County squads off to Lebanon, Cascade for sectional play

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Girls’ high school basketball sectional play begins this week at 64 sites, with Greencastle heading off to Lebanon for a Class 3A tourney and Cloverdale, North Putnam and South Putnam going to Cascade for Class 2A action.

Here is a look at each sectional:

Lebanon

The host Tigers are the defending champions, and have the best record in the field at 15-7 despite losing Indiana All-Star Kristen Spolyar to graduation.

The Tigers will likely get past Crawfordsville (3-19) and meet the winner of Wednesday’s Greencastle-Western Boone game in Friday’s second semifinal.

The Tiger Cubs hope for a better outcome than a regular-season matchup last weekend, in which they battled the Stars into overtime before falling 72-63.

Both Greencastle and Western Boone enter with 13-9 records.

Cascade

The host Cadets are ranked No. 7 in Class 2A and are considered to be the tourney favorite after having won the Western Indiana Conference title this year.

Cloverdale coach Matthew Langdon is not overlooking a North Putnam his squad has beaten twice.

“We are at a high right now,” he said. “The one thing you have to do is take it one game at a time. North Putnam is coming into the tourney on a two-game winning streak, and is starting to believe in themselves.”

Langdon’s team thrives on pressure defense, and he knows the Cougars will work on that aspect.

“Sectional time brings everybody closer, no matter what the gap is,” he said. “That gap tightens at sectional time.”

Langdon agrees with everyone that Cascade is the favorite.

“Obviously they are the team to beat, and there’s no hiding from that,” he said. “Cascade has all the pressure to win. I told our girls I was glad we didn’t get the bye, to be able to get some of the nerves out of the way.”

Langdon normally starts senior Kelsey Helterbrand, junior Abby Walker, sophomore Tori Combs and freshmen Hailey Thomas and Sammie Shrum. He isn’t too concerned with his young team having trouble with the pressure of the state tournament.

“We have been in some big situations before,” he said. “The county tourney was a great environment, we were able to win a small tourney at Monrovia and play a pressure-packed game at Cascade.”

South Putnam coach Brian Gardner knows he is playing a hot team entering the tourney, and one that wants revenge for an earlier loss to the Eagles.

“One of the things that is going to be important for us is to be able to handle their pressure,” he said after his team’s loss to Cloverdale last week. “We can’t allow them to get easy transition buckets. They will pressure us like Cloverdale did, but the difference is that Southmont does not have an athlete like Tori Combs [of Cloverdale].”

Gardner has tried to emphasize to his team that all teams are now 0-0, and the players who are freshmen are now sophomores, the sophomores are juniors and the juniors are now seniors.

“We’re going to be OK,” he said. “We’re going to have three good days of practice before the sectional and get ourselves ready to go, and put ourselves in a position to win.”

Gardner agrees that Cascade is the favorite.

“Anybody that disagrees with that is kind of crazy,” he said. “They have had a great season and have great players, but I think several other teams have the talent to be able to win it.”

Gardner only has to look to last year for inspiration.

“Last year, I thought Cascade was the favorite, and Monrovia beat them to win it,” he said. “It’s the team that gets hot.”


SECTIONAL BASKETBALL PREVIEWS

GIRLS

Tuesday

North Putnam (3-19) vs. Cloverdale (14-8)

Game time: 6 p.m. at Cascade

So far: .The Clovers have posted their first winning season since Bruce Cook directed them to a 15-6 record in 2007-08, and finished the season on a three-game winning streak. North Putnam has shown improvement throughout its first season under coach Jarrod Duff, and won its final two regular-season games.

History: Cloverdale won 55-19 in the county tournamentin November and 56-33 in a regular-season game a week later.

Scouting report: Sophomore Tori Combs averages a double-double for Cloverdale, and gets support from 3-point specialist Abby Walker. Emilee Henninger leads the Cougars in scoring and rebounding.

South Putnam (12-10) vs. Southmont (13-9)

Game time: 7:30 p.m. at Cascade

So far: The Eagles started the season 7-1, and since that point have neither won nor lost more than two consecutive games. They enter the sectional on a two-game losing streak. Southmont opened the season 3-5 but has played well over the last half of the season, winning its final six regular-season games.

History: South Putnam won a 66-65 game in November on two Caitlin Capps free throws with 1.4 seconds left.

Scouting report: Juniors Miranda Bieghler and Lillie Stein lead the Eagles in scoring. Seniors Kasey Burton (13.7) and Reagan Case (13.5) pace the Mounties.

Wednesday

Greencastle (13-9) vs. Western Boone (13-9)

Game time: 7:30 p.m. at Lebanon

So far: The TIger Cubs started the season 0-4 but rebounded to record their eighth straight winning season under coach Bradley Key. They finished second in the Western Indiana Conference. Western Boone started slowly at 3-6 but improved over the course of the season and won six of its last seven games.

History: Western Boone won a 72-63 overtime game at Greencastle on Jan. 21.

Scouting report: Senior Nailah Ray (8.6 points per game) and sophomore Claire Gillen (11.7) split the center position for the Tiger Cubs and lead the team in scoring.

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  • Cascade had a"great season" and has "great players"?

    Maybe "outstanding" or "excellent", not "great".

    -- Posted by nphs92 on Mon, Jan 30, 2017, at 6:18 PM
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