ANDERSON, Ind. —
Senior night is a time for celebrating the accomplishments of those players who have made a commitment to the program. Unfortunately, the Anderson Indians girls basketball team had nothing to celebrate as they dropped a 63-42 decision to Indianapolis Pike on Thursday.
The Red Devils (14-8) used an up-tempo offense, size and physicality to run away with the game.
Pike jumped out to a 16-1 lead, and it took the Indians until the 1:27 mark before Chelsea Bentley hit its first field goal of the game for Anderson. When the horn sounded to end the first quarter, Anderson was in an insurmountable 22-3 hole.
Anderson (16-5) turned the ball over 18 times in the first half alone and 25 times in the game.
“You could see we were out of sorts,” Indians coach Chad Cook said. “With that aggressive, physical play we lost our composure.”
After the first quarter, Anderson stayed with their opponent the rest of the game. Pike only outscored the Lady Tribe by two points (41-39), but Cook and his team had already dug a crater-sized hole from which they couldn’t recover.
At the intermission the Indians were trying to lick their wounds as they walked head down into the locker room trailing 42-16, but they came back ready to execute their tenacious defense that they have played all year.
They got back into a rhythm on both sides of the court and were able to out point the Red Devils 26-21 in the final 16 minutes. Most of those points came by winning the second half turnover battle 12-7 in favor of Anderson.
Amongst a plethora of trees in the lane, Jireh Hart, which was one of the seniors being honored on the night, outworked her counterparts. She had a game-high 17 rebounds and a team-high 13 points.
“Give Jireh Hart some credit – 17 rebounds,” said Cook. “That’s against three or four girls at a time bigger than her. She’s doing good work in there.”
With this being the last game of the regular season, Cook said that he nor his girls are going to think about this game as they head into sectional play.
“We knew that Pike was going to have a really tough schedule coming in here,” he said. “We knew that they were big and aggressive. I don’t know that the girls are going to dwell on it too much.”
Cook said that although the loss was hard to take on Senior Night he thought he felt it would actually help his team in the post-season.
“It’s a tough game for Senior Night, but you do want to ramp yourself up for the sectional,” he said. “You don’t want to have cake walks going into sectionals.”
Pike was led in scoring by Brittany Ward’s 22 points and 13 from Jailyn Henderson. Six-foot-three senior Shelbi Chandler led the Red Devils with nine boards.
No other Anderson player aside from Hart scored in double figures. Da’Sha Boyd was a point shy by connecting for nine points off the bench. The Indians (16-5) out rebounded Pike 41-36 on the night.
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Anderson's Jireh Hart had 13 points and 17 rebounds in the Lady Tribe's 63-42 loss to Indianapolis Pike on Thursday. Don Knight
Discussion
Pike powers past Anderson
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