Center Grove, Franklin advance to county girls basketball final

The first round of the Johnson County tournament offered no drama. The first half of Thursday’s semifinal doubleheader atoned and then some.

Audrey Annee scored 28 points, including two key overtime baskets, as Class 4A No. 4 Center Grove survived a late collapse in regulation and defeated 3A No. 1 Indian Creek, 61-52, in a battle that more than lived up to advance billing.

The Trojans (5-0) advance to play in Saturday’s championship game against tourney host Franklin, which had little trouble getting past Whiteland, 68-30, in the second semi.

“We know that if we’re going to win, we’re going to win together,” Annee said. “We block out all the noise and everyone screaming in the crowd, and just kind of stay together and focus on the task at hand.”

Center Grove had appeared to be in command after three Aubrie Booker free throws, the last with 28.1 seconds remaining in regulation, upped the lead to 49-43. But then Ayla Lollar hit a jumper and got fouled, with the Braves stealing an extra possession off the missed free throw and Lauren Foster hitting a 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left.

Annee had a chance to ice it at the line but made just one of two, and Foster was fouled trying to set up a buzzer-beating shot attempt with one tenth of a second left. She sank both to make it 50-50 and extend the contest.

The overtime, though, was all Trojans. Annee went right at Indian Creek’s 6-foot-4 Faith Wiseman for a pair of driving layups, the second of which gave Center Grove a 55-52 advantage. The Braves (4-1) didn’t score again.

After a shaky first 12 minutes that featured nearly as many turnovers as points, the Braves broke a 14-14 tie with a run of eight consecutive points. Faith Wiseman started it off by converting a three-point play with 2:26 left in the half. On Indian Creek’s next trip, Wiseman caught the ball in the high post and dished to the top of the key for Foster, who drained a 3-pointer. Lollar then fed a cutting Lexi Sichting for a layup that made it 22-14 at the 1:13 mark.

Center Grove’s scoring drought ended when Annee hit a 3 from the right wing with 3 seconds to go, cutting the deficit to five going into the half.

The Trojans continued to lean into the deep ball in the third quarter, with Annee and Ava Grant hitting consecutive 3-pointers to tie the game at 24 and Annee draining another to put her team in front for the first time since the opening minutes. Annee’s third trey of the period capped a 13-0 surge and gave Center Grove its biggest lead, 31-24, with 3:39 on the clock.

“We’ve seen it for two years now,” Trojans coach Kevin Stuckmeyer said. “When we need a bucket or we need somebody to go make a winning play, she’s established that and proven that, and I think she did it again tonight for us when we needed it. She kind of set the tone and settled us down a little bit there in the third quarter, and when you have somebody that can hit shots, that makes it easier to settle down.”

Once again, though, the momentum shifted. Two Wiseman free throws, a Lollar 3 and a pair of Foster foul shots drew the Braves even, and Foster connected from 3-point range with 55 seconds left in the quarter to put Creek back up, 34-33, going into the fourth.

A Foster 3 and Wiseman jump hook put the Braves ahead by three before Annee tied it with another long ball, her sixth of the game, at the 4:57 mark. Neither side scored again until Rachel Wirts’ and-one a little more than two minutes later, which set off a wild closing sequence.

Wiseman and Foster scored 20 points apiece for the Braves in defeat, with Wiseman also grabbing a game-high 16 rebounds; Lollar finished with 10 points. For Center Grove, Booker contributed 10 points, six rebounds, three assists and a slew of hustle plays on defense. Wirts scored eight, Lilly Bischoff seven and Grant six.

Though his team wasn’t able to complete its comeback bid, Indian Creek coach Brian Ferris was ready to shake off the loss and move forward.

“It’s going to sting to take the trophy back,” he said, “but it’s not the end of the world. We’ve got higher goals than this. We’ve got some things we can fix, and we know we can fix them, and we’re ready to get back at it tomorrow.”

The Grizzly Cubs (5-1) took control of the nightcap quickly by scoring 18 unanswered points over the opening 4:18. Emma Sappenfield had the last 11 points of that blitz, including three straight 3s over a 1:07 stretch.

Down 23-1 late in the first quarter, Whiteland (2-3) showed some fight by putting together a 9-1 run to get back within 14 before going into halftime down 28-12. Franklin, though, regrew its lead in the third, with Lauren Klem knocking down three 3-pointers and feeding Scarlett Kimbrell for another to push it to 48-23 late in the period.

Nine different players scored for the Grizzly Cubs, led by Brooklyn York’s 17. Klem chipped in 13, Sappenfield 11 and Erica Buening nine in the win. The Warriors got 14 points from Sophia Dyer and seven from Addison Emberton.

Franklin is more than familiar with its Saturday foe; the current seniors have faced Center Grove seven times over their careers, with all of those games decided by single digits. The Grizzly Cubs’ lone loss to the Trojans in that stretch came in last year’s regional, a 45-43 overtime defeat.

Sappenfield said that Franklin needs to start as aggressively as it did on Thursday and maintain it.

“We all need to go into that game with the mentality like, we’ve got to just put it at them right at the start,” she said. “We have to have that high intensity the whole time; we can’t let down at all.”