Lady Red Devils 'on stride,' upset Panthers 41-28
A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Tuesday,  Jan. 15, 2002  in LOWELL

GRIFFITH (28)  Clarissa Farr 2-3-8,  Megan Sudac 1-0-2,  Sarah Planer 1-0-2, Rochelle Huber 1-0-3, Dana Collins 3-0-6, Kris Buehler 0-2-2, Caitlin Dudley 2-0-4, Star Sepulveda 0-1-1.  TOTALS: 10-6-28

FTS: 6-10, 6-.0 percent (Buehler 2-2, Farr 3-4, Collins 0-2, Sepulveda 1-2)
REBOUNDS: Megan Sudac - 4
FOULED OUT: Megan Sudac (4th Q - 4:24 left)
3-POINT GOALS (2)  Clarissa Farr, Rochelle Huber.


LOWELL (41)  Kristen Kania 1-3-5,   Lisa Schulfer 4-4-12,  McKensey Wietbrock 5-3-16,  Brooke Bell 1-0-2, Natalie Hanas 2-1-6, Wendy Broukal 0-0-0, Mary Taylor 0-0-0, Rachel Thiel 0-0-0.   TOTALS: 13-11-41

FTS: 11-20, 55 percent   (Kristen Kania 3-5, Hanas 1-2, Schulfer 4-8, Wietbrock 3-5)
REBOUNDS: McKensey Wietbrock - 4
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (4) Wietbrock 3, Hanas.

LOWELL (1-15-2003) -  I keep saying that in a 20-game high school season a team needs to hit its stride around game 15.

Consider Lowell on stride.

Playing with a 7-7 record and facing a team they were not supposed to beat.  Lowell led all the way last week, turning back Griffith 41-28 in a Lake Athletic Conference surprise.

Junior guard McKensey Wietbrock scored 13 of her 16 points in the second half and the Devils forced 18 Panther turnovers, beating a team that had lost only to three winning (Merrillville, Portage, Highland) schools.

"I don't know if they (the players) took the Saturday (Jan. 11) loss as hard as I did," commented Lowell coach Patti McCormack. "That was a game we should have won.  I see no reason why we shouldn't be one of the top three teams in our conference.  But when you look at our schedule at the start of the year, the Hammond game was a game we had to win."

"So I put the challenge to our players," continued McCormack. "We had to win one we weren't supposed to win.  And the girls played very well tonight.  Griffith didn't play well but we had something to do with that."

Lowell did a very good job defensively and offensively. The Devils held Griffith scoring leader Clarissa Farr (14 ppg.) to eight points and they held everybody else to six or less.  The Panthers are a team which must have assists.  They have no one who can create off the dribble.  Lowell kept the ball out of the middle and covered up the wings most of the time.  Unofficially, Griffith had three assists in the game.

"They've got firepower," said McCormack. "They have great outside shooting.  But we told the kids to get out on them and they did.  We made them shoot on the move."

Lowell began the game with 5-11 forward Lisa Schulfer defending the point guard, Griffith's Sarah Planer.  The move appeared to contribute to the Panthers' slow start.

"They had been rolling their shooting guard out to the point.  So we wanted to make the passes and shots difficult from the point.  That's the reason we had them out there.  We just wanted to defend her early and keep them from getting started in the game."

Lowell did start fast.  Junior Natalie Hanas assisted on baskets to Wietbrock, Schulfer and Brooke Bell to give the Devils a 6-2 edge.  When Wietbrock, a 5-5 guard, hit a 20-footer off the wing with 1:40 left in the quarter, the Devils led 12-2.

Rochelle Huber's three-point shot capped an 8-0 run with 6:12 left in the half to rally Griffith but the Panthers' offense broke down in the second quarter and a 6-0 run to the end of the half pushed Lowell ahead 18-12.  When the Red Devils got two baskets from Wietbrock in a 7-0 run to start the third period, the lead was 25-12 and Griffith never recovered.

"We threw a 2-3 zone at them," said McCormack. "We felt good about our posts containing Farr on the block but she's a kid who can come outside.  She can shoot very well.  We went into Hammond and tried to attack inside but there were no fouls called.  We knew to beat Griffith we'd have to go inside.  When we get the ball to Lisa, there's not many people who can stop her.  She can only stop herself."

"There were a lot of things that were a source of conflict on Saturday,"  said McCormack. "There's no politically correct way to say what happened at Hammond.  We were better than Hammond, inside and out.  I give our kids a lot of credit for handling the situation.  Hammond's a good team but they did not outplay us.  They just happened to hit 14 free throws in the last quarter."

"When you knock down 14 free throws in the fourth quarter, something's going on."

Wietbrock hit three second half three-point baskets to total a season-best 16 points.  All that came after a situation early in the first half where she had to lay down on her back and have her leg rubbed during a time out.

"She was cramping up," said McCormack. "She's a warrior.  I thought Katie Porento (1999 guard and present assistant coach) was a warrior and she is.  But McKensey is as tough as there is.  She is a coach's dream with respect to that attitude.  It's great to coach someone like that."

"We lost sight of her for a little while or she'd have hit seven or eight (three-pointers).  We needed to just keep getting her the ball."

"Kania's very coachable," said McCormack. "She was on fire at Hammond.  Her floor leadership has been good."

Lowell's Lisa Schulfer was very smooth inside, contributing three blocked shots.  Hanas had four assists and three steals.  Kristen Kania had four steals.  Lowell stayed with Bell, Rachel Thiel or Mary Taylor inside with Schulfer, Kania, Wietbrock and Hanas and the two forward, three guard set paid off.

"This is when our schedule pays off," added McCormack.  "We get the hell beat out of us by some teams but by this time, we start to overcome that."

DEVIL NOTES:  The LAC tournament  (Jan. 31 to Feb. 7) is ahead and Lowell, which could be the number four seed, won't be.  "Silly me," McCormack said.  "I voted for a blind draw.  We could play anybody.  We don't really want it but the conference wants it.  In the interest of the sport, we're going along with it."

"It needs to be a divisional thing.  That's why you have divisions.  To match teams up with teams of similar size and strength.  The principals say that the tournament should be a time when the entire conference comes together.  Well, the conference doesn't want to 'come together'.  They want to give the blue division a chance against the black division.  But what good does it do a team like Lake Station, which is struggling to get their program together, to play Andrean."

Lowell returns to Hammond against Gavit (7-7) Friday (Jan. 17) and they come home against Andrean on Jan. 23.

 2003 LOWELL (8-7, 3-3)
Coach Patti McCormack  (9 years  -   140-63)
Assistant coaches: Natalie Shadowen   -   Katie Porento
Start times are varsity starting times
11-15-2002: 62-72  at North Newton (11-3)
11-16-2002:  32-21  BISHOP NOLL   (4-11)
11-22-2002: 43-56 at Andrean (8-5) 
11-27-2002:  34-49 Hanover Central (5-9)
11-30-2002:  49-44 at MUNSTER  (2-13)
12-3-2002:  34-53 at Crown Point (9-6)
12-6-2002:  24-46 HIGHLAND (12-0)
12-14-2002:  42-61 Lake Central (10-3)
12-20-2002:  43-38  WHITING  (7-7)

Carroll Invitational  (Flora, IN)
12-21-2002:  35-24  Rossville (3-11)
12-21-2002:  40-29 Carroll (4-9)

12-28-2002:  27-45 at Merrillville (9-6)
1-4-2003:  41-30 Kankakee Valley (5-9)
1-11-2003:  43-45 at HAMMOND (8-4)
1-14-2003:  41-28 GRIFFITH (11-4)
1-17-2003 (F) at GAVIT (7-7)
1-23-2003 (Th) ANDREAN (8-5)
1-30-2003 (Th) Hobart (7-8)

LAC Tournament
2-1-2003 (S) 1st round (TBA)
2-4-2003 (Tu) Quarterfinal (TBA)
2-6-2003 (Th) Semifinal (TBA)
2-7-2003 (F) LAC Championship (TBA)

Gary West Side (4A) Sectional
2-11-2003 (Tu) Quarterfinals (6 or 8 p.m.)
2-14-2003 (F) Semifinals (6 of 8 p.m.)
2-15-2003 (S) Championship (7:30 p.m.)

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Revised: July 10, 2004 .