Shelbyville Lady Golden Bears Basketball

Last Updated: Friday, March 02, 2001 at 12:18 PM Scoring problems doom Shelbyville By JEFF BROWN Monday, February 19, 2001 at 4:00 PM GREENFIELD — Twenty-four percent shooting wasn’t in Shelbyville’s game plan for winning its first girls’ sectional basketball title since 1979. But twenty-four percent was what the Golden Bears shot from the field in the championship game Saturday against Franklin at Greenfield-Central High School. And because of that, Franklin was able to repeat as sectional champions, 59-52. The win allows Franklin (15-7) to advance to Wednesday’s regional championship game against Class 3A’s top-ranked team and the defending state champion, Indianapolis Cathedral. For Shelbyville (19-4), the loss put an end to a frustrating night. “The ball just wasn’t rolling in,” said Shelbyville coach John Fair. “The outside shots were not going. And even when we’d drive (to the basket), we couldn’t hit a shot.” The Golden Bears’ offense became too one-dimensional and against a veteran team like Franklin, it proved to be their downfall. Senior Sarah Laird, who has been one of the top scorers in the state in the month of February, tried to keep her team close after it fell behind midway through the third quarter. Laird scored all eight of her team’s third quarter points and 14 more in the fourth as the Golden Bears made a furious comeback from a 19-point deficit. When the final horn sounded, Laird led all players with a career-high 33 points. In the sectional tournament, Laird averaged 25 points per game — 10 better than what she averaged this season — and 26 over her last four games in which she set a new career-high twice and tied her career-high another time. “She’s been a great player every time we’ve played her,” said Franklin coach Walt Raines. “I tried to get my kids to get up on her and she just kept moving back a step. They wanted to know just how far out they needed to go to guard her.” If the Lady Grizzly Cubs didn’t step out to the 3-point line on Laird, she would burn them. If they ventured a little too close, she would drive around them to the lane or wind up on the free throw line shooting foul shots. The problem was for the Golden Bears, after the first quarter, Laird was the only player scoring consistently. Shelbyville took a 13-5 lead at the end of the foul-plagued first quarter — courtesy of hitting 8 of 12 free throw attempts — and was already in the double-bonus situation after the Lady Grizzly Cubs were whistled for nine fouls and Raines received a technical foul. But that technical foul seemed to jolt Franklin into gear and Fair knew, at that point, the game was far from over. “We had a couple of times there where we could have gotten the lead to 10 (points) but we couldn’t do it,” Fair said. “I thought when Walt got that tech, the whole game was going to be more tightly called.” And it was. At halftime, the teams combined for 28 fouls and 34 free throw attempts. A 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the second quarter by Laird, gave the Golden Bears the lead, 21-20, at halftime. Fair predicted the rebounding battle would be a key point to the title game after Shelbyville beat Whiteland Friday. In the first half, the half in which the Golden Bears led, Shelbyville outrebounded a bigger, taller Franklin team 16-10. The gameplan started unraveling in the third quarter, when Franklin started attacking. “Early on, we didn’t do a good job of blocking out or taking care of the ball,” said Raines. “And we didn’t attack the post.” In the crucial third quarter, Shelbyville was a mere 2 of 10 from the field, while Franklin was 8 of 12 while outrebounding the Golden Bears 10-1. By the time the quarter ended, Shelbyville’s one-point lead became a 10-point deficit and a bigger problem was emerging — foul trouble. First center Katie Douglas was whistled for her fourth foul then Jenni Ross and finally Gretchen Haehl. With the fouls mounting on key players, Shelbyville had to be careful on defense all the while attacking to whittle what had become a 50-31 lead with 3:48 left in the game. Over the next three minutes, Shelbyville forced the pace of the game, and with Franklin playing not to lose, cut the lead to nine points with 56 seconds left. The Lady Grizzly Cubs would need to be solid from the free throw line to get out of Greenfield alive. Franklin hit 8 of 15 fourth-quarter free throws but just 5 of 8 in the last minute of regulation. A Katie Haney free throw with 51 seconds left pushed the lead back to 10 for Franklin. Laird tried a 3-pointer but missed. Teammate Allison Berger grabbed the rebound and fed Laird who was streaking to the goal for a quick score and a foul. With the free throw, the Golden Bears trailed by seven with 40 seconds left. Hitting 1 of 2 free throws, Franklin’s Laura Bullington increased the lead back to eight. Another score from Laird cut the lead to six with 18 seconds left. Laird was forced to foul after the score — her fifth — and the senior’s career came to a teary end. “It’s a tough loss but we’re trying to build a tradition tonight,” said Fair. “This will be something to stress for next year so we can win this type of game whether its in the post-season or regular season.”