INDIANAPOLIS
Basketball’s equivalent of zero to 60 was wearing No. 23 for the Indian Creek girls basketball team Friday night.
Senior wing Luci Woodrum knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing 14 seconds into her team’s Class 3A sectional semifinal game against host Speedway — an immediate departure from the Braves’ win over Ritter earlier in the week in which Woodrum didn’t attempt a field goal.
She was just getting started. Woodrum drained six triples, made all eight of her shot attempts and finished with 22 points in a 68-56 victory that qualifies Indian Creek for tonight’s title contest.
The Braves, now 16-6 and winners of eight of their last nine games, face Beech Grove at 7 p.m. for the right to play in next week’s Greencastle Regional.
“Last night, I told myself this could be my last game I ever play, and I knew it was the end all, be all, and I needed to step my game up for my team and for myself,” Woodrum said. “Towards the beginning of the season, I really hadn’t found my rhythm because our freshmen on the team really stepped it up.
“I found my role through passing and just getting them the ball in the post where it needed to be. This game I knew (Speedway) was a quick team and we might not have been able to get the ball in the post as well because we like to pass over the top and that wasn’t going to work tonight.”
Indian Creek led after one quarter, 17-12, but it came with a price as 6-2 freshman forward Faith Wiseman picked up her second foul with 1.2 seconds left. Then senior center Kurstin Thompson was saddled with her second at 7:33 of the second stanza, immediately erasing the Braves’ size advantage.
The guard-oriented Sparkplugs (15-4) took advantage, harassing Indian Creek into seven second-quarter turnovers and racing to a 36-28 halftime lead.
Wiseman sat out the entirety of the second and Thompson nearly all of it. But once the third period started, the Braves used Woodrum’s shooting and strong interior play to outscore Speedway in the quarter, 21-7. Indian Creek took the lead for good, 42-41, on freshman guard Lauren Foster’s two free throws at the 2:43 mark.
“We were talking about weathering the storm. We knew when we got our bigs back in there, if we could keep them in there, that would help,” Braves coach Brian Ferris said. “If we could keep (deficit) to 10 or less at halftime, I was confident that if we made the adjustments we could go back out there and get back in the ball game.”
The Sparkplugs got it to within five early in the final quarter, but Woodrum’s short baseline jumper and a free throw and 3-pointer from Wiseman stretched the lead back to 11 points, 57-46.
Foster finished with 14 points, while Wiseman had 13 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Thomson added eight points and five boards. Meanwhile, Woodrum, who entered the game averaging 2.4 points and game and shooting 22% from the field (18 of 83), wasn’t to be stopped.
Her previous season-high point total was nine points in a win late in the regular season over Sullivan.
Ferris, whose squad attempts to bring home its first sectional championship in five years and seventh overall, couldn’t have been happier for Woodrum.
“This kid has been a great leader all season long,” he said. “She’s done the intangibles. If she missed a shot, she wouldn’t shoot herself out of it. She just decided, ‘Hey, I’ll pass the ball, I’ll rebound, I’ll play defense.’ She deserved a night like tonight.”
