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Tiger Cubs enter sectional play on high note
Greencastle’s Tiger Cubs are a prime example of the sometimes bipolar nature of girls’ high school basketball.
They had a nine-game winning streak this season sandwiched between a pair of three-game losing skids, and in a recent game fell behind 19-4 at Western Boone before outscoring the Stars 16-0 in the second quarter.
With wins over WeBo and South Vermilion to close out the regular season, coach Bradley Key is hopeful his team will continue its momentum going into tonight’s sectional opener with defending champion Lebanon.
“Lebanon is a team like us that plays really hard,” said Key, who coached the Cubs to a ninth straight winning record in the regular season. “They are well-coached. No 50 [Tori Harker] is really good inside and we’re going to have to know where she is all the time.
“Their record is not great, but they play hard and are a good basketball team,” he said. “We’re going to have to play well to win.”
Key thought his team has played some of its best basketball toward the end of the season, and especially liked the balanced scoring in the season finale win at South Vermillion.
Bailey Shuee had 15 points to lead the Cubs in that game, while Rose White added 14 and Allison Stevens and Seelye Stoffregen had 11 each. Jalyn Duff chipped in with nine.
“That’s what you want,” he said. “We rebounded the ball pretty well. Our last three games were not a cakewalk, but they got us ready for the tournament.”
The Cubs and Benton Central enter the tourney as the only two teams with winning records, and seem primed to meet in the finals.
Key is not overlooking any steps toward getting to the finals, after losing the sectional opener in each of the past three seasons.
“I think we got a pretty good draw, but it’s only a good draw if you win,” Key said. “If we happen to win, we would play Southmont and we played them really early in the season.
”Benton Central has the best record in the tournament in the bracket, and I expect to see them in the finals if we get there. We don’t have a lot of common opponents with them, but they play after us [tonight] so at least we’ll get to see them play. We just have to focus on Lebanon first.”