INDIANAPOLIS
This was not an ordinary sectional semifinal.
With the Greenwood Christian girls winning easily the whole way, Cougars coach Alan Weems needed his starters to keep playing. After all, Friday’s 94-20 romp over Providence Cristo Rey was the first game for the Cougars since Jan. 16 due to cancellations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Tindley had to forfeit Tuesday’s sectional opener with GCA.
“We wanted to make sure we got into some offensive flow and try to get them back into some kind of basketball shape, which they are not in,” Weems said. “You can’t not play a game in three weeks and have the same conditioning. We are pleased with how we moved the basketball.”
Senior forward Izzy Reed scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Cougars (13-6), who will play host Indianapolis Lutheran (7-16) at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the championship game. GCA blew by Lutheran 89-45 Jan. 9.
The Cougars are seeking their third consecutive sectional title.
Reed needs five more points for 2,000 for her career. Reed, who also has 1,295 career rebounds, needs 13 more rebounds to match the state record held by Ta’Shia Phillips from Brebeuf Jesuit.
“The goal tomorrow is the sectional championship. If those things happened tomorrow, great,” Reed said. “It’s the state tournament and we have to keep getting better. We want to be respectful but we always want to play hard. The goal tonight was to get better and get all the rust off. I’m happy we have a game under our belt now.”
The Cougars scored the game’s first 21 points and led 27-2 at the end of the first quarter. Senior guard Brooklyn Stubblefield scored 11 of her 27 points in the first quarter.
“When Brooklyn gets her legs underneath her, she’s an outstanding shooter,” Weems said.
Stubblefield sank five 3-pointers.
“If I play how I know how to play and don’t think about it too much, I’m going to start hitting,” she said. “I feel like when I started hitting I just keep on going.”
GCA senior forward Savvanah Frye contributed three 3-pointers en route to 15 points. Junior guard Ellie Bigelow added 12 points.
Providence Cristo Rey scored 16 of its 20 points in the second quarter but still trailed 44-18 at halftime.
“We played a couple of defenses we haven’t played all year in the second quarter and that’s just me,” Weems said. “It’s very hard not to run up a score and I have no desire to do that. We tried some different things; we still had to get our starters as many minutes as we could.”
The Cougars had a 28-0 edge in the third quarter. Weems, who used 10 players, took his starters out for good in the final two-plus minutes.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult game to just make things reasonable,” Weems said. “I thought we did a good job of running the ball. We obviously slowed ourselves down some. We did a good job of moving the basketball in the halfcourt and found each other really well. I think we had 20 assists, so I really liked that."
