During Tuesday’s opening action of the girls state basketball tournament, four local teams appeared to big huge favorites over their opening-round foes.
Those four were Anderson, Frankton, Elwood and Daleville. Of that quartet, only the Broncos were able to dominate, winning 54-19 over Wes-Del.
The Lady Tribe were only up by a single point and didn’t have the ball in the final minute of Tuesday’s game against Greenfield Central before winning 54-51. The Eagles had a huge lead, 20 points after three quarters, before Shenandoah came back and had a 3-pointer in the air that would have cut the lead to four. The Panthers hedlo off a Madison-Grant rally and finally won 4-37.
So what happened?
“We stuck with our game plan and we had good looks,” said Elwood coach Tom Kessinger. “But we had shots where the ball hit every part of the rim and then rimmed out.”
He also gives the Argylls some credit. “It was on their home floor,” said Kessinger. “They didn’t want to go down without a fight.”
Anderson coach Chad Cook also credited the Cougars. “They hits shots and hit free throws,” he said. “We didn’t. We didn’t get the ball in the high post. We also didn’t make them guard us.”
The teams have no choice but to move on and try to put those performances in the rear view mirror and look forward to Friday’s semifinals.
The Indians will take on New Castle in Friday’s second contest. The Trojans are 6-14 and one of those losses was by 22 points to Anderson at New Castle.
“We will use the days leading up to that game to emphasize the things we didn’t do well,” said Cook. “Hpopefully we’ll play the rest of the tournament much better than we did (on Tuesday).”
Elwood will open Friday’s action against the team given the favorite tag in that sectional, the Eastern Comets (17-3).
“They have got size, they can penetrate and they have knock-down shooters,: said Kessinger. “We will have to defend. We will have to get stops so we can get out in transition.”
Frankton faces another with a less than spectacular record in Muncie Burris (4-16). That is the first game Friday at Shenandoah.
Frankton coach Dean Riddle was unavailable for comment by deadline Wednesday for this story.
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Related Photos
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Erica Harpel puts two points on the board for Elwood. David Humphrey
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Elwood guard Taylor Noone goes in for a lay up during the Lady Panthers Sectional game against the Madison Grant Lady Argylls. David Humphrey
Discussion
Local girls favorites have close calls
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