WEST TERRE HAUTE — The first round of the eighth annual WTHI HI-99 Clabber Girl Classic set the stage for an early-season Terre Haute North-Terre Haute South girls basketball matchup.
North bounced back from a season-opening loss Tuesday at Turkey Run to defeat South Vermillion 74-23, and South jumped ahead of Owen Valley 15-5 after the first quarter before holding off a late Patriots’ surge for a 73-57 victory.
The defending tournament champion Braves jumped ahead 15-5 after the opening quarter despite 6-foot-3 center Dragana Grbic picking up two fouls in the game’s first one minute, 15 seconds. Grbic, who signed her national letter-of-intent earlier in the day to play for Butler, sat on the bench for the rest of the first half.
But 6-2 freshman Hannah Lee showed she might give the Braves a luxury they haven’t had in the past few seasons — a true backup center.
Lee converted a key 3-point play to extend South’s lead back to double digits at 36-26 with eight seconds to go before halftime. She also had six rebounds and a blocked shot to go with her seven points in her first varsity game.
“She did a great job,” said Grbic, who scored 15 points in the second half. “She’s been doing really good in practice, playing good defense on me. She helped us out a lot, coming in and picking me up.”
The rest of South’s senior quartet came up big, with Tessa Johnson leading the scoring column with 16 points and Krista Smith adding 14. Randa Rector scored just two points, but the 5-10 guard had game-highs with 12 rebounds, six steals and five assists.
South expected a tough challenge from a veteran Owen Valley team that was last year’s Clabber Girl runner-up before going on to win 22 games.
“We knew we had to bring our ‘A game’ out and play our hardest,” Rector said. “It was a little different with new coaches and a couple of new players. We pulled it out and played as a team.”
Sam Cooper pulled Owen Valley within 63-57 with back-to-back 3-pointers, and Adrian Gillaspy also helped keep the Patriots close with three 3-pointers.
The Gonser twins, Heather and Nickole, combined for 23 points for Owen Valley.
“Every position they can handle the ball,” South’s first-year coach Dave Cassell said. “You have to put some pressure on them, but they are good ball-handlers, you can’t let them break you down.”
Both teams like to bring full-court pressure, which made for an up-tempo contest until South slowed the tempo in the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead.
That’s when sophomore point guard Haley Seibert led South in a spread offense. She broke down the Owen Valley defenders off the dribble and knocked down free throws, knocking down all six of her free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.
The Braves hit 18 of their 20 attempts at the charity stripe.
South did commit 20 turnovers in the game, but Cassell liked his team’s aggressive play.
“I think a lot of our turnovers were playing good defense and trying to get it out too fast,” he said. “We had a couple breakouts. We just need to take care of the ball and not be in too big of a rush.”
The Braves will play city rival Terre Haute North, which dominated a young South Vermillion team.
The backcourt duo of Junior Lindy Jones and Kelly Meggs led North with 22 and 18 points respectively. Jones shot 9 for 12 from the field, adding four steals and five assists. Meggs wasn’t happy with her 6-for-13 shooting, but she was happy to help her team advance to set up a city rivalry matchup.
“It was really nice to get that [season-opening loss] out of the way and get a win and get motivated,” Meggs said. “Tonight helped a lot to see where we are. South’s a good team and we’re going to have to play really well to hang with them.”
Allen kept his team focused to the final minute on execution.
“[South Vermillion coach] Tim Terry does a great job with his kids, and we were able to get some easy baskets. But we’re not going to be able to do that against everybody. We are just not at the point where we’re able to execute an offense.”
Allen is trying to create some depth on a team with several varsity newcomers, and Mary Kate Etling, Lindsay Eilbracht and Ashley Burkins played quality minutes off the bench Wednesday.
Cassell is on his way to filling some key role players as well, with Lee and Mikayla Metheny the only two coming off the bench for South.
“Hannah is a freshman, but she’s played so much AAU over the years,” Cassell said. “She’s just calm. And Metheny comes in and hits her first shot off the bench. We’ve tried to create some depth, and we’re on our way. We need that to happen.”
Owen Valley coach Tom Anderson was encouraged with his team’s play.
“We were in it all the way and not shooting well,” Anderson said. “We got off to a shaky start because a little bit of nerves, playing a very good team. Terre Haute South’s probably one of the top five teams in the state in 4A. We kept it a decent game and had a run.”
Terre Haute South 71
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Seibert 4-6 0-0 6-6 1 3 2 14
Rector 1-2 0-1 0-0 12 6 3 2
Johnson 7-16 1-6 1-2 5 0 1 16
Smith 5-6 1-2 3-4 4 1 5 14
Grbic 4-5 0-0 7-7 4 0 3 15
Lee 4-5 0-0 1-1 6 1 0 9
Metheny 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 0 0 3
Totals 25-41 3-11 18-20 33 11 14 73
Owen Valley 57
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Gillaspy 5-8 3-5 1-1 2 1 2 14
Cooper 2-8 2-3 1-3 1 1 5 7
H.Gonser 5-10 0-0 1-2 3 2 2 11
N.Gonser 5-9 0-2 2-4 7 1 5 12
Sweatman 4-10 0-0 1-2 1 4 2 9
Evans 1-2 0-1 0-0 1 1 1 2
York 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 0 2
Totals 23-49 5-11 6-12 17 10 17 57
Terre Haute South 15 21 14 23 — 73
Owen Valley 5 21 14 17 — 57
FG Pct. — THS .609, OV .469. 3-pt FG Pct. — THS .273, OV .454. FT Pct. THS .900, OV .500. Assists — THS 17 (Seibert 5, Rector 5, Johnson 3), OV 9 (Cooper 3, Sweatman 2, Evans 2). Turnovers — THS 20, OV 14. Blocks — THS 3 (Grbic, Johnson, Lee), OV 0.
Next — Terre Haute North (1-1) plays Terre Haute South (1-0) on Saturday at 10 a.m. in semifinal action of the HI-99 Clabber Girl Classic. South Vermillion (0-2) plays Owen Valley (0-1) in the consolation bracket at 6 p.m. Friday.
Terre Haute North 74
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Meggs 6-13 3-8 3-3 8 3 0 18
Jones 9-12 3-6 1-1 4 5 0 22
Ketner 6-9 0-3 0-0 0 1 1 12
McCarthy 1-6 0-0 1-2 5 2 0 3
Adams 2-5 0-0 4-4 2 1 3 8
Etling 1-5 0-0 1-1 6 1 1 3
Eilbracht 2-5 0-0 0-0 5 4 1 4
Burkins 2-6 0-0 0-0 1 2 1 4
Totals 29-61 6-17 10-14 *29 18 6 74
South Vermillion 23
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Kelly 1-5 0-0 0-0 5 0 1 2
Brower 1-6 0-2 2-4 3 0 1 4
Kirby 1-3 0-0 0-0 4 0 1 2
Milam 1-5 0-2 0-0 4 1 0 2
Thomas 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 0
Reed 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 0
Evans 2-2 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 5
Link 1-3 0-1 0-0 2 0 1 2
Samuelson 1-4 1-2 0-0 1 0 1 3
Riggen 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Gilman 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 0 0 1
Watts 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 2
Totals 9-35 2-8 3-5 *23 3 6 23
Terre Haute North 16 23 20 17 — 74
South Vermillion 4 5 7 7 — 23
FG Pct. — THN .475, SV .257. 3-pt FG Pct. — THN .353, SV .250. FT Pct. — THN .714, SV .600. Assists — THN 20 (Meggs 5, Jones 5, Burkins 4, Ketner 3, McCarthy 3), SV 4 (Milam 2). Turnovers — THN 8, SV 25. Blocks — THN 3 (Adams 2, Jones 1), SV 0.. (*) Includes team rebounds — THN 7, SV 5.
High School
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North, South basketball squads get Clabber Girl wins
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Patience, patience.
South Vermillion exhibited great patience, being very selective at the plate and it paid off royally in the fourth inning. -
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