Published: November 22, 2009 11:37 pm         

Late Saturday: South girls hold off Northview 55-46

Brazil — The Terre Haute South Braves left Brazil with two victories on Saturday night. En route to holding off the Northview Knights for a 55-46 win, the Braves learned how to play against a specialty defense.

Northview used a box-and-one defense to rally from a 15-point deficit and get within three points before South hit critical free throws to move to 5-0 on the young season.

“[Northview] made a nice adjustment going to that box-and-one on Haley [Seibert] and made us do something that we weren’t really familiar or comfortable with because we really hadn’t see that situation. Then once we got in what we wanted to do, settled into it, took our time, good things happened. We took our time. We were really proud of our poise,” South coach Dave Cassell said.

Seibert led all scorers with 23 points, netting 12 of those in the first quarter and 15 the opening half when the Braves built a 32-16 halftime lead.

“We’ve kind of been waiting for somebody to do that to us because we think obviously somebody in the [Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference] will do that,” Cassell said.

Northview was led by center Chelsey Sampson and guard Lauren Webster with 12 points each.

South led just 17-14 with a minute left in the opening quarter, but used an 8-0 run to go ahead 25-14 at 4:28 in the second quarter. Claire Bailey closed the first period with two baskets, then netted two free throws in the second period and Kayla Ennen scored a layup off a fast break in the run.

South outscored Northview 11-2 in the second period. Three minutes into the second half, South led 35-20 and had total command of the game. It was about that time the box-and-one defense started paying off.

“We made some adjustments. I credit my assistant coach [Mike] Medearis, he came up with that idea. He said ‘Why don’t we try it?’ I was a little leery of that. I wasn’t sure how [Terre Haute South center] Hannah Lee would respond to that and if they would beat us in the middle,” Northview coach LuAnne Anderson said.

Northview outscored South 14-2 over the final five minutes of the third period. Northview’s Kelsey Searing scored all seven of her points in the third quarter and Sampson and Webster each added four.

South led just 37-34 going into the fourth quarter. Three times during the evening, South’s Emily Bell made a play or a basket that stopped Northview from tying the score or taking the lead, the third coming with 5:27 to play when she stole the ball, scored a layup and hit the following free throw.

“[Bell’s] just a cool customer,” Cassell said of the freshman.

From that point, South went into a spread offense and hit 11 of 14 free throws to hold off the Knights.

“Everything was going against [the Braves]. Calls. On the road. [The game] was getting hectic. They just calmed down, kept their poise, hit their fourth-quarter free throws. At the end, that last three or four minutes we were really happy with their poise,” Cassell said.

Webster stole the ball and converted the layup and free throw to get the Knights within five, 49-44, with 1:51 to play, but it never got closer.

Anderson felt the Knights got something positive from the game too.

“I think finally our team is getting into their heads they’re not a bad basketball club when they want to be. I think we’re learning from each game out,” Anderson said.



Terre Haute South 55

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Bailey 2-3 0-0 4-4 4 0 4 8

Bell 4-9 1-4 1-1 5 3 3 10

Lee 1-6 0-0 3-4 10 1 3 5

Seibert 6-8 3-4 8-9 1 3 3 23

Ennen 2-5 0-2 3-6 3 0 1 7

Brewer 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 2 0

Metheny 0-2 0-0 2-2 1 0 0 2

Ellis 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Totals 15-35 4-12 21-27 *28 8 17 55

Northview 46

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Phillips 1-6 0-1 4-7 2 2 5 6

Searing 2-6 0-0 3-5 8 1 5 7

Sampson 6-11 0-0 0-0 6 1 2 12

Webster 4-6 1-1 3-3 1 3 4 12

Bell 3-7 0-0 0-2 6 1 4 6

Sharton 1-4 1-2 0-0 1 0 1 3

Conrad 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 0

Totals 17-42 2-4 10-17 *27 9 21 46

Terre Haute South 21 11 5 18 — 55

Northview 14 2 17 13 — 46

FG Pct. — THS .429, Northview .405. 3-pt FG Pct. — THS .333, Northview .500. FT Pct. — THS .778, Northview .588. (*) Includes team rebounds — THS 4, Northview 2. Turnovers — THS 15, Northview 14.

JV — Terre Haute South 40, Northview 31.

Next — South (5-0) will host Sullivan on Tuesday. Northview (2-3) plays Dec. 1 at Bloomington North.