NW Indiana Girls Basketball: What about 2006? A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith (2-20-2005)

CROWN POINT, IN - (2-20-2005) Okay, so it was a quick end for all the South Lake County girls basketball teams. But about the time the National Hockey League thinks about playing again, the girls will be back on the floor and the chase will be on again.

For 2005, it would come down to Crown Point and Valparaiso in 4A Sectional 1; West Side and East Chicago in 4A sectional 2. There were no powers in Class 3A and Boone Grove and Wheeler would battle it out in Class 2A.

You couldn't be sure of the outcome, but you knew the players. Not so for 2006. It's going to be very difficult to say right now who will be the sectional and regional contenders in 2006.

But that's not going to stop me from trying...

If ever there was a chance for someone to break through against the perennial power of Valparaiso and Crown Point in the Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC), it would be 2006. The Porter County Conference (PCC) will still feature Boone Grove but Hanover Central will have more of a say.

And the surprise may from where no one is looking. Down in Lowell.

1.) Crown Point (17-6)

CROWN POINT - Many will make the mistake that CP will be down in 2006 because three familiar names graduate.

But one upside of playing 10 players in every game is that you are never without varsity experience.

The Lady Bulldogs will return 6-foot centers Courtney Perry and Anjellica Rospond for their junior seasons. 5-10 Kaitlin Sautter, 5-9 Jackie Clements, 5-7 Stephanie Poulos and 5-8 Hannah Plumley all played significant minutes in 2005 and they should keep the Lady Bulldogs strong. Add 5-7 wing Ashley Zaucha and 5-10 junior Katie Kvachkoff, who missed all season with a knee injury, and Tom May's 'Wall of Players' will keep on coming at DAC foes.

A key will be in the backcourt where 5-8 JV starter Amanda Moore must step up and score and 5-5 Michelle Lipton, a soccer defender must handle the ball with help from JV vet Brooke Seils. That's 11 players returning even if no one transfers in or pops up from the freshman team.

The Lady Bulldogs will become much more of a post-based team with centers and forwards as leading scorers instead of guards. They will have the size to battle the Merrillville duo of 6-3 Brittney Moore and 6-2 Sharon Houston while Lipton has leadership qualities and a defensive presence.

The only problem with Michelle Lipton is that she's going to be very involved in CP's state-rated soccer team all fall and May may have to look elsewhere for a starter. CP's 8^th and 7^th grade teams were undefeated and reportedly, there was guard talent in eighth grade. May has played freshman guards before. The 2006 CP team is deep at every position except lead guard.

Crown Point will not have any sub .500 seasons for the foreseeable future. There's simply too many players here. This program is the envy of many in NW Indiana because of its sheer numbers of players.

But they'd like a championship year and that's going to depend on the lead guard.

2.) Hanover Central (10-11)

CEDAR LAKE – At Hanover, the season began with two seniors (Alisha Staley and Christie Wick) and ended with just one as Wick got hurt.

 But a lot of girls got to play and the 2006 team will be much better for that fact.

Coach Chris York returns lead guard and spark plug Krysta Rickey (11 ppg.), an underrated player who will be the PCC's top lead guard in 2006. 'Big' forward Heather Rebenack (she's 5-8) got to play in all 21 games and should do as well or better next season. Another senior-to-be is 5-9 Christy Bader, who should be stronger and more confident.

Forwards Anna Turturillo and Kristy Ostrowski have the potential to add scoring punch that the Cats lacked after Wick was hurt. 5-7 softball star Andria Trock could also develop into a scorer.

This team needs another ballhandler to play alongside Rickey and she could be 5-5 junior-to-be Samantha Plant or 5-6 sophomore-to-be Chrissy Holmoka. Two factors could change the face of this team. One is 6-foot junior-to-be center Jenny Savickas. If she develops into a low post scorer and defender (and it can happen over one summer), Rebenack moves to forward and this becomes a potential PCC title team.

The other factor is Hanover's highly-regarded eighth-grade class which, at last report, was undefeated (PCC girls and boys play split seasons in junior high largely due to gym space) and very highly-regarded.

HC will not return all five starters off a sectional title team like regional champ South Central will in 2006 and HC won't have a big-time scorer coming back like Morgan Township will, but there will be a blue wave of Lady Cats. They still need the dribbling and shooting skills to go up for everybody, but the classes of 2009 and 2010, reportedly are basketball 'lifers', not athletes who play basketball in the winter.  A big summer in 2005 could mean a big winter in 2006.

3.) Lowell (13-8)

LOWELL – Hanover and CP have depth but need guards. Lowell has guards but needs depth.

The Devils were an amazing team in 2005 playing five overtime games (they were 3-2) beating 4As Lake Central and Merrillville but losing to 2As Hanover Central and Wheeler.

Coach Patti McCormack did it with virtually no bench. Center Rachel Theil and four guards, Ashley Cosentino, Kelly Johnson, Julie Swisher and Bailey Wagner played almost all the way in every game.

Wagner graduates but the other four could all be all-LAC players. They are perfect compliments to each other and they all do different things.

Help is on the way. 5-9 junior-to-be Jen Sharkey showed improvement late in the year. Kelly's 5-5 sister Michelle Johnson will probably develop into a role player, a strong defender.

Two things could change this team as well.

If 5-11 sophomore-to-be Kim Bell develops into a low post scorer or just a low post presence, Theil moves to big forward and Johnson moves back to her natural position (she played forward this season). Johnson (12 ppg.) could score 15-20 points a game. There is no better player returning in the LAC. That would create more opportunities for Cosentino, a slashing dribble drive left-hander and Swisher, an an above average long range shooter.

If 5-7 Whitney Magely returns off back surgery, she can play multiple positions which would solve a lot of Lowell's depth problems. Lowell lost to Highland and Munster, in one respect, because they could not press full court. Give McCormack eight varsity-caliber players and here comes two or three full court Devil defensive schemes and everybody in the LAC has a problem.

There is a reality about 4A sectional 1 next year and that is East Chicago, which returns All-American player Dee Dee Jernigan. But West Side loses seven senoirs and Highland loses key players.

The door is open for Munster and Lowell. But coach Patti McCormack lives in a world which needs less angels and more Devils.

4.) ANDREAN (9-13)

MERRILLVILLE – Andrean lost five games in a row by 10 points or less in January and, after a four game winning streak, their offense strangely went south in the final quarter of a 43-28 loss to Kankakee Valley in the sectional championship game.

The 59ers graduate three seniors, but return 5-10 guard Suzanne Cunningham, their top player. Four sophomore guards -- Courtney Pishkur, Meghan Stickler and Michelle Hynes -- have played together for two years now and make the backcourt deep and solid. Forwards Rachel McGinty and Val Tyburski also return, but here's a team with a hole in the middle.

Andrean plays a very tough 3A schedule including superpowers (and regional champions) Bishop Luers and St. Joseph's. In the LAC, Highland, Hammond and Munster all have tall centers. The 59ers do not want to go without a true post player as they did this season.

Rebounding will be the key to the sectional championship.

The bad news is, because they aren't a public school, you never know who is or isn't coming to Andrean. But that's also the good news.

As Lowell's reality is East Chicago, Andrean's reality is that the sectional in 2006 is the goal. St. Joseph's, the South Bend school that has won four consecutive 3A regional championships, will probably be coming back off a state title.

St. Joe returns elite point guard Melissa Lechlitner, elite wing shooter Sydney Smallbone and Division I 6-4 center Kristin Dockery. And because they aren't a public school, you never know who's coming to St. Joe either.

5.) MERRILLVILLE   (12-10)

MERRILLVILLE - Of all the may be's and could be's, here is the biggest one.

If 6-2 forward Sharon Houston, who averaged an outrageous 26 points a game for Lew Wallace in 2003, suits up and plays for Merrillville, this team has the potential to be a state contender.

Back for one more season will be 6-3 Brittney Moore, one of the state's top-20 rebounders. Breaking in with a splash late this season was freshman guard Brittney Cruse, a pure lead guard with three seasons of eligibility left.

In two state tournament games, Cruse, who may not even be 5-3 but is super speedy, scored 17 against Chesterton and 17 more against Crown Point, two of the top defensive teams in the northern half of the state.

Coach Bob Maicher knows that if Cruse is a threat with the ball, that frees up Houston, a jump shooter and dribble driver on one side, three-point shooter Angela East on the 'weak' side and allows the 6-3 Moore to power down close to the basket.

Merrillville has so much potential, but is Houston going to be eligible from the start of the year?  Can she play in a much more structured offense than she was involved in at Lew Wallace?  Is the IHSAA going to let her play at all?

What about a half dozen other Pirates who have waited their turn?

And will the DAC ash-can that debilitating 14-game double round-robin in favor of a DAC conference tournament that could energize the league?

Here's another team with more questions than answers.

6.) Boone Grove (21-2)

PORTER TOWNSHIP – Boone Grove has won 60 games in three seasons and they'll continue to do well in 2006.

5-6 guard Cortney Flanigan will develop into a 20 ppg. scorer while 5-9 center Kara Kessler should become a low post factor rebounding and scoring maybe 10 a game.  Few teams with a returning point and a returning post fail to win and coach Candy Wilson uses a lot of role players and gets a lot out of them.

5-3 guard Jessica Dowdy should step up to the varsity and the presence of two point guards is a luxury that will make the Wolves difficult to press. The development over the summer of 5-9 senior-to-be Carrie Rapley and 5-11 junior-to-be Brittney Roach will determine how strong the Wolves can be up front. You could see some freshmen on the Boone bench as, for the first time in two years, there is job opportunity on the Wolf bench.

The Porter County Conference (PCC) will be tougher in 2006 with South Central returning everybody, Hanover returning almost everybody and Morgan Township returning Angie Bush (21 ppg.), which is almost everybody.

Boone's schedule is weak. They need to take 1A nonconference cupcakes River Forest and Lake Station off the schedule and replace them with 2A powers like Winamac and Rochester, or small 3As like New Prairie or Andrean.

Boone needs a road trip to Winamac or Rochester every year, teams they would see at the regional level. What they certainly learned this season in their 20-0 start is, it's not about who you beat, it's all about who you play. 

And there is no fear of Boone having losing seasons. Not with Flanigan, a future college player, ready to come into her prime. It would not be a shock if she was the PCC MVP her senior year after Morgan's Angie Bush graduates.

There is no obvious reason Boone will not be again favored (for what that's worth) to win the 2A NW Indiana sectional next year.  The Wolves just have to play the schedule that will give them a better than 50-50 chance to win it.

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Revised: February 28, 2005 .