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| Southwestern’s Brianna Howard goes up for two of her seven points in the game. (Staff photos by David Campbell) |
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Kentucky 79-Indiana 77
Cheatham’s All-Stars squander 17-point lead.
By: David Campbell, Courier Staff Writer
OWENSBORO, Ky. — It was the worst possible way for a Donna Cheatham-coached team to lose. Having tied the game with six seconds left, Indiana allowed the winning layup unopposed with two seconds left.
So ended the first of two All-Star matchups between Indiana and Kentucky Saturday at the Owensboro Sportscenter with Kentucky pulling out a 79-77 win.
The “token” defense at the end, coupled with Indiana blowing a 17-point second half lead, galled on Cheatham, Indiana’s head coach.
“We played what I like to call a token defense,” said Cheatham, who is also the head coach at Southwestern. “It was there, but it was not active.”
Trailing by 17 points, Kentucky came all the way back and eventually took a five-point lead in the game’s final minute, then proceeded to try to give the game away.
With Indiana fouling on every possession, Kentucky missed a golden opportunity to put the game away, missing 10 straight free throws.
But three times Kentucky got its own rebounds and when Indiana was able to take possession, the result was a wild shot that missed the mark.
Indiana finally connected, when Miss Basketball Shanna Zolman, from Wawasee and headed to Tennessee, drilled a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left to cut the lead to two.
Kentucky then mishandled the inbounds pass, losing the ball out of bounds. Zolman missed a shot from the baseline, but Fountain Central’s Candace Dark, who will play at Ohio State in the fall, got the rebound and hit a turn-around jumper from the top of the key to tie the game.
But Kentucky wasn’t done. Eschewing a timeout, Kentucky took the ball out of bounds and pushed it up the floor. Beating the Indiana defense down the floor, Kentucky Miss Basketball Erica Hallman of Covington Holmes found Louisville Male’s Sharnell Snardon for an easy layup with 2.2 seconds left.
“The odds were very improbable, down 17,” said Kentucky assistant coach Greg Todd. “We never like to take a timeout in that situation. We feel like it allows the defense to get set.”
Despite the frantic finish, Cheatham pointed to offensive rebounds as the key. Kentucky used its size advantage to post a 57-46 advantage on the boards and picked up a whopping 32 offensive bounds in the game.
“Too many offensive rebounds, that’s the key right there,” said Cheatham.
Indiana was playing short-handed in the post going in, with 6-foot-1 Purdue-bound Carol Duncan, from NorthWood, missing with a stress fracture and Triton Central’s Jessica Scherer and Fort Wayne Luers’ Megan Dossen hampered by a groin pull and concussion, respectively.
“They out-rebounded us by 14 on the offensive rebounds, and when you get an offensive rebound, 50 percent of those lead to points,” said Southwestern’s Brianna Howard. “And they won by two, so it’s not hard to do the math. I know what we’ll be doing in practice all week, working the defensive rebounds.”
For Howard, Southwestern’s first Indiana girls All-Star, it was a frustrating game. In foul trouble much of the night, Howard finished with seven points, no rebounds and one assist in 19 minutes of action. The Purdue-bound senior was 3-for-8 from the floor and sat much of the second half after picking up her fourth foul.
“It’s the dumb fouls that cost you,” said Cheatham. “She had one foul where she was reaching and she didn’t move her feet. Brianna needs to realize that dumb fouls will get you every time. Her fourth foul, I can’t believe he called that. But it was the dumb fouls that hurt.”
Howard scored five of her points in the first five minutes of the second half, as Indiana built its 17-point lead. Still, Howard was 1-for-3 from the 3-point line, which drew a grimmace from Cheatham.
“When she uses her head to shoot, she’s a very good player,” Cheatham said. “I still don’t like her taking those shots from the outside unless her feet are set. But inside, if she thinks she has the shot, then by all means, go-for-it.”
Zolman finished with 29 points on 9-of-18 shooting, the third highest total in All-Star history. Zolman also had eight rebounds and three assists, but turned the ball over seven times as Kentucky clamped down on Indiana’s all-time leading scorer.
Late in the game, Kentucky blanketed Zolman with two defenders and Indiana still had a chance to win the game at the buzzer, but a double team prevented Zolman from getting the ball.
“I need to get touches and in the second half, I was getting any,” Zolman said. “When I touch the ball, regardless of whether I score, things happen. That’s not trying to be arrogant, it’s the truth. The ball needs to be in my hands.”
Highlands’ Tara Boothe, headed to Xavier, finished with 25 points and 16 rebounds while Snardon had 11 rebounds and 14 points for Kentucky. Terre Haute South’s Melanie Boeglin scored six points, but had eight assists and seven steals.
Indiana returns to action in Zolman’s home school of Wawasee for the second Junior/Senior All-Star game Wednesday. On Saturday, Indiana and Kentucky meet again, this time at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
“If we’re half the team I think we are, we’ll be back,” Cheatham said.
GIRLS INDIANA-KENTUCKY ALL-STARS
Saturday, June 15
at Owensboro, Ky.
INDIANA (77)
Howard 3-8 0-0 7, Webb 1-7 3-4 5, Branson 0-4 0-2 0, Zolman 9-18 6-6 29, Merrill 6-13 1-1 14, Dark 2-8 0-0 4, Scherer 0-0 0-0 0, Pfeiffer 0-2 0-0 0, Boeglin 3-4 0-2 6, Valentin 1-3 1-1 3, Wright 2-3 1-2 5, Dossen 1-2 2-2 4. Totals 28-72 14-20 77.
KENTUCKY (79)
Boothe 11-19 3-8 25, Snarden 4-5 6-13 14, Phillips 3-13 2-4 11, Hallman 2-9 3-4 8, Alcius 1-7 4-6 6, Shelton 0-3 0-0 0, Brown 1-2 2-2 4, Butler 0-0 0-0 0, Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Shouse 0-1 0-0 0, Neal 3-11 1-6 9, Mills 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 25-70 23-45 79.
Halftime—Indiana 36, Kentucky 28. 3-Point Goals—Indiana 7-20 (Howard 1-3, Webb 0-1, Zolman 5-9, Merrill 1-3, Dark 0-2, Pfeiffer 0-1, Valentin 0-1), Kentucky 6-19 (Boothe 0-1, Phillips 3-6, Hallman 1-2, Alcius 0-1, Shelton 0-1, Neal 2-8). Fouled out—Branson. Rebounds—Indiana 43 (Wright 9), Kentucky 58 (Boothe 17). Assists—Indiana 17 (Boeglin 6), Kentucky 11 (Hallman 8). Total fouls—Indiana 29, Kentucky 19. Attendance—na.
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