After 23 games over three months, Cathedral’s regular season is complete. Sectionals officially started Tuesday with CHS set to play their opening game tonight. I’ll wrap up the regular season in this post and save whatever happens in the playoffs for a separate entry(-ies).
The Irish opened their final week of the schedule traveling to neighboring Carmel. That 20 minute bus ride must have really gotten to the JV girls because they played like crap. We trailed 11–2 after the first quarter and 30–5 at halftime. Yeesh. Obviously not much went right for our girls in that first half. L scored all five of our points but she balanced that with three turnovers, two of them just brutal throw it to no one passes against the press.[1]
The Greyhounds looked like a team that actually practices offense as a JV team. Their girls cut and screened with purpose while our girls just kind of meandered around.
The second half was a little better. We out-scored the other CHS 21–18. I can’t say we did anything super great. Well, one thing went well: L got pissed off and decided to drive the ball. She was nearly perfect shooting in the second half, connecting on four of five shots and making two free throws. She finished with 15 points – a new career high – playing all 28 minutes, going 6–9 from the field and a perfect 3–3 from the line, adding a rebound, a steal, and five total turnovers. Carmel has a scoreboard that shows the points and fouls for every player on the court. It was pretty cool to see her with the game’s highest scoring total. Since I’m an idiot I didn’t get a picture of it before they wiped it out for the varsity game.
Her two long jumpers – both in the first half – were bad misses so I wouldn’t say she’s suddenly fixed her shot, but it was great to see her cleanly swish all three free throws.
Our good friends Mr. and Mrs. Coach H came to watch L play, which was nice of them and fun to briefly catch up.
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the JV Irish.
The varsity game was strange. Both teams were patient on offense creating lots of long, slow possessions. The game was tied 4-all after the first quarter, the Greyhounds up 15–11 at the half, then by ten at the end of the third quarter. It was old school, deliberate basketball. The lead was still ten as we moved into the final minute when our 6’1” senior center hit her first 3 of the year. Moments later she hit another one. Those two 3s and an exchange of free throws cut the final margin to a much more respectable four points. We never had the ball with a chance to tie or go ahead, but it was nice to see the girls keep playing until the final whistle on a frustrating night.
Thursday night we closed out the regular season against Columbus East. We had heard both their JV and varsity teams were bad, so settled in for what we hoped were two easy wins.
Jinx!
We jumped out 8–2 in the JV game. L was giving their guards fits, grabbing two steals and forcing three other turnovers in the first seven minutes.
Then CE switched to a zone and proceeded to ruin the game. Our girls had no idea what to do. The game was tied at 11 at halftime, we trailed by three going into the fourth quarter, and fell behind by seven a few minutes later. The dads that sit together were grumbling about playing zone in a JV game, but the biggest factor was CE kept hitting timely 3s where our girls weren’t even looking to take open shots.[2]
Something flipped, though, and we hit a couple threes, and closed the quarter on a big run to force overtime.
Great, overtime in a JV game, just what everyone in the gym wanted. Especially on senior night when the varsity game will already be delayed for festivities celebrating the seniors.
We got the lead early in OT and hung on despite missing about 100 free throws to win 39–37. Aside from that defensive flurry early, L didn’t do much. She shot just 1–4 from the field and 1–3 from the line to finish with three points, an assist, two steals, and two turnovers. A bit of a bummer end to her season after playing so well against Carmel. The JV team finished the season 11–12.
On to varsity, where we were missing a starter due to illness. With the JV game being so close and their starters having to play the entire game – L subbed out briefly once – that meant each of the dual-rostered players only had one quarter left to play. Fortunately the varsity six held their own and we only had to sub in girls for brief spells. L gave the starting point guard two different one-minute breaks but didn’t tick any scorebook boxes. Varsity won 40–26 to finish the year at 12–11. Oh, the CE varsity played zone just a handful of possessions, which annoyed our dad group even more.
The lead-up to sectionals has been dicey. The girl who was sick last week remained sick into this week, although she was back at practice Tuesday. Our best inside player got the flu and missed Monday’s practice. Who knows if either/both of them will be at full strength tonight. We’ll need them.
The first opponent is #9 Lawrence North. They are 17–5 on the season against the toughest schedule in the state. They’ve lost to the #1 team twice by a combined five points. Last year they fell to the eventual state champions in the semi-state championship game.
In the local paper’s breakdown of our sectional, the writer just assumed that LN will win and pushed them into the semis against that #1 squad without even mentioning they had to play CHS first. Our coach did not like that and let our girls know about it. I would love if that lit a fire under them and they came out and played the games of their lives to pull the upset. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but I’m not going to spend much energy considering it. I’ve watched them play 23 times and they’ve yet to stay close to a good team. Who knows, maybe LN is dealing with illness and that levels the playing field a little. We are the sectional hosts; perhaps home court will mean something.
I’ll let you know what happens tomorrow.