Valpo eliminates Lady Bulldogs from Sectionals second year in row, 47-40
A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith

Tuesday,  Feb. 11, 2003 in Crown Point - Attendance: 1,110

VALPARAISO (47)  Katie Ramirez 1-4-6, Lindsay Humes 3-2-8, Erica Humes 3-2-8, Lauren Hutton 2-7-13, Cassie Kerns 4-2-10, Breanne Gustke 1-0-2, Leslie Bryan 0-0-0, Megan Rose 0-0-0.    TOTALS: 14-17-47.

FGS:   14-40, 35.0 percent  (Hutton 2-9, Ramirez 1-6, Kerns 4-8, Gustke 1-2, Erica Humes 3-9, Lindsay Humes 3-4)
FTS:   17-30, 56.6   percent (Hutton 7-8, Ramirez 4-6, Kerns 2-5, Gustke 0-1, Lindsay Humes 2-7, Erica Humes 2-3)
REBOUNDS: Cassie Kerns - 11
ASSISTS: Lauren Hutton - 3
FOULED OUT: none
3-POINT GOALS (2)  Lauren Hutton 2.

CROWN POINT (40)  Cassie Pruzin 3-2-9, Blayre Reeves 2-0-4, Allison Isailovich 2-1-6, Jill Weiand 1-6-8,  Kaitlyn Sertich 3-1-8, Jen McMullin 1-0-3, Keri Cuculich 0-2-2, Jessica Herdt 0-0-0, Missy Cooper 0-0-0, Amy Zondor 0-0-0. TOTALS: 12-12-40.

FGS:   12-37, 32.4 percent  (Sertich 3-10, Pruzin 3-9,  Reeves 2-5, Isailovich 2-3, Reeves 2-5, McMullin 1-5)
FTS: 12-18, 66.6 percent  (Pruzin 2-6,  Weiand 6-6,  Reeves 0-2, Cuculich 2-2, Isailovich 1-1, Sertich 1-1)
REBOUNDS: Jill Weiand 3
ASSISTS:  Kaitlyn Sertich - 4
STEALS:  Cassie Pruzin - 3
FOULED OUT: Cassie Pruzin (4th Q - :38 left)
3-POINT GOALS (4) Allison Isailovich, Jen McMullin, Kaitlyn Sertich, Cassie Pruzin.

PORTAGE (2-11-2003) -  Whenever another of those Crown Point-Valparaiso games comes around, I find myself thinking that the Lady Bulldogs' switching defenses, their superior depth and just enough shooting accuracy will put CP over the top.

Then the starting lineups are announced and the two teams stand next to each other.  And I'm amazed that I thought that CP's 5-7, 5-8 and 5-9 girls would beat Valparaiso's 6-foot, 6-2 and 6-4 players.

At the Portage Sectional Tuesday, for the fourth straight time, Crown Point made it close. But, for the fourth straight time, the Vikings won this match-up of Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) frontrunners. Valparaiso overcame an early Crown Point lead to win 47-40 and eliminate the Lady Bulldogs at the sectional for the second year in a row.

"Those of you who have come to our games," said coach Tom May, "I've always said that, to win, we have to score 50 points.  And, against really good teams.  We have to score 60.  You (might) say tonight, we didn't shoot particularly well.  We haven't shot particularly well all season.

"We wanted to swarm the ball and put pressure on it out side.  For the most part we did but they got a lot of loose balls and offensive rebounds that hurt us when we needed the ball.  Plus, we asked everybody to step up and score for us and if they couldn't, find a way to score. Get an offensive rebound.  Steal the ball.  Attack the basket.  And it just wasn't there."

Crown Point went always significantly unhappy over more than that.

The Lady Bulldogs, a strong ballhandling team, got called for 16 first half turnovers against a non-pressing Valparaiso defense.  The Bulldogs were consistently called for traveling, much more so than they had all year.

"His favorite call was traveling," said Cassie Pruzin of one referee. "All on us."

Truthfully, CP's 10 turnovers had them trailing only 6-3 after one quarter and the 16 turnovers had them down just 19-16 at the half.

CP (12-9) had one burst into the lead after trailing 10-8 in the middle of the second quarter. Sophomore guard Cassie Pruzin sank two free throws before Valpo's Lauren Hutton fumbled a dribble to Kaitlyn Sertich, who headmanned the ball to Allison Isailovich.  Isailovich scored while being fouled and the three-point play gave CP their biggest lead at 14-10 with 4:42 left in the half.

But Valparaiso got into the bonus and, during a 10-2 run, sank 5-of-8 from the line to regain the lead.

Jill Weiand opened the second half with a short jump shot to make it 19-18  but two baseline shots by 6-0 freshman Erica Humes started a 9-0 Valparaiso run to make it 28-18.

Crown Point responded with a 7-0 streak including a three-point play by Sertich and a low post layup by Pruzin.  A three-point shot by Sertich made it 30-28 with 7:16 to go but Hutton sank a three-pointer and Humes scored on a lob to make it 35-28.

McMullin's three-point shot closed the gap to 35-31 but Cassie Kerns dropped in a 15-foot jump shot starting a 6-0 run that appeared to put the game away at 41-31.

But the Lady Bulldogs had one more push.  Pruzin drove through the Valpo defense to make it 41-33.  After Hutton sank two foul shots, Pruzin sank a 20-foot shot off the left wing to cut the edge to 43-36 with 1:43 to go.

Then, perhaps the game's most controversial play: Hutton stumbled on the dribble and Pruzin slapped it away from her.  The CP guard, the region leader in steals, chased the ball, grabbed it. And then dribbled in for a layup that would've made the score 43-38.

The back referee mistakenly called Pruzin for double dribble, ruling that the act of knocking the ball away from Hutton was indeed a possession dribble on the part of the CP player.

The CP rooters in the crowd of about 1,000 howled in disbelief but there was no reversing the blown call.

"There were about five calls where, I asked one official and he said, I agree with you but it wasn't my call. There's nothing you can do at that point."

"She steals the ball and they call it double dribble," said May.  "That's called a fumble recovered dribble that you're allowed to do.  But there's nothing you can do about (the call). We need to work a little harder on getting quality officials."

Valparaiso got 45 of 47 points out of their starting lineup. Hutton made 5-of-6 from the foul line to clinch the game and Kerns blocked three shots, including a three-point try by McMullin in the final moments.

"McMullin sparked us," said May.  "She came off the bench and played really, really well.  Pruzin and Sertich and Jill Weiand did about all they could but we needed more.  If we had gotten 10 points from every position, we'd have won.

"But we knew that from Day one. We can't keep Valpo under 30 points. That's too much to ask. We don't feel bad defensively but we felt bad offensively the entire season.  Last game (a 44-41 loss at Valpo in December) we were about 6-of-30 in the second half.  Tonight, we weren't much better."

LADY BULLDOG NOTES:  May said his team could not execute the plan to counteract Valparaiso's height.

"We ran a motion offense," he explained, "where we drew the big kids out.  Then we wanted to push the ball inside.  Our fours and fives couldn't get it inside because of our passing skills.  We couldn't match our fours and fives against their fours and fives.

"We can say we did a good job on this girl or that girl.  "What did they end up with, 47 points?. It comes down to, 'Did you put the ball in when you had to?  And if we get some shots to fall. Then we're at the foul line and we're scoring 50 points."

"I  told our girls that if we shot between 35 and 40 percent, we'd win.  And we didn't.  That's not a lot to ask.  In the state finals against Heritage Hills, we shot 60 percent. That just indicates we have a lot of work to do on our skills.  By all of our players.  Not just Pruzin and Sertich."

Crown Point graduates eight seniors off this team but Scott Reid's 15-5 junior varsity will help restock the bench.  The Lady Bulldogs will return four starters but it must be noted, Valparaiso will return all five starters next year and the front court of the 6-foot Eric Humes, 6-2 Lindsay Humes and 6-4 Cassie Kerns returns for the next two years.  DAC rival Merrillville also returns all five starters and Lake Central returns three all-star caliber players in Katie Mitchell, Linsey Smith and Jen VanDer Zanden.

2003 CROWN POINT (12-9)

Coach Tom May (23 years:  390-137)  including 2003

11-15-2002:  74-19 Hebron (8-13)
11-16-2002:  40-47  at Andrean (15-8)
11-22-2002:  55-30 Kankakee Valley (7-14)
11-23-2002:  52-30 at Munster (6-17)
11-29-2002:  42-46 Warsaw  (21-1)
12-3-2002:  34-53 Lowell (11-11)
12-6-2002:  47-28 at PORTAGE (11-10)
12-13-2002:  50-44 MERRILLVILLE (13-7)
12-14-2002:  55-49 at Boone Grove (18-4)
12-21-2002:  41-44 at Valparaiso (14-7)

Lady Bulldog Shootout (with Martinsville, Carroll and Noblesville)
12-28-2002:  40-41 Carroll (18-3)
12-28-2002:  32-40 Martinsville (8-13) 3rd place

1-3-2003:  39-47 at Highland (20-2)
1-4-2003:  62-22 at Hanover Central (7-13)
1-10-2003:  46-44 MICHIGAN CITY (6-15)
1-18-2003:  42-30  CHESTERTON (12-9)
1-24-2003:  69-33 at LaPORTE (3-18)
1-25-2003:  45-43 Bishop Luers (17-4) 
2-1-2003:  42-22 HOBART (9-14)
2-4-2003:  58-55 at Lake Central (13-8)

Portage (4A) Sectional
2-11-2003:  40-47 Valparaiso  (14-7)

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Revised: June 08, 2004 .