Abby Fleetwood has served as an unselfish floor general for Indian Creek this season.
Daily Journal file photo
If you ask Abby Fleetwood, it’s not a matter of if Indian Creek will still be playing on the final weekend of the girls basketball season — it’s a matter of who the opponent will be.
Fleetwood knew exactly what type of team she’d be joining when she transferred from Brown County a year and a half ago, and her confidence has proven contagious. She’s happy to see the Class 3A No. 3 Braves not only playing like a juggernaut, but acting like one too.
“We’re finally developing that character that we’re that team, and we’re going to be that team until the end of the season,” the senior said. “Everybody wants to beat us. We haven’t lost; we’re 16-0. We just need to carry that swagger to us, like, ‘Hey, we’re that team,’ and I think we’re going to carry that until late February.”
Though Indian Creek already had a pair of known quantities in junior Lauren Foster — who’s already scored more than 1,100 points in two and a half seasons — and classmate Faith Wiseman, who’s verbally committed to play at Indiana University, it’s the addition of Fleetwood that’s helped catapult the Braves from back-to-back sectional champion to unbeaten state title contender.
The 5-foot-9 guard put up huge numbers in two varsity seasons at Brown County, with a sophomore year stat line (20.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 4.7 steals per game) that looks almost cartoonish.
She isn’t taking on nearly as much of the scoring burden this winter, averaging just six points — but she also hasn’t needed to. Instead, she’s been the consummate “glue girl,” making contributions that may or may not show up on the stat sheet. In last week’s win over Pike in the championship game of Lebanon’s holiday tournament, Fleetwood showed her versatility to the tune of eight points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
It’s exactly the role she’d hoped for.
“I didn’t want to have to score 20-something a game to win,” Fleetwood said. “I wanted to be a team, as a whole, not just an individual. I knew that coming in, and I wanted it. That’s exactly what I want in a team.
“I just have to do my part. If my part is scoring 20, I’ll score 20. If my part is getting 20 assists, I’m doing 20 assists. I’ve just got to do my job; just play with the game.”
Offensively, Fleetwood has settled in as the primary ball handler, freeing up fellow guards Foster and Ayla Lollar to seek out more scoring opportunities. On defense, she’s capable of guarding at any spot on the floor, hounding point guards or denying entry passes in the paint.
Braves coach Brian Ferris has enjoyed being able to deploy Fleetwood as a Swiss Army knife on both ends of the floor.
“She’s an Energizer bunny,” he said. “She brings that energy, defensively especially. I think that adds another dimension to what we can do defensively. She’s quick, she’s in shape, she’s long. … (Offensively), She doesn’t need to score, but she can if she wants to and needs to. It just helps boost the dynamics of what we can do and makes us even harder to guard.”
Perhaps the most important trait that Fleetwood has brought to Indian Creek, though, is her unwavering confidence in herself and her teammates. They’ve gradually developed more of their own — which came in handy when Fleetwood missed a month after straining the medial collateral ligament in her knee. The Braves were able to weather the storm, going 6-0 in her absence.
Obviously, though, they’re glad to have her back on the floor — and her return last week proved seamless.
“We threw her back in there and we didn’t miss a beat,” Ferris said.
Fleetwood didn’t lose a step — and her confidence hasn’t suffered at all. At interview’s end, when offered hopes that she and the Braves can keep their current run going, she simply smiled and delivered a quick three-word reply:
“Oh, we will.”
