Two games last week. One of them was the biggest night of L’s young career.
Tuesday we played Ben Davis, a west-side of Indianapolis school that is the second-biggest in the state.[1] Their athletic program is generally quite good. Their football team just won the 6A state title and their boys basketball team was undefeated 4A state champs in March. The girls hoops program made it to semi-state last season. Back in the day – 2000–2009 – they won four state titles in ten years, two of those undefeated seasons, and in 2009 were crowned national champions by USA Today. But they were just 1–6 coming into our game.
The JV game was pretty similar to the Warren Central game a week earlier. BD was far more physical and athletic, plus they were older, and dictated almost all of the action. It didn’t help that our only decent inside player could just play one quarter so she was eligible to play in the varsity game, filling in for our injured center. We ended up losing by eight but had trailed by 12–16 for most of the second half.
L genuinely got beaten up. She was limping after the game because of one collision. She had big claw marks on her leg from a loose ball pileup. And her left arm was sore because someone landed on it in another scrum.
She played all but 58 seconds of the game, scoring 5 points on 2–7 shooting from the field (1–3 on 3s). She added a couple rebounds and five turnovers. She was matched up with sophomores and juniors all night, so I was proud of how she hung in.
BD’s varsity won by eight. They had a player who hit her first five shots of the game – four were 3s – and that was pretty much the difference.
Thursday Center Grove came to CHS. Their varsity team was ranked #3 in the state, but were coming off their first loss of the year. They have a girl who is going to Villanova next year. Unfortunately our center who is going to Nova to play volleyball was still out with a concussion.
Fortunately their JV team wasn’t quite as strong. In what was truly the ugliest quarter of basketball I’ve seen this year, we had a 7–1 lead after the first quarter thanks to a banked-in 35-footer at the buzzer. We only scored two in the second quarter but still led by one, before giving up a 17–7 run in the third quarter. We made our own run late, but couldn’t finish the comeback and lost by two.
L probably had her best game of the year. She tied her career high with nine points, hitting three of four shots (1–1 on 3s). She finally decided to drive and had two beautiful blow-bys that she got fouled on. Each time her shot rimmed out. Each time she hit one-of-two free throws. She played fantastic defense, too, the best I’ve ever seen from her. She made it impossible for whoever she was guarding to get into the lane. She had a rebound, an assist, and three steals. She had three more turnovers, but only one of those was because of an error she made. She actually got to sit out a little more this game, playing 26:40.[2]
Her middle school and travel ball buddy, also L, who went to a rival high school came and watched. I’ve seen her a few times since school started, but it was my first time seeing her mom since August. We either coached together, I kept score for her when she coached, or we sat together for the last six years in both CYO and travel ball, so that was fun.
After the game Other L was talking to some of the St P’s girls who cheer for CHS while we were waiting for L to come out of the locker room. Then Other L yelled my name and pointed at the court with a big grin on her face. L was pulling on a varsity warmup shirt with a goofy grin of her own.
That’s right, seven games into her high school career L got to dress for the varsity game against the #3 team in the state! We were all pretty excited. It was a shame she was a sweaty mess otherwise I would have gotten a picture.
She didn’t get into the game. I didn’t expect her to, even as CG easily won by 16. Maybe if CG had cleared their bench there would have been a chance but even that was unlikely.
Put that all together and I think Thursday was the best day of her season, so far. Would have been nice to win the JV game to top it off. A third of the way into the season, both varsity and JV are now 2–5.
The Irish have three games this week. Varsity plays the #13 4A team tonight, a 3A Catholic school that starts a bunch of freshmen L played against in CYO Thursday, then the #2 2A team Saturday.