INDIANAPOLIS
The seventh girls basketball sectional championship in Indian Creek history is the first for Brian Ferris.
Any concerns the fourth-year head coach had over the sluggishness his team displayed early in Saturday night’s Class 3A title game at Speedway were in time replaced by elation after the Braves pulled away from Beech Grove for a 64-42 win.
The nets were coming down, and Ferris couldn’t wait to make the climb.
“Kudos to the girls. They’ve worked hard all season starting in the summer on their own until we could get with them,” said Ferris, whose Braves (17-6) play Tri-West (15-6) in the morning semifinal of the Greencastle Regional on Saturday.
“Every practice they give everything they’ve got. I can’t be more proud of them. It’s awesome. I told them before we went out to get the (sectional) trophy that the beginning of the season was an ugly, ugly loss (88-36 at Martinsville), they didn’t like it, worked hard and are sectional champs.”
Saturday night’s game was a microcosm of Indian Creek’s season. Playing a four-win Hornets ball club with nothing to lose, the Braves started slow, eventually found their rhythm and performed their best down the stretch.
Freshman guard Lauren Foster led a balanced scoring attack with 16 points, followed by junior guard Emily Todor’s 13 and senior center Kurstin Thompson’s 11 points and seven rebounds. Senior wing Luci Woodrum added eight points with Lauren McClanahan, a sophomore backup forward, chipping in six points, six boards and a block.
Thompson, who was a seventh-grader the last time Indian Creek qualified for regional, was happy to be able to be a part of history in her final season.
“It’s absolutely awesome,” Thompson said. “Our goal at the beginning of the season was to get our picture on the wall, and that’s what we did. We have good teamwork and chemistry on the team. There is a lot of communication and hard work put into it.”
As was the case in Friday night’s semifinal victory over Speedway, the Braves’ 6-foot-2 freshman forward Faith Wiseman didn’t play any of the second quarter against Beech Grove after committing her second foul late in the first. Also eerily similar was Thompson sitting most of the second after picking up her second with 5:01 remaining before halftime.
Indian Creek nonetheless broke free from a 10-10 tie. Foster’s old-fashioned three-point sequence on a drive to the basket made it 13-10 and gave the Braves the lead for good. Soph Savannah Hall’s triple late in the second proved huge, helping Indian Creek lead at halftime, 27-20, before outscoring the Hornets, 16-8, in the third stanza.
Todor, the lone starter returning from last season’s sectional finalist, was confident her team would play better as the game progressed.
“I think we overlook it a little bit, but once we get going, usually in the second half, we get a lot better,” she said. “I think the freshmen were a little bit nervous coming into this game with it being the championship.”
If such nerves did exist, Foster shook free of them after the first quarter. She accounted for eight of the Braves’ points in the second and tacked on eight more in the third to help her team gradually distance itself from Beech Grove.
“I knew that we could get it done from the very beginning of the season,” Foster said. “The seniors definitely guided us and got us closer, and the team chemistry and hard work just pulled us through. We just have to work hard and go out and play. We just have to enjoy the moment while we have it and enjoy the seniors while we still can.”
