A sectional championship game is a great time to have the best game of your season. Indian Creek sophomore Lauren Foster did just that, scoring a season-high 24 points against Speedway as the host Braves won, 57-50, to claim their second straight Class 3A sectional crown.
“She had 24 points and I don’t feel like she did,” Indian Creek coach Brian Ferris said. “She does that a lot. You don’t feel she scores that much. She could score a lot more, but she’s real unselfish and she’s always looking for our teammates.
“She came up with big shots at the right time and that’s what we kind of expect out of her.”
Senior Emily Todor had 11 points and sophomore Wiseman had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Indian Creek (21-4). Sophomore Alex DeLisle led the Sparkplugs (17-7) with 16 points.
Speedway was the first to strike on a layup from DeLisle, but Todor follow with an and-one. DeLisle matched Todor’s bucket and free throw, but Indian Creek pulled away later in the first, taking an 18-8 lead to close the first quarter after a Wiseman 3-pointer with little time to spare.
The second quarter started with the Sparkplugs hitting shots and Foster responding with the same. Daniella Galvez made a bucket and Foster answered. Audrey Burrell hit two free throws, Foster responded with two of her own. Chloe Ellett hit a 3 to bring the Braves’ lead down to 25-12 with 6:11 left in the half, after a handful of blank possession for both squads, Foster came up with a transition layup.
Indian Creek led 33-25 going into the third, and Foster and Wiseman didn’t let that lead slip.
Foster came up with an offensive rebound and a putback to start the quarter. Foster then wreaked havoc once again, stripping a Sparkplug for a steal and finding Wiseman in the paint. Wiseman added two more points to give the Braves a 39-27 lead with 6:02 to go in the third. Speedway crawled back to within 44-39 before Indian Creek’s Savannah Hall beat the buzzer with an energy-killing deep 3-pointer.
I think it brought us back energy-wise,” Hall said of her shot. “We started to get down on ourselves a little bit. I think that just brought the energy for the team a bit.”
Speedway’s Camiell Perry brought some energy of her own in the fourth with two big inside shots, bringing the Braves’ lead down to 49-46 with four minutes and change to be played. But Foster, Wiesman, and Hall all sank shots to kick a sectional title just out of the Sparkplugs’ reach, and Speedway had to resort to the foul game in the final 1:10.
Coming in as the favorites after last year’s sectional title put a new pressure not yet experienced by this group of Braves, but the pressure has created opportunities.
“We’re still growing,” Ferris said, “and that’s kind of been our focus this year, the mental side of the game, because we’ve got the talent. We’ve got to continue to learn from every game and we’re starting to play the favorite role in some of these games. That’s different; we haven’t had that. Last year we were never the favorite and this year, for a long time, we still weren’t getting the respect. We weren’t the favorite and now, coming into the sectional, we were the favorite and that’s a different pressure.
“I’ve told a couple of them before, whenever somebody tells you that’s a lot of pressure, just think, ‘No, pressure is an opportunity.’ Don’t think of it as a negative thing. Think of it as an opportunity to do something good. That’s where I think a game like this really helped us. Speedway gave us everything we could handle. It kind of got us to refocus, re-energize it. We’ve got to continue to be able to play the game and understand that we’ve got to do the right thing.”
The Braves will face the winner of the Northview Sectional in a regional semifinal at Greencastle this coming Saturday.
