Greencastle has the momentum, but Braves have the star

It would be easy to look at the sectional win for Greencastle girls' basketball team and think it was a product of a favorable schedule. The Tiger Cubs were 2-0 against Edgewood and West Vigo before the postseason started, and they're 4-0 against them now.

But basketball is rarely that simple. Favorable draws get flipped all the time.

GHS started the season 5-6. The girls put together a little midseason-run, but after a loss at Cascade, they were one game over .500 with four games left before sectional play began.

The season looked to be spiraling. It wasn't just the loss to Cascade -- the Cadets had a nice team and a nice season (14-8), though they're done now -- it was the way they lost.

Greencastle had a 12 point lead at halftime, then lost by 10. By the fourth quarter they barely put up a fight.

The Tiger Cubs aren't an old team, but lack of leadership has never been an issue. Seniors Rayleigh Amis and Jessi Covert, and junior Alex Basile, weren't about to let the season slip away.

GHS got back to work, using the loss to fuel it rather than rattle it.

The girls are 6-1 since, winning a pair of West Central Conference games on the way, to finish the season with a share of the WCC title.

The Tiger Cubs won't be favorites to win on Saturday. Indian Creek is 19-5 and has the best individual player Greencastle will face all year, senior Ally Lehman.

Lehman has scored 604 points this season (25.7 per game), and also leads the team in assists (133), steals (130), blocks (43), rebounds (298), Twitter followers (295), letters of intent (1) and swag (a hundred thousand trillion swagger levels).

But before she plays for Northern Illinois next year, the 5'10" power guard will have to face the Tiger Cubs.

They'll likely start 5'11" Amis on her, GHS's defensive stopper and emotional leader. If Amis is still on her in the fourth quarter, that will be a good sign.

The Tiger Cubs will have another weapon: a rejuvenated and reborn fan base.

I've been unimpressed with the peer support of Greencastle's basketball team's until recently. The cheerleaders at girls' games have been pumping up empty bleachers all season, and the crowd at guys games has lacked professionalism.

I'm certainly not the poster boy for using exclusively unoffensive language, but the GHS students section -- when aiming such words at the referees -- is not the most impressive or applicable place for it.

That's changed in recent weeks. The crowd has mellowed and cheered for accomplishments instead of piling on uncontrollable variables.

What's more, the Tiger Cub faithful came to the sectional final in force, improbably out-supporting Edgewood's junket on Saturday night.

With a relatively short trip to Danville this weekend, it will be easy for that to continue.

Even with the momentum it has, GHS will need all the help it can get against the Braves.

Before the season, Lehman told IndyStar.com she wants to go to state; to "bring something new to Indian Creek that no one has ever seen."

Greencastle's players didn't start the season with that goal in mind. They've already accomplished everything they hoped for in the preseason. Now the girls have a new goal -- stop Lehman; stop the Braves; keep winning.

Greencastle, in its first regional appearance since 1993, will take on Indian Creek Saturday at noon at Danville High School.