Lady Bulldogs battle, but fall at Chesterton 40-39 in turnover-heavy DAC contest

A USA-365.com Special Report By Mark Smith
11-26-2005

Friday, 11-25-2005 - Duneland Athletic Conference game at Chesterton

CROWN POINT  (39)  Stephanie Poulos 4-1-11, Hannah Plumley 4-2-12, Jackie Clements 4-0-8, Courtney Perry 1-0-2, Amanda Moore 1-1-3, Anjellica Rospond 1-1-3, Michelle Lipton 0-0-0, Katie Kvachkoff 0-0-0, Ashley Zaucha 0-0-0.  TOTALS: 15 (5-10) 39.

CHESTERTON (40)  Molly Rau 4-0-9, Katrina Prazidad 4-0-8, Kelly Pellar 4-2-12, Rachel Hargarten 4-2-11, Maddie Wilk 0-0-0, Katie Stahura 0-0-0.  TOTALS 16 (4-5) 40.

FREE THROWS:  CROWN POINT - 5-10, 55.5% -  Poulos 1-2, Plumley 2-2, Rospond 1-4, Moore 1-2;  CHESTERTON -  4-5, 80%  -  Hargarten 2-2, Pellar 2-3.

REBOUNDS:  CROWN POINT (20) Clements 4, Plumley 4, Perry 5, Lipton 2, Moore 5;
CHESTERTON (19) Rau 5, Prazidad 5, Pellar 6, Wilk.

ASSISTS:  CROWN POINT (8) Plumley 3, Moore 2, Perry;  CHESTERTON (8) Rau 3, Peller 2, Prazidad, Wilk, Hargarten.

STEALS:  CROWN POINT (15) Plumley 5, Lipton 3,  Perry 3, Clements 2, Zaucha, Moore;
CHESTERTON (18) Peller 12, Rau 3, Prazidad, Wilk Hargarten.

3-GOALS:  CROWN POINT (2) Poulos, Plumley;  Peller 2, Rau, Hargarten.

FOULED OUT:  None.

CHESTERTON  (11-25-2005) - This was one of the games you thought Crown Point might be able to steal.  Chesterton, with six seniors and an all-state candidate in 5-10 guard Kelly Peller, has more skill this season.  But because the Trojans and Lady Bulldogs have this habit of defending each other right into the ground, you thought that CP could sneak out of Porter County Friday night with this Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) win.

Chesterton led 34-27 with 4:30 to play before the visitors made a last stand.  Back-to-back baskets by senior Stephanie Poulos and a steal and layup from Hannah Plumley cut the lead down to 36-34 with 2:21 to go.  After a jump shot by Molly Rau increased the lead to four, Poulos hit a three-point shot off the right ring to make it 38-37.

In the first of several dramatic sequences, Plumley stole a cross court pass out of a double-team and headed for the basket intending to put CP ahead.  But Peller caught her from behind, knocked the ball away and out of bounds with 1:07 left. 

Crown Point indirectly got the ball to senior forward Jackie Clements, but she missed an off balance layup in a crowd underneath the basket.  Chesterton tried to stall but a cross court pass got away from Molly Rau and CP had the ball again.  Peller, who had 12 steals in the game, grabbed a soft CP pass and Chesterton's Hargarten was fouled with 23 seconds left, sinking two foul shots to make it 40-37.

Crown Point  brought the ball up the floor and looked for a three-point shot. Chesterton defended the perimeter and harassed Poulos into an off balance three-pointer that missed.

Plumley grabbed the rebound, retreated to the three-point line and she, too, was harassed into a long miss.  Clements rebounded the ball and scored an uncontested layup but the clock ran out before CP could foul and the tortured game (45 combined turnovers) had come to an end.

"That's what happens when you play a team like Crown Point.  That puts so much defensive pressure on you," said Peller, who had at least eight turnovers to go with 12 points, 12 steals and six rebounds.  "You know in sports that everything isn't going to go your way.  You hate it but you just have to shake things off and go to the next play.  I'm not the kind of player who dwells on past things and I know my teammates depend on me so I just move on."

Chesterton (3-1) and CP (3-2) are attempting to do the same thing.  Move a small forward to lead guard.  Neither Peller nor CP's Hannah Plumley, who collected 12 points, five steals and three assists Friday, are true point guards and a few balls (and ball games) may be lost  until they get the hang of it.

"We've been spoiled," said CP coach Tom May. "We had Pruzin (former all-state guard Cassie Pruzin) for four years and she made good decisions with the ball.  We had kids tonight who had trouble passing under pressure while being directed toward certain areas of the court.  That's fundamentals.  You look the defense away, split the trap and find the open kids.  It's like a quarterback in football.  You have to check off every single thing in about a second and a half and make a decision where you want to take the ball."

"What you can't do, when two girls run at you (to trap the ball) is run away from them, look at one girl and throw it.  That's what we did.  That's something we'll get corrected and if we don't, everybody's going to press us the entire year."

Crown Point 'jumped' to leads of 10-4 and 15-6 in a first half that featured 27 turnovers.  Two three-point baskets by Peller closed the lead to 16-14 late in the first half in a game that featured full court pressure by both teams and shooting that was not able to overcome the defense.

"You have to decide whether you're going to break the press to attack the basket and score or whether you just want to get it across the time line," said Chesterton coach Jack Campbell.  "They were doing their job, making you play faster than you want to play.  Every time you get it up the floor, its a 3-on-2 break.  Last year, first time we met, we took advantage of it.  The second time, we didn't."

"Tonight, part of it was bad decisions. This was the first time we've played in a game like this, this season.  We don't play very many pretty ones.  These are two teams that take you out of what you want to do."

"Everybody gets caught up in watching the NBA and college.  They don't take as many chances defensively because they're so good at shooting the three.  But we take a lot of chances, they take a lot of chances.  I'll tell you what.  We don't play very many pretty ones."

Crown Point could not get the ball into the lane for 5-11 centers Anjellica Rospond and Courtney Perry, but the Lady Bulldogs did do a good job of double-teaming Peller and defeating Chesterton's delay offense at the end.  But they couldn't score more than 15 field goals.

"Except for Jackie Clements, we rushed our shots," said May.  "We were afraid of getting hit.  You've got to head fake, take the hit and get your shot.  When Chesterton made an adjustment to defend the post, it opened up the wing on the opposite side and Stephanie Poulos took her opportunities.  But you can't be afraid of getting hit.  You can't be afraid of contact.  I thought Jackie Clements was pushed on that last shot.  But then we came back down the floor and turned it over."

In the 14-game DAC schedule, one game in November loses some significance.  This was clearly a friendly game with no grudges being settled on the floor and several players from other teams in the stands and a lot of smiling on the floor.  Chesterton seemed to feel it was always a positive to defeat CP and the Lady Bulldogs may have felt that the close call on the road was a sign of improvement after a 16-point loss at Warsaw the previous week.

"If they are one of the favorites in our league," said May, "we were right with them and had a chance to beat them at the end."   
  
CPLB NOTES:   Kelly Peller said that 12 steals were a product of experience.

"I've played in the switching man-to-man for four years now," she said,  "and you just anticipate where the ball might go and tonight I got a few steals."

Peller knew her father, Chesterton boys coach Tom Peller, was in the stands Friday night.  "Whenever I see him in the crowd it makes me really happy," she said, "because I know he can't be there a lot.  I just try to play my hardest every time.  My dad and I talk about my game all the time.  Even if he can't be there, coach gets him a tape of the games."

Like CP's game at Warsaw, this was a physical contest where some fouls were 'overlooked'.  There were only 23 fouls called and Chesterton got only three free throws all night.  The Trojans used only six players, just the six varsity seniors.  The Lady Bulldogs went scoreless for the first 7:13 of the third quarter while Chesterton, which has lost only to Penn (4-0), scored just seven points.

This was the sixth meeting of Chesterton and Crown Point in the last three seasons with the Trojans winning four of them. The Trojans could play Crown Point twice more this year.

A Chesterton shot caromed off the rim and hit the basket support in the first quarter, similar to the shot by Valparaiso that hit the support and came down through the basket to break a last second tie and defeat CP at the Chesterton Sectional last season.  As it was nine months ago, the ball touching the strap-like support over the backboard was not called.  A ball striking any basket part but the rim and the front of the backboard at any time is considered out of bounds.

CP coach Tom May walked towards the scorers' table and said smiling, "That was just like last year."

Players from Lowell and Boone Grove were in the stands watching Crown Point. Lowell (3-0) hosts CP Tuesday (Nov. 29) night and Boone (4-1) travels to CP on Saturday, Dec. 10.

USA-365.com Notes:  The Crown Point at Lowell girls basketball game will be broadcast via the Internet on USA-365.com.  Live coverage begins with the pregame show Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 7:15 p.m. and the tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., CST.  We return to the Internet "air waves" Friday, December 2 for LaPorte at Crown Point, beginning at 7:15 p.m., CST.  Dave Woodworth (play-by-play) and Mark Smith (analysis) return for our second full year of local high school basketball Internet radio coverage on www.USA-365.com.   

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Revised: November 28, 2005 .