We had them down 13 in the third quarter (28-15 with 3:55 left) and I tried to tell them that that's where you have to bury them. But they got it right back down under 10 and we only led by eight at the end of three quarters."

We gave up 33? I'll take that after giving up 79 on Tuesday."

It appears that Hanover has inserted freshman point guard Krysta Rickey into the starting lineup along side left-handed junior guard Karrah Adam, left-handed sophomore forward Alisha Staley and 5-9 guard-forwards Christie Wick and Jill McElmurry.

If you see four guards and a forward, that's because that's what that is. Hanover Central doesn't have a true center on the varsity and, without junior Katie Burke, who is out indefinitely with a knee injury and with Bess Copak slowed by another knee injury, HC doesn't really have any girl you could even loosely call a power forward either.

At times, they have five pure guards on the floor and that limits what they can play defensively to that 2-3 zone or a full court man-to-man press.  And even in the 2-3 zone, the Lady Cats weren't getting many rebounds against River Forest.

Rickey (5.5 ppg.) replaced Melissa Braner in the starting lineup but Braner did play about 15 minutes adding two rebounds, two points and two assists.  Hanover shuttles 10 players into the game.  York repeatedly speaks to cutting down the turnovers and he was happy with the total of 17 against River Forest, which does not use a full court press.

Rickey is clearly HC's future at point guard and when she plays with Karrah Adam and Christie Wick,  Hanover has three players with lead guard skills on the floor, something they need because they have no inside offense against any team of any size.  "Everybody's going to play," York said, noting that he had no idea when Burke, a strong, 5-8 junior, could play again. "Everybody's going to get playing time.  There's no point in bringing Krysta in off the bench."

York liked his defense against River Forest but he saw some holes. "We had plenty of pressure on the ball but sometimes when they'd rotate the ball, they'd get some open jump shots. Against a team of real good shooters, we'd be in trouble."

"We've got to shoot off the dribble more. If we don't get a spot up shot, we don't make too many of those."

Junior Jill McElmurry got some unusual respect when RF coach Al Detterline, designed a defense to slow her. 

"They ran a box-and-one on Jill," said York. "We have an offense for that. If they're going to guard her that way, we might as well give her the ball and pick for her. We never did run it really correctly.
McElmurry (12.0 ppg.), who became very aggressive offensively in the final period, posted only two points in the first half but finished with 14 points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.

"She needs to play like that all the time," said York.  "She should get eight free throws a game. She's 9-out-of-12 on the season but she doesn't go to the basket and get fouled.  I tell her that would just be an added plus to her game. She knows she's going to make those shots." 

CAT NOTES:  Amanda Wendlinger was largely responsible for slowing down RF's Alexander, who came in with a 15 point average.

"Wendlinger pushed the right-handed Alexander to her left and made her give up the ball. "She's very good at that," York commented. "Amanda's very quick defensively. I came into the season thinking she'd gone backwards (in her development) but she picked it right back up immediately."

The coach did have a problem with his 5-5 sophomore guard. "I told her that she cannot pass up open shots," he said. "I told her that she used to be such a good shooter and now she doesn't want to shoot. And Christie has this thing where she comes up and steps right on the three-point line. That's the worst shot you can take. She's just got to stop before the line."

Hanover badly needed a win to wash away the 79-38 loss to undefeated North Newton two nights earlier. "I've never seen that many hit outside shots, "York said of North Newton, "We played a zone to try to do what we could. They'd hit 3s or they'd hit two-pointers. And if they missed, they put it back in.  They were hot.  They did press us the whole game.

York likes the Momence tournament because HC knows they'll see schools in the 300-500 teen range.  "Going into that tournament," he said, "is always a good thing because you know you can compete."  There is one exception to the small school flavor of the eight-team Momence field.  TF South, a 1,500 kid school, dropped out after winning last year and Neuqua Valley, a giant Naperville school entered the tournament.  But there is somewhat of a saving grace.

It's Neuqua Valley's junior varsity," confirmed York, "but my father in law used to teach and coach there and here's what that means.  They have a 20-person team.  The JV team consists on numbers 12-through-20.  The same day, their varsity goes to Ohio. So, they'll bring eight players to play with us (at Momence) but who will those eight players be?"

"They've been second and third in the state the past the past two years. Their last eight players might be as good as Crown Point. We don't know. But we'll worry about that later.  We've got Momence first."

Hanover's immediate future (they could see undefeated Momence, giant Neuqua Valley and powerhouse neighbor Crown Point in the next two weeks) is questionable but the long range future looks bright.

"You should see what we've got coming," York says. "Our eighth grade team has five good players including a girl who's six feet tall now. We've got a seventh grade team that has 13 good players. The sixth grade team we had to split it in half because so many girls come out. Both teams are beating every team in CYO right now something like 30-5.  We've got good coaching down there and we're getting a lot of these kids from Lincoln (middle school) over there in the new developments. The St. John area."

Hanover's junior varsity beat North Newton 34-17 and River Forest 33-15 to go to 7-0 on the season (LaCrosse had no JV) for new coach and 2000 Hanover graduate Tammi Boersma.

"I didn't know what to expect," Tammi said after the game about her expectations for this season. I've never coached before at all. We've got some juniors on the team and we've got a nice freshman class. The hardest thing is to get them to remember to do something the way you tell them. You can say something 10 times but then, in a game, they revert to the way they'd been doing it.  You have to keep telling them.

While Hanover does have four juniors on the undefeated JV team, all four of Hanover's basketball-playing sophomores are on the varsity (Rachel Williams plays both JV and varsity). And point guard Krysta Rickey does not play JV ball. After having just two seniors (Melissa Braner and Sarah Csikos) in the program this season, Hanover will have a large senior class of players next year.

2003 HANOVER CENTRAL (4-4)

Coach Chris York  (1 year  -  8-12)
PCC games in CAPS, Home games in bold
Start times are junior varsity starting times

11-12-2002: 43-51  at Gavit (3-6)
11-22-2002 :  39-40   WHEELER (7-4)
11-27-2002:  34-49 at Lowell (3-5)
12-6-2002: 60-45 HEBRON (0-9)
12-7-2002: 68-53 KOUTS (2-7)
12-14-2002:   59-37 at LaCROSSE  (1-8)
12-17-2002:  38-79  North Newton (6-0)
12-19-2002: 47-33 River Forest (3-6)

Momence Holiday Tournament  (Momence, Ill.)
12-27-2002 (F)  at Momence (8-0)   8 p.m.
12-28-2002 (S) Semifinals and finals  (TBA)

1-4-2003 (S) Crown Point  (7-2)  6 p.m.
1-9-2003 (Th) at Calumet (4-4)  6 p.m.
1-11-2003 (S) WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP (8-4)  6 p.m.
1-18-2003 (S) Kankakee Valley  (6 p.m.)

Porter County Conference (PCC) Tournament
1-20-2003 M) PCC quarterfinals (6 p.m.)
1-21-2003 (Tu) PCC Quarterfinals (6 p.m.)
1-24-2003 (F)  Semifinals (6 p.m.)
1-25-2003 (S) PCC Girls Championship (6 p.m.)

1-30-2003 (Th) at BOONE GROVE (9-2) 6 p.m.
2-4-2003 (Tu) at Momence, Ill  (8-0) 6 p.m.
2-8-2003 (S) at MORGAN TOWNSHIP (6 p.m.)

Boone Grove (2A) Sectional
2-11-2003 (Tu) Quarterfinals  (6 p.m.)
2-14-2003 (F) Semifinals  (6 p.m.)
2-15-2003  (S) Championship (7:30 p.m.)

North Judson (2A) Regional
2-22-2003 (S) Semifinals  (11 a.m.)
2-22-2003 (S) Championship  (7 p.m.)

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Revised: July 10, 2004 .