The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Sports Wednesday, December 6, 2017 B- 5 Lady Chargers win third straight with 71-17 victory over Eastern Greene By Ed Cahill Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net Senior Erika Hendrix- son scored a game-high 15 points as the Pike Central High School girls' basketball team routed visiting Eastern Greene 71-17 on Tuesday, Nov. 28. A steal and a lay-up by Hendrixson, which snapped a 4-4 tie with 5:44 left in the first quarter, launched a 40 -2 scoring run that gave the La- dy Chargers a 44-6 lead with 4:38 remaining in the third period. During that span, Eastern Greene shot 1-for-13 from the field and was 0 -for-1 from the free throw line while turning the ball over 21 times – 10 of which Pike Central converted into a total of 22 points. "We thought we could have some success putting pres- sure on the ball, trapping and getting after them, and we did," said Lady Chargers head coach Kyle McCutchan after his team improved to 4- 3 with its third straight victo- ry. "The only way we're going to compete and win is if we get after somebody on defense." "Defense, if you bring it every night, you're going to be competitive," McCutchan added. "We did a good job of pressuring the ball." Following Hendrixson's tie-breaking lay-up, baskets by senior Demi Croak and sophomore Lauren Vaughn and a pair of free throws by senior Brook Nalley extend- ed Pike Central's lead to 12- 4 before Eastern Greene ju- nior Michelle Hatfield hit a short jumper to cut the defi- cit to 12-6 with 3:52 left in the first period. Three-pointers by Vaughn and Croak – sandwiched around back-to-back baskets by Hendrixson – stretched the Lady Chargers' lead to 22-6 with 2:22 remaining in the opening quarter. Pike Central would sub- sequently outscore the Lady Thunderbirds 16 -0 in the sec- ond period – on seven points by sophomore Jayln Nelson, three points by senior Au- dra Stone, two points each by Hendrixson and senior Halley Powers and one point each by Nalley and junior Hai- ley Marchino – to extend its lead to 38 -6 at halftime. "We did a good job of pres- suring the ball, and you're a much better team when you get some shots and they lead to baskets," McCutchan said. "And we hit shots. When you hit shots, things just look bet- ter. We hit a few three's ear- ly and that kind of opened things up for us." A three-pointer by Vaughn and a three-point play by Hen- drixson stretched the Lady Chargers' lead to 44-6 before Eastern Greene scored four straight points – on a basket by junior Farrah Young and a pair of free throws by junior Michelle Hatfield – to pull to within 46 -10 with 2:43 left in the third period. Two baskets each by Marchino and Nelson subse- quently fueled an 8 -1 scoring run that gave Pike Central a 52-11 lead with 40 seconds re- maining in the third quarter. A fter the Lady Thunder- birds scored four straight points – on a pair of free throws and a basket by soph- omore Sydnee Luallen – a three-point play by Marchi- no gave the Lady Chargers a 57-15 lead with 4:54 left in the fourth period. Following a basket by East- ern Greene freshman Shelley Tarr that cut the deficit to 57- 17 with 4:30 remaining, Pike Central scored 14 straight points – on two baskets and two free throws by Marchi- no, one basket each by ju- niors Becca Crow and two free throws each by Stone and junior Kelsey Barrett – to close out the game. For the game, Pike Cen- tral out-rebounded Eastern Greene 31-21, grabbing 12 of- fensive rebounds – which the Lady Chargers converted in- to 12 total points – while the Lady Thunderbirds only had four offensive rebounds. "We crashed the boards when we missed shots," Mc- Cutchan said. "We usually shot the ball until we made it. It was good to actually do that to somebody instead of hav- ing it done to us." Marchino came off the bench to add 14 points – in- cluding 13 in the second half – in the winning effort while Nelson, seeing her first ex- tended action since suffering a right ankle sprain in the La- dy Chargers' season-open- ing 54-34 win over Evansville Reitz, had 11 points and four steals. "She's still battling the an- kle, but she's been given the go," McCutchan said of Nel- son. "She's getting closer to getting back to 100 percent, but it's still going to take a lit- tle time. Sprained ankles can stick with you for a month or so. It was good to actually get her out into some game ac- tion, where she played some extended minutes." Vaughn tossed in eight points while compiling a game-high six steals. Powers led Pike Central in rebounds with six. Nine different Lady Char- gers dished out at least one assist, including two each by Croak, Crow, Vaughn and se- nior Natalie Burkhart. "I think the last few games we've gotten better at driving at people, having two guard you, and finding the open teammate," McCutchan said. "The game's easier when you get open looks all day. We did a good job dribbling with our head up, trying to make the extra pass. We always say, 'Give up a good shot to get a great shot.' We've done that a little better the last few games." For the game, Pike Cen- tral made 25 of 52 field goal attempts – a 48.1 percent av- erage – and hit 17 of 22 tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over 14 times. Hatfield paced Eastern Greene (1-5) with eight points and three steals. Young add- ed four points while Tarr and senior Becca Deckard tossed in two points each. Fresh- man Sophi Edwards rounded out the scoring for the Lady Thunderbirds with one point. For the game, Eastern Greene made six of 29 field goal attempts – a 20.7 percent average – and hit five of seven tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over 33 times. The Lady Thunderbirds' 17 points were the fewest allowed by the Lady Chargers since a 55 -16 win over Loogootee on Jan. 8, 2013. The game was a late addi- tion to the Lady Chargers' schedule after North Daviess informed Pike Central athlet- ic director Billy Hewig that it was canceling its game at Pike Central whhich was sched- uled for Dec. 12. However, the cancella- tion allowed Hewig to sched- ule the game against East- ern Greene during a peri- od when the Lady Chargers' schedule had a 13-day gap be- tween games against Tell City on Nov. 21 and South Spencer on Dec. 4. "Billy told me that when North Daviess dropped us, he had a couple of opponents, and I told him if we could get it this week, it would be great, because they kids don't want to practice for a week-and- a-half and not play a game," McCutchan said. "We played Shoals this time last year, so it was good to not go, literal- ly, a week and a half without playing." Pike Central, which host- ed South Spencer on Monday, Dec. 4, will travel to South- ridge on Thursday, Dec. 7, before returning home to host Evansville Bosse on Saturday, Dec. 9. "This is part of our sched- ule where I think we can com- pete, and our goal is to think we can compete against any- body," McCutchan said. "Ev- ery win we get is great, but we want to keep building, be- cause we've got some tough opponents coming up before Christmas." "We want to build con- fidence and go and expect to beat them as well," Mc- Cutchan continued. "We thought we could compete tonight, and we did. But we want to be able to think we can compete against anybody." • In junior varsity action, freshman Mallory Hickey scored a game-high six points while junior Emily Carnahan added five more to lead Pike Central to a 33-14 victory over Eastern Greene. Fresh- men Gracie Jones and Kenzie Powell tallied four points each in the winning effort. Fresh- man Kira Padgett paced the Lady Thunderbirds with four points. FIRST Continued from page 4 The team of Natalie Bohnert, Meyer and Young placed first in the 150 -yard butterfly relay with a time of 1:38.85. The team of Natalie Bohnert, Young and soph- omore Lily Frederick-Rice placed first in the 150 -yard backstroke relay with a time of 1:38.52. The team of Bailey, Na- talie Bohnert, Freder- ick-Rice and Young placed first in the 400 -yard free- style relay with a time of 4:29.03. The team of Conder, Charlotte Dudenhoeffer and McCrary placed first in the 150 -yard breaststroke relay with a time of 2:02.82. The team of Cremeans, Frederick-Rice, McCrary and Stephens placed first in the 400 -yard freestyle depth relay with a time of 4:08.76. The team of Bailey, Fred- erick-Rice, Keepes and Ste- phens placed second in the 200 -yard freestyle relay with a time of 2:09.35. The team of Feldpausch, Keepes and Stone placed second in the 150 -yard backstroke relay with a time of 2:01.46. The team of Correll, Meyer and Russell placed second in the 150 -yard breaststroke relay with a time of 2:12.26. The team of Charlotte Dudenhoeffer, Freder- ick-Rice, McCrary and sophomore Emma Rus- sell placed third in the 1,000 -yard distance free- style relay with a time of 14:00.03. The team of senior Emi- llee Halderman, sopho- more Jaci Potts and fresh- men Neeley Correll and Libby Stone placed fourth in the 250 -yard freestyle re- lay with a time of 3:17.43. The team of Feldpausch, Halderman, Keepes and Potts placed fourth in the 400 -yard freestyle depth relay with a time of 4:54.76. Pike Central will return to action on Thursday, Dec. 7, when it will host South Spencer, Southridge and Wood Memorial, before hosting Evansville Re- itz on Monday, Dec. 11, and Evansville North on Wednesday, Dec. 13. PCHS boys' swim team wins 11 events during tri-meet at Boonville Seniors Jacob Bohnert, Ty Cassitty and Lukas Hill and sophomore Jersey Mills won two individual events each as the Pike Central High School boys' swim- ming team cruised to a first- place finish in a three-team meet hosted by Boonville on Thursday, Nov. 30. Bohnert placed first in the 200 -yard freestyle with a season-best time of 1:58.74 and in the 500 -yard free- style with a time of 5:19.51; Cassitty placed first in div- ing with a six-dive score of 165.95 points and in the 100 -yard butterfly with a time of 1:07.80 ; Lukas Hill placed first in the 200 -yard individual medley with a time of 2:14.01 and in the 100 -yard backstroke with a time of 1:02.12; and Mills placed first in the 50 -yard freestyle with a season-best time of 24.66 seconds and in the 100 -yard freestyle with a season-best time of 53.87 seconds. In addition, Bohnert, Cas- sitty, Lukas Hill and Mills teamed up to place first in the 400 -yard freestyle re- lay with a time of 3:39.98, while Bohnert, Lukas Hill and Mills teamed up with senior Gavin Diggs to place first in the 200 -yard medley relay with a time of 1:50.68. Also placing first in an in- dividual event for the Char- gers was senior Jackson Keep- es, who won the 100 -yard breast- stroke with a time of 1:09.33. Placing second in individ- ual events for the Chargers were Diggs in the 100 -yard butterfly with a season-best time of 1:08.14 and in the 100 -yard breaststroke with a time of 1:17.87; Keepes in the 200 -yard individual med- ley with a season-best time of 2:26.08; freshman Garrett Boyd in diving with a six- dive score of 87.30 points; and senior Jacob Duden- hoeffer in the 500 -yard free- style with a time of 6:04.35. Placing third in an indi- vidual event for the Char- gers was sophomore Cole- man Henson in the 200 -yard freestyle with a season-best time of 2:29.87. Placing fourth in individ- ual events for the Chargers were Henson in the 100 -yard freestyle with a time of 1:05.41; junior Colt Carpen- ter in the 50 -yard freestyle with a season-best time of 29.43 seconds; and sopho- more Sam Theising in the 100 -yard backstroke with a season-best time of 1:25.07. In addition, the team of Cassitty, Dudenhoeffer, Henson and Theising placed second in the 200 -yard medley relay with a time of 2:09.80 ; the team of Carpen- ter, Diggs, Dudenhoeffer and Keepes placed second in the 200 -yard freestyle relay; and the team of Boyd, Hen- son, Theising and sopho- more A.J. Hill placed fourth in the 200 -yard freestyle re- lay with a time of 2:13.31. As a team, Pike Central – which placed first in 11 out of 12 events – scored 155 points. Boonville finished second with 82 points. Gib- son Southern was third with 58 points. Pike Central High School senior Ty Cassit- ty competes in boys' diving during a three-team meet hosted by Boonville on Thursday, Nov. 30. Cassitty placed first with a score of 165.95 points. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School sophomore Coleman Henson swims the breast- stroke leg of the boys' 200-yard med- ley relay during a three-team meet hosted by Boonville on Thursday, Nov. 30. Henson teamed up with seniors Ty Cassitty and Jacob Dudenhoeffer and sophomore Sam Theising to place sec- ond with a time of 2:09.80. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Gavin Diggs competes in the boys' 100-yard breaststroke during a three-team meet hosted by Boonville on Thursday, Nov. 30. Diggs placed second with a time of 1:17.87. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Ty Cassitty competes in the boys' 100-yard butterfly during a three-team meet host- ed by Boonville on Thursday, Nov. 30. Cassitty placed first with a time of 1:07.80. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School junior Hailey Marchi- no (24) drives past Eastern Greene senior Lilly Prince (left) during varsity girls' basketball ac- tion on Tuesday, Nov. 28. Marchino came off the bench to score 14 points in the host Lady Char- gers' 71-17 victory. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Erika Hen- drixson (23) looks for an open teammate during varsity girls' basketball action against visiting Eastern Greene on Tuesday, Nov. 28. Hendrixson scored 15 points in the Lady Chargers' 71-17 vic- tory. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior Lukas Hill swims the backstroke leg of the boys' 200-yard individual medley during a three-team meet host- ed by Boonville on Thursday, Nov. 30. Hill placed first with a time of 2:14.01. Ed Cahill photo