GREENFIELD —
There are sometimes very big reasons for a team to win a basketball game.
Sometimes, the reason is very small.
In the case of the Anderson Lady Tribe, they won the Greenfield Sectional championship Saturday night for a very small reason — a 5-foot-4 reason, to be exact.
As much as any girls sectional championship game as I’ve seen recently, Anderson sophomore Samia Carter made game-changing plays like she was handing out trick or treat candy at Halloween.
Carter was a blinding ball of blur on the court defensively and played a major role in forcing Pendleton Heights to give up what had been a 12-point lead.
“She can just jab at you and scare you,” said Anderson coach Chad Cook. “Sometimes people just have no idea where she comes from.”
PH had 18 turnovers, but even when she didn’t make the steal, she forced the Arabians into a pace they didn’t want and into making risky passes they ordinarily would disdain.
Pendleton scored a combined eight points in the first and fourth quarters. It seems likely that the Arabians might have had some nightmares overnight involving No. 14. Carter seems to have that extra burst of speed that even her ultra-quick teammates can’t match.
“The rest of my teammates give me my lift,” said Carter when asked where she gets that extra spark.
Lest you think that there’s only one dimension to the havoc she caused Saturday night, perhaps I can dispel that notion right now.
Carter hit five of her first six shots in the game and at halftime had 10 of Anderson’s 18 points.
Due to the presence of Anderson junior Darien Thompson on the floor, Pendleton Heights had to make some adjustments. Thompson destroyed the Arabians in the first meeting between the teams with her 3-point shooting. PH was determined not to let her repeat that Saturday.
To do it, the middle of the zone was open at the top of the key where Carter was stationed with the ball.
“They had a gap in that defense,” Cook said. “Samia doesn’t even need a crease. She went in there under control and converted.”
Carter looked at it as a challenge. “They didn’t think I could shoot it,” she said. “I showed them I could pull up and shoot it.” For the game she hit seven field goals and missed only four.
If there was a chink in her armor in the title game, it was free throw shooting, a weakness shared by the entire team. Carter missed all five of her free throws and the rest of her teammates were 2-of-6.
As great as Carter was, she had lots of help. Sophomore Chelsea Bentley scored seven points and missed just one shot. Jirah Hart and Thompson each collected six rebounds to pace AHS. Senior Denielle Davis scored no points and took no shots, but she had two rebounds and her picks on the perimeter helped Thomspon score 10 points in the second half after being held to zero shots in the first half.
The Indians play with a team-wide intensity and speed that few teams can match and almost no team can fully prepare to control. Pendleton Heights played against it better the second time around. Mooreville, Anderson’s regional foe next Saturday, will get no second chance. They better start getting ready soon.
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Anderson faced Pendleton Heights in the sectional championship at Greenfield-Central on Saturday. Don Knight
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