Indian Creek’s Lauren Foster drives for a layup during Saturday’s regional semifinal against Brownstown Central.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
GREENCASTLE
A 17-0 fourth quarter run by Bishop Chatard destroyed any chance of the Indian Creek girls basketball team winning its first regional title on Saturday night.
But before that outburst, the Braves were oh so close.
Chatard (18-10) ended up scoring 23 points in the quarter to break open a close game and down the Braves, 52-36, and win the Class 3A Greencastle Regional.
To the victors go the spoils — in that case a semistate meeting with defending state champion Silver Creek.
While it’s the end of the season for Indian Creek, it still was a nice one as the Braves finished up with a 22-5 record, a perfect season in the Western Indiana Conference, their second straight sectional championship and winning streaks of nine and 10 games during the year.
“We have an awesome group of kids and with the ones coming back, we have to learn from this and look forward to something next year,” Indian Creek coach Brian Ferris said.
This was a game of runs; unfortunately none of the biggest ones came from Indian Creek.
The Trojans leaped out to a 12-4 lead in the first quarter thanks in part to some sharp play and a dearth of Braves baskets. In fact, Indian Creek didn’t make its first field goal until the 7:03 mark of the second quarter, when Lauren Foster found the mark.
Surprisingly, that was the only field goal in the half for Indian Creek — but even more surprisingly, the team was only down three at the half, 16-13, as 11 free throws by the Braves and some inconsistent offense from the Trojans kept the game close.
“We were out of sorts,” Ferris said. “They hit us early and it took us a while to get into our flow and rhythm.”
Indian Creek had its best quarter in the third, scoring 16 points and finally taking the lead three different times, but they couldn’t string together a rally like Chatard had done. Worse, 6-foot-4 sophomore center Faith Wiseman picked up two fouls within five seconds, sending her to the bench with four, but the game stayed close going into the final frame.
A 3-point shot from freshman Ayla Lollar gave Indian Creek a 34-31 lead at the 5:53 mark, which seemed to electrify the Braves’ faithful. However, it was the Trojans that got a jolt and turned that point into their favor.
Consecutive 3-pointers by Kate Caskey spearheaded the Trojans 17-point run that stunned everyone in red and blue.
“We had some breakdowns,” Ferris said. “(Lollar) hits it and we get excited and leave somebody uncovered just enough for them to knock it down, and that kind of deflated us and we got out of sorts again.”
Lollar led the Braves with nine points. Wiseman, who ended up fouling out with a minute to go, had eight points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Chatard was led by Caskey and Carly DeCastro with 15 points each.
The Braves only lose three seniors, including one starter in Emily Todor, but they should easily be the favorite to repeat as WIC champs and make another deep run in the tournament. They will be even more experienced, something Ferris noted about Chatard’s senior-laden lineup.
“We built on last year, and hopefully we can continue to build for next year and cut down the nets instead of going home sad,” Ferris said.
In the matinee game that put Indian Creek in the regional final, the Braves overcame an aggressive Brownstown Central squad to pull away for a 49-41 semifinal win.
Neither team could make any significant run for three and a half quarters until Foster finished off a three-point play to give the Braves a seven-point lead with 4:07 remaining.
Indian Creek never trailed again in the game, swelling the lead to nine before Brownstown Central rallied back to cut the margin to three with 38 seconds left.
In the end, Wiseman hit three free throws to end the threat.
Foster and Wiseman led the Braves with 16 points apiece.
