We Are Together. That's the motto of the Noblesville Millers and how they break every huddle. This team defines the word together, they stay together during the game and off the court, no matter what the circumstances and they play together oh so well. The total selflessness as a whole by this basketball team is simply uncanny.
Noblesville 68, Pendleton Heights 61 (Wednesday, Jan. 29 at Pendleton Heights)
Millers 14 21 15 18 -- 68
Arabians 12 18 13 18 -- 61
The upswing Millers had a tough task, but ultimately were able to keep their streak rolling. They headed just north to Pendleton and escaped the feisty host Arabians with a 68-61 road win.
Pendleton Heights normally has a pretty decent season every year and the Millers knew this would be a tight game throughout. Head coach Donna Keck knew that she might have different personnel step up to score.
The sophomore duo of Katelyn O'Reilly and Alexis Shannon have now given the Noblesville offense a different dimension.
The Millers jumped out in front of the Arabians 14-12 after one quarter and narrowly outscored Pendleton Heights 21-18 in the 2nd to take a 35-30 lead in to the locker room at halftime.
Noblesville kept the upper hand on the road by leading 50-43 thru three and, despite Pendleton Heights tying the 4th 18-18, the Millers escaped with a 68-61 win.
Pendleton Heights dropped to 12-6 with the loss. The Arabians got three into double-digit scoring with Hammel (17), Siefken (15) and Cottrell (10) leading the way.
The Arabians shot pretty decent overall from the floor, going 26-55 (47%) and 2-7 (29%) from three-point range. What really shot Pendleton Heights in the foot and took away any chances to beat Noblesville, was the fact that they were a dismal 7-18 (39%) from the free throw line. They also turned the ball over 23 times to Noblesville's 15.
One thing the Millers figured out that it really isn't a must to excel from outside the three-point arc every single game. Noblesville couldn't make a three (0-13) on this particular night and it didn't really seem to matter. Keck's girls shot 23-58 overall (40%) from the field, but what sealed things was NHS sinking 22 of 29 (76%) free throws.
The scoring duo of Katelyn O'Reilly and Alexis Shannon just couldn't be stopped at all. O'Reilly led all with a game-high 24 points and snagged 11 rebounds, not to mention 3 assists and a pair of steals. Shannon also finished with a double-double, going for 18 points and 10 rebounds, while also picking up two steals. The two sophomores combined to shoot 17-22 from the floor (O'Reilly 10-11, Shannon 7-11) and converted 8-10 free throws. That's 42 points, 21 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals between the two!
Other notables for Noblesville were Erin Wood with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocked shots. Audrey DeFoe also had 8 points on four field goals. Kayleigh "Nikita" Herron pitched in with a pretty balanced stat line of 4 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. Cori Cain added 4 and Jessica Kiser had 2.
Noblesville 75, Lafayette Jeff 54 (Friday, Jan. 31 at Marion Crawley Center, Lafayette)
Millers 20 26 16 17 -- 79
Bronchos 13 6 12 23 -- 54
It doesn't matter what the matchup is in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference, it's going to be an extremely competitive game. That being said, the Millers didn't take last Friday's opponent lightly at all. It's been quite a struggle so far this season for head coach Andy Baker. He and his Lady Bronchos sit at 0-8 in HCC play and a 1-17 overall mark.
That trend for the home standing Lafayette Jeff Bronchos didn't change on Friday, January 31, as the streaking Noblesville Millers came to the historic Marion Crawley Center and easily handled the hosts with a convincing 79-54 win.
Jeff kept up with Noblesville in the first quarter, trailing just 20-13 after eight minutes of play. After that, it was almost like the Millers shifted gears and the Bronchos were just completely baffled and trailed Noblesville 46-19 at halftime.
It didn't really get any better after halftime, as the Millers were now doubling up Lafayette Jeff, 62-31.
Head coach Donna Keck had a lot more freedom with her bench in this ballgame and let her bench do a majority of the work in the fourth, but they were outscored by the hosts 23-17, and eventually put this one to bed in blowout fashion, 79-54.
Lafayette Jeff turned the ball over 22 times to Noblesville's 11. The Bronchos really struggled shooting the basketball, going 19-58 overall (33%) and making just 5-19 (26%) from three-point land.
The sophomore pair of O'Reilly and Shannon did it once again, leading the Millers in the scoring column for the third consecutive game. Alexis Shannon led all scorers with 22 points on 10-15 field goals, while her best friend Katelyn O'Reilly added a really balanced game with 10 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.
Erin Wood had 9 points and 5 rebounds, but she did a majority of her production at the free throw stripe, making 7 of her 10 attempts. Nikita Herron upped her stats again for the second straight game, scoring 8, while dishing out 5 assists and grabbing 4 steals. Her freshman sister Brooke scored 8 points on 2-5 from 3-point range and also managed to grab a pair of boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. Erin "Paco" Flynn had a solid performance off the Miller bench with 8 points on 4-8 shooting. Jessica Kiser had another good night with 7 points and 7 rebounds, while Cori Cain added 5 assists to go with her 4 points.
Lafayette Jeff dropped to 1-16 with this loss to Noblesville, but have now sunk to 1-17 (0-8 HCC) with a 72-34 defeat at Hamilton Southeastern last night, Monday, February 3.
Noblesville continues their streak to 7 games and improves their overall record to 15-3 (6-2 HCC) with their two wins over Pendleton Heights and Lafayette Jeff. With two regular season games left on the docket, Noblesville could be riding tremendous momentum heading into the IHSAA Girls Basketball State Tournament.
The Millers face their toughest test to date this Thursday, February 6th, when the hit the road again and face 4A #1 Lawrence North (19-1). The Lady Wildcats have the 2nd highest scoring average in the state of Indiana at 77.5 points per game. They also allow just 39 per game and their average margin of defeat is 38 points per outing. LN started out the 2013-14 season on a 14-game winning streak, but that streak was snapped by fellow MIC foe 4A #16 Pike, 53-50 on January 11 at Lawrence North.
4A #14 Noblesville concludes the regular season this Friday, February 7, when they'll play the 6 p.m. game of a girls/boys doubleheader at The Mill when the Harrison (West Lafayette) Raiders (6-12, 2-5 HCC) come to town. The boys game will follow at around 7:45.
Stay tuned prior to the 2014 4A Sectional 8 tournament at North Central for a complete breakdown of our particular sectional, as well as my predictions for how things will go throughout the state of Indiana!
As always, if you like what you're reading and want to give me a follow on Twitter, please do so. I did change my Twitter name from irishcub4life to MillerVoiceNDCB!
GO MILLERS!
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