The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Sports Wednesday, November 16, 2016 B- 5 GEAR UP With Our Custom PC Charger Gear Athletic Department Store The Best Quality Products at Low Prices Everyday! Southgate Shopping Center, Jasper Stadium Seats Letter Jackets in stock Bling Sweatshirts 812-482-2421 Upcoming Shooting Match IRELAND SPORTSMAN CLUB SHOOT Chicken Dinners Served Starting at 11:00 a.m. Sandwiches Available Sunday, November 27 Ham Shoot: Noon - 3:00 p.m. Closed Match: 3:00 p.m. MAC'S HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING 812-789-3065 104 E Center St, Winslow • macshtgac@hotmail.com T H I S F E A T U R E I S S P O N S O R E D B Y : MADISON SCOTT has played soccer at Pike Central for four years, and also participates in softball. She has received All-Conference recognition for three years, and defense awards for the Lady Chargers. She has also been on the Honor Roll. Her favorite class is Math. Madison is the daughter of Josh and Nicole Scott, of Petersburg. MICHAELA GREENER has played soccer at Pike Central for four years. She was a recipient of the Defensive Award. Mi- chaela's favorite class is Math. She is also a member of Future Farmers of America. Michaela is the daughter of Larr y and Janell Greener, of Winslow. PIKE CENTRAL OF THE WEEK Mac's Heating and Air Conditioning recognizes the Pike Central seniors who are involved in athletics for the Fall 2016 sports season. Pike Central High School junior guard Demi Croak (44) fires up a shot over South Knox ju- nior guard Olivia Schutter (10) during varsity girls' basketball action on Friday, Nov. 11. Ed Ca- hill photo Above: Pike Central High School freshman for- ward Jenna Horrall looks to take a shot during ju- nior varsity girls' basketball action against visit- ing South Knox on Friday, Nov. 11. Horrall scored one point in the Lady Chargers' 46-12 victory. Ed Cahill photo Right: Pike Central High School junior forward Erika Hendrixson goes up for a shot as South Knox junior forward Chase Killer (34) defends during varsity girls' basketball action on Friday, Nov. 11. Hendrixson, who was called for an of- fensive foul on the play, scored seven points in the Lady Chargers' 39-34 loss to the visiting La- dy Spartans. Ed Cahill photo Lady Chargers' fourth-quarter comeback falls short in 39-34 loss to South Knox By Ed Cahill Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net The Pike Central High School girls' basketball team learned the difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it when South Knox junior forward/guard Jarissa Page scored 10 of her game-high 16 points in the first quarter while leading the visiting La- dy Spartans to a 39 -34 victo- ry on Friday, Nov. 11. Page, who buried a three- pointer and followed it with a putback of her own missed shot to give South Knox a 5 - 0 lead with 6:29 left in the opening quarter, hit 6 -of-13 field goal attempts – includ- ing three of five tries from beyond the three-point arc – and hit one of two free throws. "That has a lot to do with us just not coming ready to play because, in scouting, we knew that she's the play- er that we had to stop," Lady Chargers head coach Shawn Warner said. "Our number one on the board in there, before the game, was make someone other than Page beat us." "It just shows you what mindset we were in when we come out and give her 10 points in the first quarter, when that's your main goal, to make someone else beat us," Warner added. A fter Pike Central (1-1) rallied on baskets by junior guard Audra Stone, junior forward Erika Hendrixson and junior forward Brook Nalley to take a 6 -5 lead with 4:20 left in the opening pe- riod, the Lady Spartans scored 16 straight points – five each by Page and junior guard Olivia Schutter, four by junior forward/guard Chase Keller, and one each by senior forward guard Morgan Engstrom and soph- omore guard Paige Cavins – to go ahead 21-6 with 2:51 remaining in the first half. A three-pointer by soph- omore guard Becca Crow and a basket by junior for- ward Halley Powers pulled Pike Central to within 21- 11 with 2:01 left in the sec- ond period. The Lady Char- gers subsequently cut South Knox's lead to single digits – at 26 -17 – when Nalley hit a free throw with 3:59 left in the third quarter. The Lady Spartans, how- ever, answered by scoring six straight points – on a pair of baskets by Engstrom sandwiched around one by Page – to extend their lead to 32-17 with 1:12 remaining in the third period. Pike Central didn't give up the fight, though. With the Lady Chargers trailing 34-19 with 5:56 left in the fourth quarter, Crow scored eight consecutive points – on a pair of free throws and three baskets – to cut the deficit to 34-27 with 3:25 remaining. Then, after a free throw by Engstrom and a basket by Cavins stretched South Knox's lead to 37-27 with 2:45 left, Nalley hit one of two free throw attempts, then scored back-to-back baskets, narrowing the La- dy Spartans' advantage to 37-32 with 1:17 to play. With 36.8 seconds re- maining, Cavins hit the front end of a one-and-one to ex- tend South Knox's lead to 38 -32, but was called for a lane violation on her sec- ond attempt. Then, after Cavins subse- quently misfired on the front end of another one-and-one with 16.2 seconds remain- ing, Hendrixson grabbed the rebound and drove the length of the floor and scored, pulling Pike Central to within 38 -34 with 8.8 sec- onds remaining. However, the hole the La- dy Chargers had dug for themselves proved too deep to climb back out of, as Page hit one of two free throws with 3.9 seconds left to cap South Knox's 39 -34 win. For Warner, the loss was a disappointing one after Pike Central opened the season with a 51-44 win over Boon- ville two nights earlier. "It might have been one that we overlooked and thought, you know, that we were just going to come out and be able to step on the floor and beat them," War- ner said. "That's not the case at the varsity level. We, for the first 28 minutes, just didn't get the effort that you need to compete at the high- est level." "We were dug in a hole," Warner said. "We were down 15 with five minutes left and ended up cutting it to four, but you just can't ex- pect to walk on the floor and beat people. We still have to do the right things as far as playing hard and things like that. We just didn't compete tonight." Warner said that he wasn't surprised when South Knox began the game with a full- court pressure defense, es- pecially after Boonville forced the Lady Chargers in- to 12 second-half turnovers. "It's just kind of like we lose our minds a little bit," Warner said. "We worked on press for an hour-and-a-half yesterday at practice and ev- erything seemed fine. And then we get out here and it's like we just go brain dead. There was probably five of six times in the huddle, we told them, 'You've got to be here, you've got to be here,' and we'd go out and people would go to different plac- es." "It's just something we have to continue to get bet- ter on, because if you're a scout and you're in the stands right now, you're go- ing to press us," Warner add- ed. "You beat it a couple of times and you're not going to get pressed the entire game. We've got to have girls step up and want to handle the basketball in that situation." Crow, coming off the bench, hit four of six field goal attempts – including 1-for-1 from three-point range – and hit two of four free throws to finish with a team-high 11 points. She al- so grabbed two rebounds, had one steal and dished out one assist. "She worked really hard tonight," Warner said of the 5 -foot-5 Crow. "She was aggressive, she was at- tacking, she was doing the things that we're asking ev- eryone to do. She just took advantage of what was giv- en to her. She played very, very hard. In that little run we had at the end, she was a big key to it. We expect big things from her and this is kind of a step in the right di- rection for her." Nalley added 10 points for the Lady Chargers. She also had a game-high six steals and blocked two shots. Hen- drixson netted seven points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. She also had two assists. Powers, Stone and junior guard Natalie Burkhart netted two points each. Burkhart also had four steals and four rebounds. For the game, Pike Cen- tral made 14 of 38 field goal attempts – a 36.8 percent average – and hit five of 10 tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over 18 times. Schutter had seven points and six rebounds for South Knox, while Engstrom add- ed six points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Cavins and Keller netted five points each, with Cavins leading the Lady Spartans in rebounds (8) and steals (5). For the game, South Knox (2-2) made 14 of 38 field goal attempts – a 36.8 percent av- erage – and hit seven of 14 tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over 25 times. The Lady Spartans, who hit four of seven tries from beyond the three-point arc, out-rebounded Pike Cen- tral 31-21, scoring 15 sec- ond-chance points off of of- fensive rebounds. "We're at our best when- ever we're able to pressure and get after people," War- ner said. "Whenever we're in that half-court trap, if we're not pressuring the basket- ball, it extends over to that backside, and not block- ing out, not going after re- bounds. You do leave your- self open for some offensive rebounds whenever you're half-court trapping, but you've just got to have that intensity that you want the basketball, and we just real- ly didn't have it." "I'm going to be honest," Warner continued. "I give South Knox all the cred- it. They beat us, but a lot of this tonight I feel like's on us. Our effort wasn't there. I'm never going to blame the girls. Maybe I didn't get them up ready to go to where we needed to com- pete at that level. But it's a whole group thing, and we just weren't ready to play from the get-go when we started up, and that's what happens. You can't give a varsity basketball team a 15 -, 16 -point lead and then have your back against the wall and expect to make it up. That's kind of what we did tonight." Pike Central, which played at Vincennes Lin- coln on Tuesday, Nov. 15, returns home to host Wood Memorial on Friday, Nov. 18, with the junior varsity game tipping off at 6:30 p.m., fol- lowed by the varsity contest. "Next week will be a tough one for us," Warner said. "Lincoln's probably one of the better teams on our schedule, and then Wood Memorial's a really nice team, too. So we'll definite- ly come out ready to com- pete, because Lincoln's a team that can beat you pret- ty bad if you're not up to the challenge and ready to go. We'll have to do things right to compete in that basketball game." "We've got to use this one as a learning experience, that we're not good enough just to walk on the floor and beat people," Warner con- cluded. "Right now, this one hurts pretty bad. But we've got to learn from it and move on and get better." In the junior varsity con- test, freshman guard Jayln Nelson scored a game-high 11 points as Pike Central routed South Knox 46 -12. Sophomore forward Em- ily Carnahan added nine points while junior forward Amy Young and sophomore guard Allesha Sisk netted five points each. Freshman forward/guard Lexy Leal led the Lady Spartans with four points. Pregnant... or think you are? 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