Lady Wolves handle LaVille 50-45, stage 2nd half rally to upset Rochester 57-52 to capture first ever Regional championship
A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Triton Regional semifinal -  Saturday, Feb. 22, 2002 in Bourbon

BOONE GROVE (50)  AJ Puller 2-0-4,  Karissa Walter 3-0-6,  Heather Moy 7-2-16, Jenn Keller 4-4-12, Lani Marsh 0-0-0, Rachel Jenkins 4-2-10, Sara Martinovich 0-0-0, Becky Keller 1-0-2.  TOTALS: 21-8-50.
FTS: 8-14, 57.1 percent - Moy 2-2, Walter 0-2  Jenn Keller 4-8, Jenkins 2-2
TURNOVERS: 24
REBOUNDS: Heather Moy 7, AJ Puller 4
ASSISTS: Karissa Walter - 8
STEALS: Heather Moy 3
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (0) none

LaVILLE (45)  Amanda Bodner 1-3-5, Cindel Sauer 0-1-1, Kim Hansen 1-0-3, Brittany Moore 2-1-7, Jolyn McQueen 0-1-1, Samantha Moore 1-0-2, Kaitlyn Taylor 3-0-6, Kelsey McKee 8-3-20.  TOTALS:  16-9-45.
FTS: 9-15, 60-0 percent  (McKee 3-4, Bodner 3-6, Brittany Moore 1-2, Taylor 0-1, Sauer 1-2)
TURNOVERS: 16
ASSISTS: Kelsey McKee - 3
REBOUNDS: Amanda Bodner - 4
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (4) Brittany Moore 2, Kim Hansen, Kelsey McKee.

Triton Regional championship  -  Saturday, Feb. 22, 2002  in Bourbon

BOONE GROVE (57)  AJ Puller 5-0-12,   Karissa Walter 5-2-12  Heather Moy 3-1-7 Jenn Keller 3-1-7, Lani Marsh 1-1-3, Rachel Jenkins 4-0-8, Sara Martinovich 3-0-6 Becky Keller 0-2-2, Danielle Jacobs 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 24-7-57
FTS: 7-10, 70.0 percent - Walter 2-3, Moy 1-2, Becky Keller 2-2, Lani Marsh 1-2, Jenn Keller 1-1.
TURNOVERS: 14
REBOUNDS: Karissa Walter - 9,
ASSISTS: Karissa Walter - 8
STEALS: Karissa Walter - 5
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (2) AJ Puller 2.

ROCHESTER (52)  Jamie Easterday 1-0-2, Laura Whistler 4-0-8, Jamie Fornal 4-1-9, Aubrey Rose 3-2-8, Morgan Thomas 1-0-2, Ryleigh Carr 3-5-11, Courtney Felke 3-5-12.   TOTALS: 19-13-52.
FTS: 13-24, 54.1  percent  (Felke 5-10, Fornal 1-3, Carr 5-7, Roe 2-2, Easterday 0-2)
TURNOVERS: 17
ASSISTS: Courtney Felke - 3
REBOUNDS: Ryleigh Carr - 7
FOULED OUT: Laura Whistler (4th Q - 1:33 left).
3-POINT GOALS (1) Courtney Felke.

BOURBON, IN (2-22-2003) -  You don't want to close your eyes. You don't want to fall asleep. Because you'd miss all this.

And you don't want to miss a thing.

Game after game.  Total reversals of form.  Dramatic rallies.  Wild celebrations.  And almost total innocence.  It'll happen again.  But never like this.

"We're in the 'Elite Eight' aren't we?" said Jenn Keller, after Boone Grove won their first ever regional title late Saturday with a 57-52 victory over sixth-ranked Rochester.

No, dear, you're in the final four.

Informed that Boone was actually now in the state Class 2A final four, Keller turned to Heather Moy and said.  "He said we're not in the final eight, we're in the final four!"

The girls hugged each other and screamed with delight before running off to tell other teammates what they didn't know they had done.

That's Boone Grove.  They don't worry a whole lot about how they won an incredible four playoff games in six days in two faraway locations last week.  They probably aren't especially worried about state top-10 and 2002 state finalist Shenandoah (22-5), the Wolves' 12 noon opponent in next Saturday's Warsaw Semistate.

And they don't care that they're not supposed to fall behind by eight or nine points in playoff games before rallying.  With about 1200 people looking on late Saturday night in Marshall County, all the odds seemed against the Lady Wolves.  It was 28-17 at the half and even after repeated comebacks, Boone (22-4) had sophomore point guard Karissa Walter and senior Jenn Keller with four fouls and the team trailed 52-44 with 2:44 to play.

"What did I keep telling you?" Moy said in mock disgust. "We want to make it exciting to keep all the people coming back to the games."

Rochester, from a town maybe 20 minutes form Triton, had used the speed of 5-7 all-stater Courtney Felke and 5-7 freshman ballhandler Ryleigh Carr to lead virtually the entire game.  Carr's free throw made it 52-44.  Boone's Becky Keller sank two foul shots with 2:37 left before Jenn Keller scored on a high-jumping layup for a three-point play with 2:10 left.  Felke, who has averaged over 17 points for two seasons, then threw a cross court pass over Carr's head out of bounds.

Boone got the ball into the lane and kicked it back out to AJ Puller, whose three-point shot tied the game with 1:50 to go.

Rochester's 5-11 senior forward Laura Whistler then missed a short shot and fouled trying for the rebound.  Carr forced a Boone turnover, but Felke missed a running shot in the lane with 1:02 left.

Boone did not call time out.  Walter, the 5-7 leading scorer, broke through the top of Rochester's 2-3 zone and zipped to the basket for a layup to break the tie.  When the Zebras, who had lost only to Chicago power Whitney Young and Duneland Athletic Conference power Merrillville, attempted to push the ball up the floor for a tying shot, Becky Keller stole the ball and raced downcourt.  Keller's shot missed but Walter rebounded the ball and scored a three-point play to ice the game with six seconds to go.

"You know we've been doing this," coach Candy Wilson said, her voice faltering afterwards. "This (comeback) thing is kind of, our calling card.  I wish they wouldn't do it but they do."

"Obviously, at the end we wanted Karissa to have the ball in her hands.  Becky's steal... she and Heather (Moy) have such arm extension.  You don't realize it until you're out there against them.  This has been a dream season."

For the record, the 11-point comeback marked the third time in five state tournament games that Boone had erased a deficit of eight or more.  They also came back from eight down in Porter County Conference (PCC) tournament games against Wheeler and Washington Township, a 1A team that also reached the semistate with two victories Saturday.

"Here's the crazy thing," Wilson said.  "They are so crazy the day before the game.  All they want to know is when are they going to eat.  It makes me so nervous.  We don't play by the rules.  Fun is their rule.  And it's working."

Boone wasn't having much fun early on.  After building a 14-point lead and holding on for a morning semifinal win over LaVille, the Wolves battled evenly through the first quarter.  But Rochester, who jumped ahead 8-0 and beat Fremont 45-34 in the afternoon semifinal, hit 5-of-6 from the line inside an 11-1 run at the end of the second period to give Boone their largest deficit of their five-game state playoff run, 28-17 at the half.

But things changed immediately in the third quarter.  Senior AJ Puller, who had gone scoreless in the first half, hit two jump shots in a row to help close the gap to 29-24.  When she converted another jump shot off a feed from Walter, the score was 34-30.  Felke, a highly-skilled guard comparable to CP's Cassie Pruzin, led a 6-2 run to make it 41-32 with 2:10 left.  But Walter, Rachel Jenkins and Sara Martinovich scored baskets against Rochester's set defense to close the gap to 41-38.

Again, the Zebras, who consistently beat Boone down the floor, pulled away. Shooter Aubrey Roe came off the bench to score two baskets inside an 8-2 run to put Rochester ahead 49-40 with 6:30 left in the game.

All the calls seemed to be going against the Porter County visitors and the Boone fans, claiming they saw more than five 'zebras' on the floor, howled over a 20-6 foul discrepancy favoring Rochester.  Jenn Keller drew her fourth foul with 2:44 to go and Carr split two foul shots to make it 52-44 before Boone found new energy and scored the final 13 points of the game.

Walter finished with 12 points but had seven of her eight assists in the second half.  Moy had six of her seven points in the second half.

"Keller plays with intensity," said Wilson. "She's a senior captain. She has to be on the floor at the end of the game.  We need her.  I can't believe we won this.  Number 20 (Felke) looked like (LC's Indiana all-star) Kelly Komara.  I was thinking, 'this is small college level.'  They were smooth like a college team.  (JV coach Stephanie) Lytle and I were both nervous about this one.  I'm not going to kid you.  I was just hoping we wouldn't get blown out."

The difference was the aspect of Boone that is difficult to pin down.  Rochester coach Tony Stasiak said he thought his girls had the Wolves beat.

"We had the lead all game," he said quietly after most of the large Rochester fan bank had headed for home.  "But we took a couple of bad shots and they never gave up.  We're still a young team (only one senior) and we made some mistakes.  We just couldn't get that knockout punch.  I thought we could still penetrate their defense and get one or two more baskets that we could seal it."

Stasiak seemed to anticipate a question that wasn't asked.  Why didn't the Zebras go to a delay, spread offense and simply hold the ball with Boone Grove in the penalty (10 fouls) after Becky Keller's two foul shots cut the lead to 52-46?

"I told the kids when we came here that we were going to play to win.  We still attacked the defense.  I had the ball in my best players' hands and if one or two shots at the end go down, it's a different story.  I don't think I handled our defensive assignments very well.  We got confused and left one girl (Puller) wide open for a '3'.  That was big.  We shot 75 percent from the team from the line before today.  We'd never had a game like this (13 of 24)."

On the final shot, Rochester was mixed up.  "In the final shot, some of our girls thought we were playing zone and some thought we were playing man-to-man, and the girl who was on (Walter) the whole game wasn't on her.  She's quick and she got through."

"The pressure of the tournament is the best because she had an off night."

Stasiak said he had Boone well-scouted for what that's worth.  "Kristin Peterson (Hobart's coach) is my wife's cousin and Phil Misecko (Wheeler's head coach) is a good friend of mine.  Jamie Anbselm of Chesterton.  I know her.  I talked to all of them and it all came down to (defensing) Walter first.  Then, depending on who you talk to, there were different people you had to stop."

"We blew one lead to Merrillville in the Riley Holiday tournament in South Bend.  That's it."

Boone's edge in this game may have been the three seniors, Jenn Keller, Puller and Moy, who began to play well when they saw their careers about to end. "Karissa keeps saying that we've got to come back," said Puller, "because I don't want this to be the end for you.  I think we do start to play differently when we think it could be our last game." But to call it a sense of urgency is misleading.  The Wolves can be seen smiling and giggling during games, even when they are trailing.  Opposing crowds (Rochester's crowd was larger than Boone's)  have virtually no effect on them.

Boone seniors Heather Moy, Jen Keller and AJ Puller earlier in the season holding the PCC "Jug."

They seem to enjoy playing in front of big crowds  after years of playing in front of four dozen friends of the program.

"We're supposed to have fun," Moy said, "That's what the game is supposed to be about."

Boone now has more than fun.  "We've got PCC," Moy counted off. "We've got South County. We've got sectional and regional."

Between games, Boone's girls went to their hotel and watched a video. "A video of Rochester?" Moy was asked.  "No, a video we shot before the game.  Of us.  And we watched the video of our field trip."

Moy and Jenn Keller went on a field trip downstate Wednesday and Thursday, limiting the time team had to practice.  They had already scheduled it for regional week and they didn't want to miss it.

"We drove here at 7 p.m. Thursday (before the Saturday game) to practice on this floor.  It's been a long week."

When it was mentioned that Boone would probably play Shenandoah, no one except the coaches knew who that was.  None of the players or parents knew where the semistate was being played (Warsaw) because they simply hadn't thought that far ahead.

Boone was only interested in going back to the hotel for a big Saturday night party.  Next week would take care of itself.

"What ever you do," said Wilson to a departing friend. "Don't stay at the Holiday Inn Express (where her team was staying). You won't get any sleep."

Nobody there missed a thing.

WOLF NOTES:  "This was an unbelievable week," said Wilson, who had to coach four games in six days due to the snow- delayed Rensselaer Sectional.  She hopes the crazy days are over.

"I know what to do now because we have a whole week," she said.  "Puller played a strong second half. "When she's on, she does a lot of little things you might not notice because she's such a smart player.  Her defense, her boxing out and her setting screens are strong.  When she scores, you see all the other things."

Even though Boone did not know they'd win, they booked the hotel overnight Saturday, even though Porter County is only an hour away from Triton.  It worked out as a snowstorm made travel on Route 30 very hazardous late Saturday night.

Rochester returns all but starting forward Laura Whistler next year and it will be hard to keep them out of the regional.  But all sectionals change next year because of realignment.  Northwestern (22-2), which lost to Highland in the 3A Twin Lakes Regional, drops to 2A next season and could be in Rochester's sectional.

Boone led LaVille 15-5 and 25-15 as Heather Moy scored 12 of her 16 in the first half.  Rachel Jenkins scored three third quarter field goals to boost the Wolves to a 40-26 lead before 5-7 junior Kelsey McKee led a rally by LaVille, who upset favored North Judson to reach the regional.

LaVille played a lot of man-to-man defense and Boone scored at least six backdoor plays against it with Walter again totaling eight assists. "I was so glad when they played man-to-man against us," Wilson said. "We play very well against that.  In the PCC, everybody knows us and we can't run a lot of our stuff."  Moy and Puller have showed offensive ability they did not display even during Boone wins this year.   "We've told Heather and AJ that they have to shoot the ball when they're hot. It's not about being a ball hog.  It's your job.  You have to shoot."

The game was undercovered by local media.  No radio or TV had anyone at the game, covering regionals at Twin Lakes and Valparaiso.  With the state wrestling finals and sectional swimming and Valpo University men and women playing, Boone's historic victory (1st ever regional basketball title for boys or girls) went with little media notice, largely due to the other events of the day.

The victory by Washington Township over Southwood and Oregon-Davis at the Caston Regional also got short-sheeted on coverage.  This is the first time in the history of the PCC, that two basketball teams have reached the semistate level in the same season.  Washington and Boone will be playing on the same floor Saturday (March 1) in the 5,000 seat Warsaw "Tiger Den', perhaps the premier high school gym in northern Indiana.  None of Boone's players have ever been there. 

BOONE GROVE (22-4, 7-0 PCC)
Coach Candy Wilson (6th year)  39-61 in 5 seasons
PCC games in CAPS, Home games in bold

11-12-2002:  58-28 at River Forest (7-14)
11-15-2002:  45-34 at Calumet (16-7)
11-16-2002:  71-47 at HEBRON (8-13)
11-22-2002:  62-55 at Knox  (5-15)
11-26-2002:  89-34 LaCROSSE (8-13)
12-2-2002:  57-67 at Kankakee Valley (7-13)
12-6-2002:  79-61 at WHEELER (16-7)
12-12-2002:  63-72 WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP (20-5)
12-14-2002:  49-55  CROWN POINT (12-9) 
12-17-2002:  82-33 KOUTS (3-18) 
12-19-2002:  85-42 at MORGAN TOWNSHIP (3-18)

South County Tournament  (at Boone Grove)
1-3-2003:  61-35 Hebron (8-13)
1-4-2003:  73-31 Kouts (3-18)  title

1-7-2003:  60-63 at North Newton (19-3)
1-9-2003:  84-45  SOUTH CENTRAL (9-11)
1-15-2003: 94-14 Lake Station (0-19)

Porter County Conference (PCC) Tournament  (at Morgan Township)
1-20-2003:  63-61 Washington Township (20-5)
1-24-2003:  80-33  LaCrosse (8-13)
1-25-2003:  57-55 Wheeler (16-7) title

1-30-2003:  66-40 HANOVER CENTRAL  (7-13)
2-6-2003:  46-69 at North Judson (14-8)

Rensselaer (2A) Sectional
2-11-2003:  55-31 Rensselaer (7-14)
2-17-2003:  56-50 Wheeler (16-7)
2-18-2003:  46-43 North Newton (19-4)

Triton (2A) Regional
2-22-2003:  50-45 LaVille (15-8) .
2-22-2003:  57-52 Rochester (22-3)

Warsaw (2A) Semistate
3-1-2003:  (S) Shenandoah (22-5)

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Revised: July 10, 2004 .