Center Grove’s Ava Grant puts up a 3-point shot during Saturday’s sectional final at Mooresville.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
MOORESVILLE
At this time next year, Center Grove is going to lean heavily on the talents of guards Lilly Bischoff and Ava Grant.
The juniors took a why-wait approach in Saturday’s Class 4A sectional championship game at Mooresville.
Bischoff’s tone-setting first-half performance coupled with Grant’s four 3-pointers and team-high 17 points were among many crucial aspects in the second-ranked Trojans’ 61-41 win over the host Pioneers.
“Honestly, I think we just came out and we were trying to look for anything that was open,” said Bischoff, who scored nine of her team’s first 18 points and 15 for the game. “Right before the game, we said if we want to win this game, we really have to come out strong, and I think that’s what we did.”
Coach Kevin Stuckmeyer’s crew, now 25-1 on the season and regional-bound for the fourth time in his seven seasons, prepares for Saturday’s 1 p.m. game at Bedford North Lawrence against the host Stars (20-4).
Getting past the defending Class 4A state champions on their own court in front of its sizable fan base will be a challenge, but it’s not as if Center Grove backed into its current 17-game win streak. Level as a tabletop when it comes to scoring potential, the Trojans supported Grant and Bischoff with 11 and nine points, respectively, from senior guards Aubrie Booker and Audrey Annee, and another eight (along with a team-high seven rebounds) from 6-foot-2 senior center Rachel Wirts.
“We sometimes take for granted the balance on the floor,” Stuckmeyer said. “Obviously, you have the three seniors, and you have Lilly and Ava that give you that scoring punch. But I thought our bench was phenomenal tonight. Emerson Vlcan gave us great minutes, and I thought Hannah Gin gave us great minutes. Between those two and MacKenzie Pierce normally coming off the bench, all three relish in their role and complement the other five so well. But that’s a tribute to our seniors and passing that culture down.”
The Trojans’ lone deficit was early, at 2-1, but four consecutive hoops inside ignited CG, which held a 16-6 advantage after one quarter and led at halftime, 32-17.
A Wirts chippy at 5:12 of the third provided Center Grove a comfy 40-21 cushion, but Mooresville answered with a 12-2 scoring run — 10 of which were scored by 6-foot senior forward Rachel Harshman — to trim the lead to nine early in the fourth stanza.
With Pioneers’ faithful growing louder with every basket, the Trojans’ defense stepped up with what were arguably the game’s two key sequences.
Booker’s steal, layup and ensuing free throw after being fouled with 6:28 remaining silenced the home crowd. Twenty seconds later, Bischoff made a steal that resulted in another Booker layup, pushing the margin back to 14 at 47-33.
Mooresville had it back down to nine points again at 4:37 of the final period, but Center Grove answered with Grant’s triple from the left baseline, and four of her teammates combined to go 6 of 8 at the free throw line.
“I feel like it’s hard to guard us. You can’t just focus on one person because we have four other players who can score as good as anyone,” Grant said. “If you’re going to double-team someone else, the other person is wide open, and we can all score it.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game. We were kind of out of character the last two games (against Bloomington South and Greenwood), but we knew we had to step up. You can go home any day, and we knew we needed to play the best we could to beat them.”
Harshman paced Mooresville (20-5) with 22 points and eight boards, as the Pioneers struggled to locate a viable second scoring option. Mooresville finished 17 of 36 from the floor, but was just 7 of 23 minus Harshman’s numbers.
The Trojans converted 22 of 37 field goal attempts (59.5%), outrebounded the Pioneers, 20-18 and forced them into 19 turnovers to Center Grove’s 13.
