TERRE HAUTE —
Terre Haute South continued to show what’s new and Terre Haute North unfortunately reverted back to what’s old in Class 4A high school girls basketball sectional action Friday night at North.
The Braves, 54-41 winners over Martinsville in the second game — unofficially the first South win over the Artesians in 10 years — meet Mooresville in tonight’s 7 p.m. championship game, after the Pioneers scored the game’s last 11 points to beat the Patriots 40-34 in the opener.
South won Friday the way the Braves did on Tuesday against sectional favorite Plainfield, showing depth that hadn’t been evident in a while and playing with a passion that hadn’t been evident since — well, it’s tempting to say since the last time South’s girls beat Martinsville.
North lost Friday the way Patriot teams used to lose. After beating some of the state’s top programs during the regular season, North succumbed to defensive pressure after scoring the game’s first 11 points.
“Mooresville is a very, very good team,” coach Mike Allen of the Patriots said. “I think we gave them a fight they might not have been expecting … but their pressure hurt us and we couldn’t handle it.”
Friday’s opener couldn’t have started any better for the home team. The Patriots didn’t miss a shot for more than five minutes and Mooresville didn’t make one in that time— including an 0-for-4 free throw performance — and the Patriots still led 13-4 late in the first quarter after a short jumper by Sydney Dickerson.
Mooresville got the last basket of the first quarter and seven more points in the first two minutes of the second period, however, and from that point the game was almost painful to watch. Mooresville couldn’t make shots — the Pioneers shot 27 percent from the field and missed 14 free throws — and North couldn’t get shots. By halftime the Patriots had 16 turnovers and only 10 field goal attempts; for the game it was 27 turnovers, 23 shots.
“We’re not a very good shooting team,” coach Mark Hurt of the Pioneers said afterward. “That’s one of the reasons we wanted to press. We were concerned about [Nicole] Anderson and [Adrienne] Pritchard inside; if we let Terre Haute North bring it up and pitch it inside, we’d be in trouble.”
“[The Pioneers] do a pretty good job trapping and rotating to the next open man,” Allen explained. “We didn’t look up the floor enough … we couldn’t get back in the offense end to eventually run something [after the 11-0 lead]; we were scrambling for every possession.”
Anderson, coming back from a stress fracture in her foot, got banged up in a first-quarter collision to add to North’s problems, although the Patriots kept battling.
Mooresville took its first lead at 20-19 with 34 seconds left in the second quarter, but two free throws by Kathryn Ruark with 9.6 seconds left kept North ahead at intermission.
Martinsville led the entire last half of the third quarter, although a basket by Layne Curley cut the lead to 27-26 at the stop.
Curley’s basket started a 10-2 Patriot run that had North ahead 34-29 after Anderson hit two free throws with 3:15 left in the game, but those were North’s last points. Mooresville freshman Kellie Cavanaugh got an assist on the basket that put the Pioneers ahead to stay with 1:30 left, then closed out the scoring with five free throws.
Cavanaugh was the game’s leading scorer, and didn’t hit a field goal — she was 11 for 16 at the foul line. Anderson had 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for North.
“It was a tough way to end the season,” Allen concluded. “We just didn’t execute down the end.”
South had more fouls than points in the first quarter of the nightcap, and two of the fouls had been committed by leading scorer Tasia Brewer.
But the Braves erased their 8-4 deficit quickly, opening the second quarter by scoring eight points in 66 seconds. Kaylee Ellis had three of the baskets, Kylie Fendrick a basket plus two assists and a steal and Labrea Joyner two assists in the burst. “We picked up the tempo and got some turnovers and fast-break opportunities,” coach Cara Stuckey noted later.
Martinsville tied the score at 12 and again at 16 late in the second quarter, but South edged ahead on rebound baskets by Claire Bailey and Ellis. Then South closed out the half with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Kayla Ennen on an assist from Kaylee Compton, and opened the third quarter as Brewer got a three-point play — her first points of the night — on a pass from Ellis. All of a sudden the Braves had a 10-point lead.
Another three-point play by Brewer had the Braves ahead 35-24 at the third stop, but the Artesians found their 3-point stroke early in the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 39-35. Dallas Butts came out of a scrum with a defensive rebound and got the ball to Hannah Lee for a fast-break basket to break Martinsville’s momentum, however, and South pulled away for good.
DId you notice a lot of different South names in the last three paragraphs?
“Before we started the sectional, we talked about how it didn’t matter what any one person did if we didn’t move on [to the next game],” Stuckey said afterward. “We’ve had several people step up [the last two games] and make big contributions.”
The biggest on Friday may have been by Ellis, who led all scorers with 14 points and added seven rebounds. “She’s our defensive stopper,” Stuckey said of the senior forward, “so anytime she can do that on offense is huge.”
Lee added 13 points — nine in the fourth quarter — plus a game-high 10 rebounds and three blocked shots, while Brewer scored 12. Cailin Nix had 13 points and Mariah Walker 10 for the Artesians, who didn’t seem to enjoy themselves on the court as much as the Braves did.
“Before every tipoff, I say ‘Let’s have fun,’ ” Stuckey said. “It wasn’t as pretty tonight [as it was Tuesday], but I’ll always take a win at the sectional.”
MOORESVILLE (40) — Green 3-5 0-2 6, Viles 2-10 1-2 5, Settle 3-6 1-4 8, Fisher 3-10 1-2 8, McFarland 1-4 0-2 2, Corbin 0-6 0-0 0, Cavanaugh 0-2 11-16 11, Williams 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 12-45 FG, 14-28 FT, 40 TP.
TERRE HAUTE NORTH (34) — Anderson 3-8 3-3 10, Clark 2-3 0-0 5, Pritchard 0-1 0-1 0, Seeley 2-2 3-4 8, Curley 2-6 2-2 6, Ruark 0-1 3-4 3, Sykes 0-1 0-0 0, Dickerson 1-1 0-0 2, Harris 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-23 FG, 11-13 FT, 34 TP.
Mooresville 6 13 8 13 — 40
Terre Haute North 13 7 6 8 — 34
3-point shooting — Mooresville 2-9 (Settle 1-1, Fisher 1-2, McFarland 0-1, Corbin 0-1, Cavanaugh 0-1, Williams 0-1, Green 0-2), THN 3-6 (Anderson 1-1, Clark 1-1, Seeley 1-1, Curley 0-1, Ruark 0-1, Sykes 0-1). Total fouls — Mooresville 17, THN 18. Fouled out — Seeley. Turnovers — Mooresville 9, THN 27. Rebounds — Mooresville 32 (Cavanaugh 6, Settle 5), THN 30 (Anderson 10, Pritchard 7). Assists — Mooresville 8 (Green 2, Cavanaugh 2), THN 5 (Pritchard 2). Steals — Mooresville 18 (Fisher 4, McFarland 4, Cavanaugh 3, Settle 3), THN 6 (Anderson 3). Blocks — Mooresville 0, THN 5 (Anderson 3).
MARTINSVILLE (41) — Fisher 1-12 1-2 4, Bright 2-10 0-0 6, Shields 2-7 3-4 7, Walker 4-6 1-1 10, Nix 5-13 0-2 13, Ferguson 0-3 0-0 0, Dailey 0-0 1-2 1, G.Elliott 0-1 0-0 0, Teeters 0-1 0-0 0, C.Elliott 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 14-56 FG, 6-11 FT, 41 TP.
TERRE HAUTE SOUTH (54) — Brewer 4-7 4-6 12, Ellis 5-7 4-5 14, Lee 6-8 1-2 13, Joyner 0-4 2-2 2, Fendrick 2-6 0-0 4, Compton 0-2 0-0 0, Bell 0-1 0-0 0, Butts 2-6 0-0 4, Bailey 1-3 0-0 2, Ennen 1-2 0-1 3, Shanks 0-0 0-0 0, Buchanan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-46 FG, 11-16 FT, 54 TP.
Martinsville 8 8 8 17 — 41
Terre Haute South 4 19 12 19 — 54
3-point shooting — Martinsville 7-24 (Nix 3-7, Bright 2-8, Walker 1-3, Fisher 1-6), THS 1-9 (Ennen 1-1, Ellis 0-1, Bell 0-1, Joyner 0-3, Butts 0-3). Total fouls — Martinsville 19, THS 13. Fouled out — none. Turnovers — Martinsville 14, THS 17. Rebounds — Martinsville 35 (Shields 7, Bright 5, Fisher 4, Ferguson 4), THS 42 (Lee 10, Ellis 7, Bailey 6). Assists — Martinsville 12 (Walker 3, Nix 3), THS 14 (Joyner 4). Steals — Martinsville 11 (Fisher 3, Shields 3), THS 9 (Brewer 2, Joyner 2, Butts 2). Blocks — Martinsville 2 (Bright, Nix), THS 5 (Lee 3).
Next — Terre Haute South (13-10) and Mooresville (12-9) meet at 7 p.m. today for the Class 4A Terre Haute North Sectional championship. Terre Haute North finished 13-10, Martinsville 11-11.
High School
Related Photos
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Southpaw: South's #12, Tasia Brewer attempts a shot during early first quarter action against Martinsville.
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Driven: North's #3, Morgan Seeley drives the ball to the basket during game action against Mooresville Friday night.
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SPT 021012 NICOLE ANDERSON.jpg
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Dish: South's #23, Labrea Joyner drives and dishes the ball to a cutting teammate during first quarter action against Martinsville's #23, Mariah Walker.
Discussion
THN SECTIONAL: Braves to play Mooresville for sectional title tonight
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Wildcats advance to sectional softball final; West Vigo falls
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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Lough dreamt about McMillan
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Robinson takes regional softball crown
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PREP ROUNDUP: Baseball, sectional game times announced
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South tennis celebrates sectional crown
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North nips South for boys track sectional title
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