Another week is in the books of girls basketball season and we’ve got some stuff to talk about. Each Sunday, yours truly will have a new column to talk about some of the important details from the week gone by.
Sit back, grab your coffee and see what was important to Bounce this week.
AN APOLOGY TO CARROLL
Any implications of Carroll‘s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
My apologies to the Chargers. While I personally didn’t say that the defending SAC champs were facing their demise, I certainly did pick both Huntington North and Northrop to beat them this week. Oops.
Instead, I am just going to realize right now that Columbia City is good and Carmel is good. But that doesn’t mean Carroll is bad in losing to them both this season. This week was an eye opener and a big one.
Kayla Gibbs has been the revelation of the week, if that is a thing that I will continue to say about people this season. She had team highs in both wins this week with 15 against the Vikings and 19 against the Bruins.
Beating Huntington North by four is nice. This is a team that just beat another SAC title contender in Snider and while we are still learning about the Vikings right now, it is still a power win for Carroll. But beating Northrop is monumental because the Bruins were looking like the top contender to Homestead this season. And not only that, we all know the other part of this game that made it interesting and it is that Northrop now possesses the Jackson twins, a big part of last season’s Carroll team.
The Chargers were clearly well educated going into this game, found their openings and were willing to be the aggressor, led by Gibbs and he willingness to be the girl to just take charge this season. Taylor Fordyce had 13 points in each of the wins this week. So I owe Carroll an apology this week. Its not like I expected you to be bad, I didn’t. But the Chargers are certainly better RIGHT NOW than I have given them credit for.
THE POWER OF HOMESTEAD
How do you stop the Homestead girls? That was a really interesting question to beginning of their game against Concordia on Friday when they jumped out to a 12-0 lead.
Already down 9-0, Concordia seemed content to try and pack the paint with five defenders, kind of keyed on Ayanna Patterson (with little luck at all). But that left three Homestead shooters to space out around the perimeter. In this case, Molly Stock knocked down a three pointer to extend a lead to 12.
Concordia trailed 22-3 after the first quarter, had not made a field goal and had committed eight fouls.
It really seemed like fouling Homestead was the only sure way to stop them from scoring. And you know Bounce, I am not knocking anyone but I am emphasizing what the Spartans are doing and how they are so much better right now than they were at this time a year ago or even when last season ended. Stock had seven of her own in the first quarter and looks really good with her stop and go in movement. Stock has improved massively in the last 12 months. Sydney Fream is another good body to cut off any hopes inside and used that to her advantage Friday.
Not to mention, the Spartans are showing more depth than maybe ever right now and Pattterson is clearly playing the best basketball of her career. This team is dangerous and loaded.
The Spartans ran into the Noblesville juggernaut on Saturday, falling despite 24 points from Patterson.
CONTINUED COLUMBIA CITY STATEMENTS
Tuesday saw Columbia City turn away SAC title hopeful Snider, marking the second straight week that a NE8 team downed the Panthers. But this isn’t about Snider, this is about a Columbia City team that continues to be impressive after two wins over SAC teams this week.
The Eagles now sit 5-0, including 3-0 against the SAC. When you consider the city’s conference as the standard bearer, we look at teams who find success against the conference to be among the best. There are still four more SAC teams on the Eagles schedule this season, but at the end of it all, we may look at Tuesday’s win over Snider as the biggest, especially when Snider beat North Central out of Indianapolis later in the week.
Columbia City ended up hitting 40 percent of their shots and after trailing 3-2…yes, 3-2…after the first quarter, the Eagles put up 24 points in the second and 17 in the third. After spectacular showings from Kyndra Sheets and Molly Baker this season, it was seasoned vet Bekah Marshall who took the lead in the win over Snider. Marshall has long been a diverse player in this lineup, so her 17 point, five rebound effort wasn’t surprising.
I have to point out though that the Eagles did this without Sheets in the lineup, really flexing their depth with four players in double digits as Addison Baxter added 12 and Baker and Danielle Dunham each scored 10.
On Thursday, in not as big of a challenge, the Eagles shot 52 percent from the field and held North Side to 15 total points. Baxter secured five of the team’s 15 steals in the game.
A LITTLE NOTE ON WAYNE
It is no surprise that Bounce has been a bit enthralled by the rebuild at Wayne over the past couple of seasons. Every year, they have taken steps back towards being a contender.
The biggest step happened on Friday night when Wayne beat South Side 68-65. This is a monumental win for the Generals and they did it with three double doubles just in that one game. Emilia Diaz led the way with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Aniah Hill (13/10) and Tani Hairston (17/10) added a lot in the win.
We can’t ignore this. It has been a while since Wayne sat sixth in the conference as they do today. The Generals also had not beat South Side since February 6, 2015.
OTHER NOTES
Garrett‘s Nataley Armstrong broke her own single game assist record on Tuesday by tallying 15 assists in a win over North Side….Congrats to Woodlan coach Gary Cobb on winning his 100th game as the Warriors head coach Friday….In a loss to Adams Central, Manchester‘s Ainsley West had 24 points and 4 blocked shots….In that same game, Adams Central‘s Marissa Van de weg almost secured a triple double. She had 17 points, 10 rebounds and 8 steals….Eastside had the best defensive quarter of the season on Thursday, holding Angola to just a single first quarter point. The Hornets ended up winning the low scoring affair 30-22….The 19 points scored by Warsaw on Saturday in a loss to Crown Point is the lowest in program history. Previously it was 23 points in a 1982 Sectional loss….Skye Kessler had one of the best scoring performance in the area in a win this last week with 23 on Tuesday in an Eastside win over Leo….One of the coolest wins of the week was Heritage‘s 54-49 win over Bellmont on Saturday as they celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Patriots’ 1982 state champion team. Quality win, even better recreation of the 1982 team’s sock game….Don’t send Heritage‘s Ella Bickel to the free throw line. She hit all 14 freebies she shot on Thursday in a win over Wayne and had 27 points….Dakotah Krohn of Woodlan was the only player to hit the 30 point mark this week with 31 points and 7 assists Friday in a win over Leo….East Noble got their first win of the season on Saturday, Kyndal Mynhier scored a career high 17 points. The Knights only allowed 15 second half points….Evie Pepple joined the season buzzer beater list with a corner three for DeKalb to beat Central Noble on Saturday.
VOTE
Vote in this week’s FAN CHOICE for single game Performance of the Week.
These opinions represent those of Bounce and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Bounce on Twitter at Bounce_OTH
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