Eastside girls basketball went 6-16 in the 2018-2019 season, the only year with Nate Young at the helm of the program.
It was a bit of a blip on the radar of what the Blazers had become recently at that point; it was the first single digit win season in Butler after four straight 10 or more win campaigns and back-to-back winning seasons under Shane Conwell.
It was more success than Brett Freeman or Chris Ramer had before him. In fact, Conwell’s 2016-17 (15-10) and 2017-18 (15-9) were the only winning seasons for Eastside girls in the 2000s. He even won a Sectional title in 2016.
But even with Eastside’s recent success before Mike Lortie took over the program in 2019, it wasn’t like the team was ever consistently considered a major threat. All of that has changed in the past five seasons, culminating (for now) in Monday’s NECC Tournament title win for Eastside, their first since 1994. And did they ever earn it.
Sydnee Kessler scored the first eight points for Eastside as they jumped out to an 8-5 lead and she then had 11 when they led 14-10 with her high level three point shooting pacing the Blazers. Then the Blazer defense took over in the second quarter, one they entered leading 16-12. Kessler hit her fourth three and then Avery Wilson hit one and Paige Traxler hit another and before you knew it, Eastside had seized control of the tempo on both ends of the court and led 25-12 win just over two minutes to play in the first half.
While it didn’t seem like Eastside could miss (they hit 7 first half threes), their defense didn’t give Fairfield much room at all to get off a quality shot. The Falcons, who came into the game a heavy favorite, shot just 21.7 percent in the opening half and scored three total points in the second quarter.
And when you get a team like Eastside on the other end of the court that is so good at controlling tempo, the last thing you want to do is find yourself in a hole that large that early.
Fairfield had their spurts in the third, but more threes were abound at times for Eastside with Traxler and Jayci Kitchen hitting on each early in the quarter and the lead was 22 going into the final frame. While the entire game had to have felt like dagger after dagger from Eastside from long range, it was Kitchen who really sent it home inside the final three minutes. With 12 made threes (at an astounding 46.2 percent success rate), Eastside just shot defending tournament Fairfield out of the gym all night. Compared to Eastside’s 12 made threes, Fairfield hit just eight shots from the field and committed 14 turnovers.
Kessler, who had started the hot shooting night, finished with 20 points and five makes from deep while Traxler’s three from deep helped her to 11 points in the 53-24 dominating effort from the Blazers.
It was clear that Eastside learned a lot of lessons from a 50-47 loss to Fairfield 10 days early.
Fittingly, Lortie’s first ever NECC Tournament game as the head coach of Eastside was against Fairfield in 2020, falling 43-35 in overtime. But Eastside was 13-2 when that loss took place, off to the best start of the millennium for the program. He had already established this: Eastside was going to play tough, control tempo, celebrate themselves, win close games and have fun. They have become pillars of what we all see Eastside girls basketball as, even if they aren’t things that Lortie specifically pushes by name in his own program. The Blazers won 16 games that season, a new high mark over a 20 year period.
The 2020-21 season saw Eastside go “just” 13-11 but make a Sectional title game. In 2021-22, they went 16-10 and won a Sectional title, the first for the program since that 2016 win under Conwell and just the fifth in program history, with three coming in the 1970s. That championship run for Lortie in his second season was ended in Regionals by, you guessed it, Fairfield. In 2022-2023, Eastside won 15 games, lost single digit games and made it to the NECC Tournament semi final game before losing to Central Noble.
Through all of that, Lortie was just 1-6 against Fairfield, the team that Eastside beat Monday night for their long awaited return to NECC glory. Outside of last season’s 17 point loss to a Fairfield team that went on to win a state title, Eastside never lost to Fairfield by more than eight points. The Blazers have always been RIGHT THERE.
And now, they are THERE.
Throughout Lortie’s five seasons at the helm, Eastside’s largest average margin of victory has been seven, not counting the current 15.2 they are winning by this season. He has been able to coach his team to play gritty, control the tempo against their opponents and win close games. When Eastside has controlled tempo, they win and there are rarely instances that deviate from that. Monday was another example of that. Fittingly, for Eastside doing things they way they do requires consistency and those “family values” for a team. Guess it makes sense that like many of Eastside’s past successes under Lortie, there were family names like Kreischer and Kessler that helped pace the win.
But it also nice to see how Eastside celebrates themselves and don’t take themselves too seriously at the same time. Whether its on social media or talking to the media, Lortie has always talked up the girls who have played for him. Their connection within the program is special and it shows. Early Tuesday, just hours after the tournament title, Lortie was on social media pushing fans to come out to Tuesday night’s regular season game to celebrate the Blazer seniors.
And the way that Lortie has fun with it is also fantastic. Look, if you can coach at any school and rock a suit of the color your team’s logo and it can look as good as Lortie’s green out, then you are a certified fun coach who doesn’t take himself too seriously.
That is how Lortie has built the Eastside program.
They are now more even that just a perennial contender. As good as it is to be the team that can win on any given night, it is so much better to be champions. So congrats to this Eastside team and every one of them that has come before them under Lortie’s lead; this title is a major testament to what Eastside girls basketball has been built to be.
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