Shelbyville Lady Golden Bears Basketball

Sports Thursday, February 15, 2001 Last Updated: Thursday, February 15, 2001 at 10:52 AM One down, two to go By JEFF BROWN Wednesday, February 14, 2001 at 4:11 PM GREENFIELD — Like a sniper locked in on its target, Shelbyville focused in and waited for its prey to flinch. The Cougars were patient though. Slowing the pace of the game early, Greenfield-Central led until midway through the second quarter in girls’ state tournament sectional action Tuesday. Then the Cougars flinched and the Golden Bears fired. Shelbyville (18-3) outscored Greenfield-Central (13-7) 45-29 over the last 21 minutes to advance in Class 3A Sectional 26 action in Greenfield, 55-39. With the victory, the Class 3A No. 9-ranked Golden Bears move on to face Whiteland Friday at 6 p.m. in the Greenfield-Central Sectional semifinal game. Franklin and Rushville will play in the other semifinal game with the two winners meeting Saturday for the championship. Shelbyville has consistently beaten teams down this season with an attacking full-court press but the team added a new wrinkle to the scouting reports — beware the team’s half-court defense, too. “They shut us down — plain and simple,” said Greenfield-Central coach Shari Doud. “Their pressure on us defensively was phenomenal. We struggled to execute. They smothered our point guard and we struggled to get to spots.” Not early in the game, though. The Cougars continued to find ways to break the Golden Bears’ pressure and find open looks at the basket. Spotting the open cutter allowed Greenfield-Central to score two layups in the last two minutes of the first quarter for an 8-5 lead. And when Ellen Hamilton — the Cougars’ top scorer (20 points per game) — scored a layup on a perfectly-executed back door play, Greenfield-Central led 10-8. Finally, Shelbyville point guard Gretchen Haehl had enough of the Cougars’ zone defense that had the 5-foot-10 Hamilton cheating from the top of the zone over to Sarah Laird’s side of the floor. Laird — Shelbyville’s leading scorer this season and best 3-point shooter — was having trouble getting an open shot with the long-armed Hamilton jumping at her every time she took aim. So Haehl started attacking the lane. The freshman drove past the first line of defense and hit a 15-foot jumper as she was knocked to the floor. Haehl converted 1 of 2 free throws on the Golden Bears’ next possession to give her team the lead, 11-10. She then buried a 3-pointer less than one minute later to get Shelbyville the momentum. A Susan Kolls steal at half court and subsequent layup pushed the lead to 16-10 with three minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the first half as the Cougars hadn’t scored in two minutes. Laird hit a soft-jumper in the lane to keep the tide rolling and Doud finally called timeout. It was too late, though, as the Cougars would never regain the lead. The Golden Bears maintained a six-point lead, 22-16, at the break. They built the advantage to 13 on the strength of center Katie Douglas’ six third-quarter points, and then remained calm as Hamilton hit three 3-pointers in the final quarter to help her team make a final push. While Hamilton was playing mad-bomber from the 3-point arc, Shelbyville salted the game away at the free throw line. The Golden Bears were 11 of 12 from the charity stripe (92 percent) in the fourth quarter and finished the game 12 of 14 (86 percent). Although Hamilton finished with a game-high 23 points, the defense limited the scoring of her teammates. Only Maggie Johnson scored more than four points — she had six on 3 of 6 shooting from the field — for the Cougars. “Hamilton got a lot of shots but I thought we defended her well in the second half,” said Shelbyville coach John Fair. Hamilton was 8 of 18 from the field including 3 of 7 from beyond the 3-point arc. The rest of the Cougars managed just 17 shots and hit only six of them. Shelbyville was led in scoring by Gretchen Haehl. The freshman scored 15 points and had five assists. Laird finished with 13 points, three assists and three steals. Susan Kolls came off the bench to get a team-high six rebounds. The Golden Bears have a similar challenge ahead of them Friday. Whiteland will be looking for revenge and also brings a top-flight scorer into the game. Junior Megan Liffick is averaging 22.4 points per game — 14th best in the state — and scored 28 in her team’s win over New Palestine Tuesday.