Lady Pirates steal one away from Lady Bulldogs, 57-46

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
02-05-2007

Friday, February 3, 2007 - Duneland Athletic Conference game at Crown Point

MERRILLVILLE  (57)  Latoya Noble 0-4-4,  Britney Curry 6-3-15, Britney Cruse 3-4-11, JaMesha 4-2-10, Chrissy Lobodinski 2-1-5, Tierra Turner 3-0-6, Despina Lozevski 1-4-6, Bryonna Davis 0-0-0, Danita Thomas 0-0-0.  TOTALS 19 (18-36) 57.

CROWN POINT (46)  Anjellica Rospond 2-2-6, Kristi Quigley 3-2-8, Kristen Morason 1-1-3, Daniela Tarailo 0-2-2, Maegen Maloney 1-0-2, Amanda Moore 5-12-23, Britney Clements 0-0-0, Jessica Martinez 0-0-0, Sydney Reeves 0-0-0, Nicci Brown 0-0-0, Flora Garcia 0-0-0.  TOTALS:  13 (19-27) 46.

FREE THROWS:  MERRILLVILLE (18-36, 50%)  Noble 4-6, Cruse 4-10, Harris 2-6, Lozevski 4-5, Lobodinski 1-4, Curry 3-5.  CROWN POINT (19-27, 70.3%)  Moore 12-15, Rospond 2-2, Quigley 2-6, Tarailo 2-2, Morason 1-2.

REBOUNDS:  MERRILLVILLE (26) Curry 8, Cruse 7, Noble 4, Turner 3, Lozevski 2, Lobodinski, Harris;  CROWN POINT (27) Quigley 10, Moore 6, Obradovic 3, Rospond 3, Tarailo 3,  Maloney, Morason.

STEALS:  MERRILLVILLE (18) Noble 7, Harris 4, Cruse 4, Turner 2, Lozevski;
CROWN POINT (5) Moore 2, Tarailo, Clements, Maloney.

3-GOALS:  MERRILLVILLE (1) Britney Cruse;   CROWN POINT (1) Amanda Moore .

FOULED OUT:  Anjellica Rospond (CP) 4th Q - 2:56 left.

CROWN POINT, IN (02-03-2007) -  The final game of the regular season was a success for both Crown Point and Merrillville late Saturday night.  Merrillville won 57-46, but that wasn't why it was a success.  Everybody got home in sub-zero weather.  But that alone didn't put a cap on the night.  The final game of the 2007 regular season was a success because no one got hurt 72 hours before the sectional quarterfinals.  On a night when they shouldn't have had to play, both Merrillville and Crown Point got a lot out of a nothing game.

Crown Point (10-10) got a lot out of the first half, leading 27-14 while Merrillville preferred the second half, when they forced 22 CP turnovers and rallied for the double digit win.

"I cant say what I told them at halftime," smiled Merrillville coach Amy Govert, who said her words were said solely in the spirit of motivation.

"We're happy with it (a 15-5 regular season record)," added Govert.  "Everybody else thought we would not do well this year, but we knew what we had.  We told the kids we were more excited about this group than last year's (a state-ranked 19-3 team with Division I players Sharon Houston and Brittney Moore) team.  They have something in them.  What they did in the second half tonight, you can't teach that.  You either have that desire to play or you don't.  It's understandable what people thought.  We lost six seniors from last year.  But we knew exactly what was going to happen and we're very proud of these girls."

Crown Point knew, in some respects what would happen this season as well.  The loss completed the Lady Bulldogs' second consecutive regular season with a 10-10 record, which is not much of a surprise since they haven't had a true point guard with any experience in either season.  There was a positive feeling this year, however.  The loss to Merrillville killed chances for a season-ending three game win streak.  Last year's 10-10 CP team (they split two playoff games and finished at 11-11) lost the last five games of the regular season.

In the first half, Crown Point got the ball up the floor to Amanda Moore, who used an assortment of post moves to total four field goals and nine free throws (18 points) as the Lady Bulldogs took a 27-14 edge.

But Merrillville (15-5) scored the first four points of the second half, and with CP leading 31-21 used a series of steals to score 14 points in a row for a 35-31 lead.  Crown Point had chances to rally, but could not restart the offense even when they did get the ball into the front court.  Merrillville missed 11 foul shots in the final quarter, but Crown Point, which lost senior forward Anjellica Rospond on fouls with 2:56 to play, could not take advantage.

"They made that run and went up on us by four or five," said CP coach Tom May of the second half.  "Then we adjusted and got through the press.  And we had some opportunities. Two on one.  Three on two.  And we didn't make them.  They made theirs and we didn't make ours."

"I don't know why we started slow," said Govert.  "This was the longest layoff we've had all season.  That's not an excuse.  We didn't play since that Friday night.  But I have no idea because we started this way tonight."

Merrillville is a bad match for Crown Point because the Pirates, with no one taller than 5-foot-8, press full court all the time.  CP's weakness is ball-handling and they have tried every guard they have.  The earlier meeting between the two teams was won by Merrillville 60-38 and it's hard to imagine CP beating this particular Merrillville team.  The Pirates' trio of 5-foot-4 guards Britney Cruse, JaMesha Harris and LaToya Noble are just too quick for their CP counterparts.  When you have a 13-point halftime lead you should win, but when you commit 22 second half turnovers, you almost have to lose.  But even when CP broke the press, the quicker Pirate guards knocked the ball away from behind.

"The key to the press was to get the ball to the middle of the floor," said May.  "When they knocked it away, it was coming down the sidelines.  We knew what we had to do, we just couldn't get it done."

The Pirates go into the Portage Class 4A sectional as the favorite, because with all due respect to Portage's 12-8 mark, Merrillville is the only team of the six in the field with a good record.  The only question is whether, with a speed-based game, they'll tire playing three games in five days.

"It's always tough to play three games in five days," said Govert.  "But we've been preparing the last month for that.  Hopefully we'll stay injury free.  That's the most important thing."

CP readied for a third match with Portage, a team that has already defeated them twice.

"They've jumped all over us at the start of both games," said May.  "The girls promised that wouldn't happen again.  If they beat us three times, they're just better than us."

CPLB NOTES:  Crown Point's Anjellica Rospond is seriously considering St. Mary's of South Bend and Marian College of Indianapolis, according to coach Tom May.  The 6-foot-1 senior has played on the Crown Point varsity for three years.

Courtney Perry, who was in uniform Saturday night for the 'Senior Night' festivities, even though she is out for the year with a broken foot, has already committed to play for Southern Indiana University.

Merrillville junior Britney Cruse, who started last season and for half of 2005, scored all her points in the second half.  It's technically accurate to say she's coming off ACL surgery last fall, but Govert says, that's a thing of the past.

"She's fine," said the coach.  "She's 100%.  But sometimes she still favors her leg and it's all in her mind."

Nobody really wants to play a league game two days before the state tournament.

"This game tonight was meaningless in the standings," said Merrillville coach Amy Govert.  But what if this game was for the conference championship?  That's everybody's goal so you can't just blow it off.  But we have just one game to prepare for Tuesday."

"This is a terrible date to play," said Tom May.  "There's absolutely no concern for the programs to schedule this here."

The late finish to the DAC season is another unwanted off shoot of the 14-game double round robin DAC season that nobody likes.  You have to get all the games in.  The DAC season began on Nov. 17, seven days after the IHSAA-approved starting date for any game.  The league season ended on the last IHSAA-approved date for regular season play.  There's no other time to play.  The problem is 14 league games.

Merrillville was very poor from the foul line, missing 18 of 36, including 11 misses in the fourth quarter.  As CP's team-wide problem is dribbling skill, Merrillville's systemic problem is shooting skill.  It's a lot easier to correct bad shooting form than it is to make a good ball handler out of a poor one.

If it appears as if 5-foot-9 Amanda Moore is playing center on offense for CP, it's because, at times, she is.

"The whole week," said CP coach Tom May, "we concentrated on ball skills.  Ball fakes.  We changed our offense.  We didn't run the flex at all.  We worked on motion and down screens where anybody can go in and out of the post."

"I thought that worked.  We changed our press offense and I thought that worked (early), but when they got more intense, we lost our composure.  We made pass fakes, but we didn't allow for pass fakes to take hold."

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Revised: February 07, 2007 .