By Andy Amey
WEST TERRE HAUTE — Free throw shooting was a hit-and-miss proposition Friday night at West Vigo, but Northview’s Carlee Bell hit five in a row when they counted most and her Knights held off South Vermillion 42-38 in girls high school basketball.
The other six teams in the HI-99/Terre Haute Savings Bank Classic play today, starting with the Terre Haute North-Terre Haute South game at 10 a.m.
Then Owen Valley and North Central play in a second semifinal game, with West Vigo and Fountain Central playing a consolation-bracket contest after that. Championship play tips off at 6:30 p.m.
Both consolation-bracket games were originally scheduled for Friday night, but Fountain Central’s football team had other plans. So the Knights and Wildcats had the stage to themselves — at least until the country music show after the game — for their thriller, which included seven ties and nine lead changes.
South Vermillion’s last lead came at 34-33 with 3:30 left in the game thanks to a steal and free throw by Allie Milam, but the Wildcats kept the advantage for only two seconds. Emily Phillips rebounded the miss of the second free throw and hit two free throws at the other end, then added a layup seconds later — set up by an Alyssa Conrad steal — that put Northview ahead 37-34.
Mandy Kelly got a basket in traffic for the Wildcats, and stole the ball to set up a tying free throw by Jalen Brower at 1:06. Then Bell went to work.
She put the Knights ahead with two free throws with 57 seconds left, and a blocked shot by Phillips that was rebounded by Chelsey Sampson gave the Knights a chance to pad the lead.
Instead, Kelly stole the ball again and was fouled, hitting the first of two free throws with 19 seconds left. Brower got a tie-up on the rebound of the second miss, giving South Vermillion the ball with a chance to take the lead, but the Wildcats turned it over and Bell hit three more free throws in the last 10 seconds.
“It was a win,” coach LuAnne Anderson of the Knights said afterward, “and any kind of win we’ll take.
“South Vermillion has obviously gotten a lot better. This was the kind of game the players live for — the players, not the coaches — and we’re just happy to come out on top.”
Coach Tim Terry of South Vermillion had surgery Friday morning and missed the game, just his second absence in 30 years of coaching, so assistant coach Bill Bybee was in charge of the Wildcats.
“I’m just a co-pilot trying to keep the plane flying,” he said. “This game brought us a few steps toward learning how to finish out a game … and was one of our better defensive efforts. This team never quits, but [the Wildcats] were smarter [about their defensive intensity] tonight.”
Phillips was the game’s high scorer with 14 points, yet her best work probably came at the other end of the court. She had four steals and limited Milam, South Vermillion’s leading scorer, to just one fourth-quarter field goal, that coming on a fast break.
“Emily takes such pride in her defense,” Anderson said. “Whenever I need somebody to guard a good player on the other team, no matter if the girl is 5-1 or 6-2, Emily would like to take her.”
With Milam limited, however, the bright spot for South Vermillion was how the other Wildcats stepped up. Five different players scored at least five points — Lauren Samuelson leading with 10 — while Brower grabbed seven rebounds and Kelly and Kenzi Cheesewright six each.
“We’ve relied a lot on [Milam],” Bybee said. “Tonight the whole team pitched in with a lot of effort.”
South Vermillion actually had a 15-7 lead at the first stop, Samuelson hitting a pair of 3-pointers to close out the quarter. Then the Wildcats went scoreless for more than six minutes in the second period as Northview regained the lead with a 12-0 run and remained ahead 23-19 at intermission.
A layup by Cheesewright put the Wildcats on top 27-26 with 49 seconds left in the third quarter, but Phillips answered 12 seconds later and Northview led 28-27 heading into the final period.
Lauren Webster and Bell added nine points each for Northview, all of Bell’s from the foul line. The 6-foot-1 Sampson had game-high totals of 11 rebounds and six blocks, and Bell hustled her way to seven rebounds of her own.
“We still had a lot [of turnovers] tonight, but we’re moving in the right direction,” Anderson said.
Anderson, who did her student-teaching under Terry, was shocked not to see her friend on the other bench Friday. Terry’s availability for Thursday’s Western Indiana Conference game at Sullivan is questionable too, Bybee said.
“He was told he’d be out a week,” the assistant coach said. “He’s a fast healer, so I would expect him to beat that, but we’ll see.”
South Vermillion 38
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Milam 1-7 0-3 1-3 5 2 2 3
Kirby 2-4 0-0 2-2 2 0 4 6
Brower 2-4 1-1 1-2 7 1 4 6
Kelly 2-5 0-2 1-3 6 3 4 5
L.Samuelson 4-12 2-6 0-0 4 1 1 10
M.Samuelson 0-8 0-0 1-2 4 1 3 1
Cheesewright 2-6 0-0 1-2 6 2 1 5
Riggen 1-6 0-2 0-0 0 2 1 2
Lubovich 0-1 0-1 0-2 2 0 1 0
Totals 14-53 3-15 7-16 *42 12 21 38
Northview 42
Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp
Phillips 5-11 0-1 4-6 4 4 2 14
Sharton 0-2 0-0 0-0 3 1 3 0
Sampson 0-1 0-0 1-2 11 1 2 1
Webster 4-13 1-2 0-0 2 0 2 9
Conrad 3-6 0-1 0-0 0 3 0 6
Bell 0-5 0-1 9-14 7 1 4 9
Searing 1-3 0-0 1-4 4 3 4 3
Carter 0-2 0-0 0-0 2 1 0 0
LaTourette 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
McKee 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Totals 13-43 1-5 15-26 *47 14 17 42
South Vermillion 15 4 8 11 — 38
Northview 7 16 5 14 — 42
FG Pct. — SV .264, Northview .302. 3-pt FG Pct. — SV .200, Northview .200. FT Pct. — SV .438, Northview .577. (*) Includes team rebounds — SV 6, Northview 13. Turnovers — SV 20, Northview 24. Assists — SV 11 (Milam 3, Cheesewright 3), Northview 7 (Phillips 2, Webster 2). Blocks — SV 3 (Brower 2), Northview 8 (Sampson 6).
Next — Northview (1-1) has a home game Tuesday against Riverton Parke. South Vermillion (0-3) opens Western Indiana Conference play Thursday at Sullivan.
