In the first 1 minute, 4 seconds of the Terre Haute South vs. West Vigo girls high school basketball game Tuesday night in the Vikings’ gym, six turnovers were committed — four by the home team.

Both teams continued a racehorse style up and down the court, which benefited the more skilled Braves in the end to the tune of a 92-43 victory.

Megan Craft and reserve Tessa Johnson led the balanced South attack with 14 points, while teammates Dragana Grbic and Mallory Kraly added 13 and 11 points respectively. All 10 active Braves scored at least four points.

South, which finished its regular season with a 12-9 record, jumped ahead on a 3-pointer by Brittany Butler 12 seconds into the contest. The visitors never trailed, building leads of 16-4 and 24-6 in the first quarter.

The Braves opened the second period with a 3-point goal by Craft, a layup by Grbic and a three-point play by Jayme Keyes to increase their margin to 35-12. At halftime, they enjoyed a 30-point advantage of 49-19.

“They’re a great basketball team,” West Vigo Coach Ryan Easton said of the Braves. “Regardless of the outcome, it’s a good game for us to play before the sectional.”

Even though South had a 40-point lead at 61-21 with 4:22 left in the third period, West Vigo’s players kept hustling for loose balls and rebounds as if they were in a four-point game.

“I told them if they left any skin on the floor, I’ll scrape it up and give it back to them,” Easton said.

Early in the fourth frame, South went on a 10-0 run — consisting of baskets by Johnson and Butler, a free throw by Grbic, an 8-foot jumper by Grbic and a trey by Butler — to pad its cushion to 82-33. Craft hit a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left to create the biggest difference of the night, 92-41.

“I’ll give it to South,” Easton said in admiration. “I wish ’em luck in the [IHSAA state] tournament.”

West Vigo’s top scorers were Maegan Payne, Amber Gardner and Heather Hunt with seven points apiece. The Vikings (now 1-18) ended up with 37 turnovers and connected on only 9 of 29 free throws (South was 9 of 32 from 3-point range), yet nobody could claim they lacked effort.

“West Vigo has improved tremendously since the jamboree [in November],” South Coach Alan Maroska insisted. “If we had improved as much as they have, we’d probably be playing in the last week of the season for the [Class 4A] state championship.”

But that doesn’t mean Maroska was down on the Braves. He did see plenty of positive points from Tuesday’s triumph.

“We had good intensity, good ball movement and solid, half-court, man-to-man [defensive] pressure,” he noted. “There are some things we can take away from this that will help us in the sectional [against Plainfield on Feb. 10 at Terre Haute North].”

Although no votes in the weekly Tribune-Star prep polls have been counted this week, South seems likely to assume the top spot in the girls poll after being No. 2 most of the season and defeating No. 1 Terre Haute North last Friday.

“It’d be a nice honor to have locally,” acknowledged Maroska, whose squad earned the Vigo County championship by knocking off West Vigo.



Terre Haute South 92

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Daugherty 3-6 1-3 1-2 6 4 1 8

Kraly 5-9 0-0 1-2 3 5 0 11

Kay 3-4 1-2 0-1 0 2 1 7

Craft 4-9 4-9 2-2 3 4 1 14

Butler 3-10 2-8 0-0 4 1 3 8

Johnson 4-11 0-3 6-8 6 0 4 14

Finch 1-7 1-7 1-2 5 4 1 4

Grbic 5-8 0-0 3-5 5 2 4 13

Keyes 2-8 0-0 3-5 9 1 5 7

House 3-5 0-0 0-0 5 1 1 6

Totals 33-77 9-32 17-27 50* 24 21 92

West Vigo 43

Player fg 3pt ft r s pf tp

Payne 3-10 1-1 0-0 5 1 3 7

Gardner 2-5 0-0 3-11 7 0 4 7

Klotz 1-4 0-2 0-0 1 2 2 2

Piper 1-4 0-0 1-2 6 1 1 3

Hunt 2-4 0-0 3-8 4 0 1 7

Dreher 2-4 1-2 0-0 0 2 0 5

Daniel 0-2 0-0 1-2 2 0 1 1

Barton 2-6 0-0 1-2 6 0 2 5

Porter 1-3 0-0 0-3 4 1 2 2

Stephens 1-2 0-0 0-1 2 1 0 2

Swank 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Shadow 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 2

Totals 16-47 2-5 9-29 43* 8 16 43

Terre Haute South 27 22 20 23 — 92

West Vigo 12 7 12 12 — 43

FG Pct. — THS .429, WV .340. 3-pt FG Pct. — THS .281, WV .400. FT Pct. — THS .630, WV .310. Turnovers — THS 15, WV 37. Blocks — THS 5 (Grbic 2, Kraly, Keyes, House), WV 3 (Gardner 2, Klotz). (*) Includes team rebounds — THS 4, WV 4.

JV — South 38 (Laura Fleschner and Emily Fauber 9), West Vigo 23 (Brittany Marrs 7).

Next game — South (12-9) will face Plainfield on Feb. 10 in the Class 4A Terre Haute North Sectional. West Vigo (1-18) will visit Covington on Thursday.

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