For the Daily Journal
Indian Creek girls basketball coach Dan Burkman wasn’t sure what version of his team he saw Tuesday night against visiting Cascade.
But he is convinced the Braves weren’t playing the way they know how.
“We’re going through some growing pains right now,” Burkman said. “We need to figure out our roles and responsibilities on the team. If you don’t play hard, you’re just not going to play.”
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe Cadets exploded for 28 points in the third quarter to erase a one-point halftime deficit en route to a 66-57 victory over Indian Creek. It was the first Western Indiana Conference game this season for both teams.
Cascade (2-0) trailed 26-25 at halftime before outscoring Indian Creek 28-14 in the third quarter.
“We like to get the ball up and down and play really fast,” Cadets coach David Carpenter said. “The whole first half we couldn’t do any of that with all the fouling we were doing. We couldn’t get out of our way. It was our own fault.
“All I said at halftime was, ‘If we can just stop fouling and get this playing our style of basketball, we’ll be all right.’ In the third quarter, we only committed three fouls and that was huge advantage for us. When you foul, it stops the game. We want the ball to keep going.”
Senior forward Bayleigh Walker was high scorer for the Cadets with 26 points. Senior guard Makayla Collier scored 18 points, and junior guard Olivia Bryant added 12 for Cascade. Collier and Bryant each had three 3-pointers.
Cascade hit eight 3-pointers, seven more than Indian Creek.
“We got beat in transition too much,” Burkman said. “Offensively we weren’t clicking or jelling and weren’t playing together. We were playing more independent than I like us to play. It just hard to score when you are not moving the ball and playing together.”
Burkman added that turnovers hurt the team in the first half.
“We just didn’t do a lot of things right in the first half,” Burkman said. “We have a lot to work on.”
Although the Braves return many of their players, they graduated top scorer Candace Danz.
“Losing Candace is playing some role in all this because she is kind of the glue that held us all together last year,” Burkman said. “But we need to discover who we are this year. I’ve been down this road a couple of times. I feel like we’re a talented team. Once we start playing together, we’ll show it.”
Sophomore forward Katie Burkman led the Braves (0-2) with 13 points. Junior guard Addie Rund and senior forward Madelyn Gary each had 11 points, and sophomore forward Caitlyn Snyder contributed 10 points.
