It could be called one of those "better late than never" situations and it's obviously working out currently for the Noblesville Miller girls basketball team.
4A#1 Hamilton Southeastern 61, Noblesville 36 (at The Mill, Friday, 12/1/12)
On Friday, December 7th, the Millers welcomed county and Hoosier Crossroads Conference rival Hamilton Southeastern to The Mill for a girls-boys doubleheader.
Donna Keck's Miller appeared to have been more prepared than the visiting Royals thought they would be. Things were tied up at 10-10 after the first frame and that had the Noblesville faithful both surprised and excited that their Millers were sticking right with the #1 team in Class 4A.
Noblesville had four different leads in the first, but things changed quickly in the second. The Millers grabbed an 12-10 edge, but HSE's Lindsay Walton knocked down a three to give the Royals a 13-12 lead that they would never give back to Noblesville.
The Royals took a 27-20 halftime advantage and they were just getting started through two quarters. Miss Basketball candidate and Notre Dame signee Taya Reimer was held to 3 first half points on a field goal and free throw. Walton led HSE with 8 to pace the Royals.
Noblesville's demeanor changed at halftime. The ran off the court and into the locker room as if the game was already over, but there were still 16 minutes left. Slowly, but surely, Hamilton Southeastern pulled away from the home standing Millers. After three, the Royals extended their seven point halftime lead to a 45-30 margin.
During the fourth quarter, Noblesville had pretty much run out of gas. The Royals outscored the Millers 16-6 in the final eight minutes to turn this HCC game, that was close in the first half, into a blowout, 61-36.
Kayleigh Herron led Noblesville in scoring with 12 points, followed by Becca Bergman with 11 and five assists. Jessica Kiser and Erin Wood were both held to just two points each, but Kiser (5) and Wood (9) were able to grab rebounds.
Hamilton Southeastern spread out their scoring. Taya Reimer had 17 points, 14 in the second half, and six rebounds. Lindsay Walton was the heartbeat of the Royals on this night. She had 15 points and five boards. Megan Walton (8) and Kalee Huppenthal (7) were also big contributors for HSE.
Brownsburg 75, Noblesville 72 (at The Mill, Saturday, 12/15/12)
Two games in a row against Miss Basketball candidates is a lot to ask, but Stephanie Mavunga isn't Brownsburg's whole team. This was one of the more physical games that Noblesville played to this point of the season, hands down. It was a taxing 32 minutes, but Brownsburg was able to escape Noblesville with a 75-72 win over the Millers.
Noblesville took a 16-15 lead after one, but had a letdown before halftime. You could just see it on the face of Becca Bergman that she was going to do whatever her Miller teammates needed.
Mavunga had 22 first half points, 11 in each quarter and launched the Bulldogs to a 36-27 halftime lead, outscoring Noblesville 21-11 in the second.
Brownsburg kept it up in the third with an 18-10 quarter and you could almost count Noblesville out...almost.
Noblesville played their hearts out in the 4th, outscoring Brownsburg 25-21. Stephanie Mavunga fouled out with 46.1 seconds left on the clock, but managed to drop 39 points on the Millers before committing her fifth personal.
The Millers tried to find their way back and almost found themselves in position to win the game, but Brownsburg found their saving grace in freshman forward Aliyah Walker. With Mavunga fouled out, Walker found her time to shine for the Bulldogs down the stretch, making 6-of-8 free throws to help Brownsburg to a 75-72 win at Noblesville,
Brownsburg was able to spread around their scoring, aside from Mavunga's 39. Walker wound up with 10, while Kayle Comer had 9 and Mackenzie Trout with 6, to make up for the majority of the Bulldog points.
Becca Bergman had a team-high 28 for Noblesville, followed by Erin Flynn with 9, Jessica Kiser (8), Alexis Shannon and Kayleigh Herron (7) each and Cori Cain (5) were most of the Millers' point totals.
Noblesville 60, Anderson 56 (OT) (at Anderson, Thursday, 12/27/12)
The Millers knew that it would be a tough task to steal a win on the road at Anderson. The fact that it was over the Christmas Holiday break, was going to make it a challenge for both squads.
After Anderson took the opening frame 8-7, it was quite obvious that it would be an absolute dogfight throughout the rest of the game.
Noblesville exploded in the second with a 20-11 advantage for a 27-19 lead at the half. Anderson tried to defend their home court as best as it could, taking the final two quarters of regulation, 32-24, which sent this game into overtime, all tied up at 51-51.
The Millers did what was needed to rise to the occaision in the extra period, overtaking the Indians 9-5 for a 60-56 victory.
Anderson shot just 31% overall (21-67) and 32% (8-25) on their three-point attempts. They weren't able to get to the free throw line as much, only going 6-for-8. Thompson had 17 points and 8 rebounds, while Bentley notched a double-double with 12 points and 12 boards. The rest of the Indians combined for the remaining 27 for Anderson.
In a very balanced team effort, Becca Bergman led the way with a team-high 15 points (7-16 FG's) and 5 assists. Jessica Kiser also had a great game with 13 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals, while shooting 4-7 from the field and 5-6 free throws.
It really became a dominating game for Noblesville's frontcourt. Katelyn O'Reilly had 8 points and 7 rebounds and Erin Wood had 6 points and 9 boards, while the two combined for 4 blocked shots. Erin Flynn (7 points) and Alexis Shannon (4 points) also got together for 16 rebounds.
Noblesville didn't shoot a whole lot better, going 23-53 (43%), but really struggled from the charity stripe, shooting a dismal 43% (12-28). The Millers did outrebound the Indians (50-36), but turned the ball over more than Anderson (24-19).
Noblesville 64, Harrison 25 (at Harrison, Thursday 1/3/13)
This game was over as soon as the Millers got off the bus in West Lafayette. Harrison has a history of really not being a good girls basketball school and finds itself normally at the bottom of the standings of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference.
As Noblesville took the first two quarters, 18-5 and 18-2, respectively to take a 36-7 lead at halftime. The Millers again dominated the third quarter, 22-9, to put things in complete cruise control for the final eight minutes with a 58-16 advantage. Harrison was able to take the fourth (9-6) with Noblesville's reserves seeing all minutes of the fourth.
Harrison turned the ball over with ease and at-will 28 times to Noblesville's 10. Noblesville held the host Raiders to a mere 20% (8-20) from the floor overall and even worse from three-point land (18%).
Noblesville was again led by Becca Bergman with a game-high 16 points on 7-9 field goals. Erin Flynn found herself having another great game off the Miller bench with 9 points and three rebounds. Other notable scorers for Noblesville were Cori Cain (7), Jessica Kiser (6) and Erin Wood (6). As a team, the Millers shot decent, going 23-56 (41%).
Noblesville 69, 3A#7 Mt. Vernon (Fortville) 64 (at Mt. Vernon, Saturday 1/5/13)
Last year at Noblesville, the Millers had an upset in mind, but lost to the eventual Class 3A state runner-up Marauders. This season, those same Millers were grown up another year and were more than ready to upset Mt. Vernon, and upset they did on the Marauders' home court, 69-64.
Bergman seems to always play up a notch when the Millers play an opponent that's ranked or should give her more of a challenge. She really put up some numbers against Mt. Vernon with 23 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals.
Noblesville was up 37-32 at halftime. It's a good thing they clung to that five point lead at half. With Mt. Vernon taking the third, 17-14, NHS was up just 51-49 heading into the final eight minutes. Noblesville outlasted the Marauders 18-15 in the fourth to hang on for a 69-64 upset of 3A #7 Mt. Vernon.
Alexis Shannon and Jessica Kiser gave Bergman a nice helping hand with 15 and 14, respectively.
Noblesville forced the Marauders into 20 turnovers to just 12 for the Millers. Shelton and Houck (49)combined for much of Mt. Vernon's scoring, but it obviously wasn't enough to fend off Noblesville's attack.
It was Noblesville's key play from their frontcourt of Kiser, Shannon and Flynn that propelled them to the upset over then-3A #7 ranked Mt. Vernon.
Fishers 64 Noblesville 54
It was Coaches vs. Cancer night at Noblesville with Fishers and Noblesville's girls teams collaborating on raising money toward fighting cancer.
It was a close battle throughout with these two Hoosier Crossroads Conference and Hamilton county rivals. Leading 20-15 and 31-24 after two quarters, it seems like Fishers' speed was going to be way too much for Noblesville, despite their own ability to run with just about any opponent.
Fishers started pulling away after the third with a 49-38 advantage and eventually kept Noblesville at a distance, winning by the count of 64-54.
Brooke Sugg led all scorers with 20 points on six field goals. She was helped out by Adrianna Murphy (12), Alex Hochstedler (9), Abby Mozingo (9) and Kara Gerka (7) to round out most of the Tigers' scoring.
Noblesville was led by junior forward Jessica Kiser with 16 on four field goals and 8-of-9 free throws, including converting all seven attempts in the fourth. Erin Wood also dropped in 11, while Becca Bergman (9) and Kayleigh Herron (8) contributed to the Miller offense.
Come back to my blog for more on Noblesville girls basketball. I'll have the rest of the regular season games, Avon through Lawrence North, before Noblesville faces Zionsville Tuesday in the first game of the Class 4A Westfield Sectional #8 at 7 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment