The Mail-Journal, Volume 22, Number 9, Milford, Kosciusko County, 27 February 1985 — Page 9

Sports

Lady Warriors survive Austin comeback bid

By CHRIS CAULEY It’s best to be both. The Sports Editor Wawasee Lady Warriors were as . they defeated the Austin Lady Sometimes it’s better to be Eagles, 56-54, Saturday afternoon lucky than good. at the Girls’ Basketball State

<3>:' w ** z * wmL .' >w s3~ '<■ _■ — ttjff — —1 TOP-FLIGHT GUARDS — Anita Swope nears the Austin basket on one of Wawasee’s many fast breaks in a 56-54 Warrior win. On defense is Austin’s Jodie Whitaker, the state’s all-time leading scorer in girls’ basketball. Swope scored 11 points, dished out four assists and blocked two shots in Wawasee’s first-game win. (Photo by Chris Cauley) KmBBBb lEWSfe' V Ba 'TilfflnE ' 3BbL Fiul™ «■ JwV > ~9F° JT "4 f "— —X '■ ' v TOP SCORER — Michelle Harter puts up a shot during the Lady Warriors’ 56-54 win over Austin. Harter, a junior forward, led Wawasee in scoring at Market Square Arena with 22 points in two games. She was named to the Associated Press’ All-Tourney team. (Photo by Chris Cauley)

Set school record —

Swimmers enjoy trip to state

Wawasee’s 200-yard medley relay team failed to place at the IHSAA Swimming Meet in Indianapolis this past Saturday, but the Warrior swimmers did set a new school record in their event. Sophomore Steve Rozow (backstroke) and seniors Jon Shoemaker (butterfly), Nils Haugland (breathstroke) and Rob Jewson (freestyle) combined for a 200-yard time of 1:45.57, eClipsing the record of 1:45.71 they’d set just a week ago at the sectional.

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SUCCESSFUL SWIMMERS — Wawasee’s 200-yard medley relay team failed to place at the IHSAA State Meet in Indianapolis Saturday, but the four swimmers did set a new school record in the event with their time of 1:45.57. They took a bow at Sunday’s special “Welcome Home” pep session at the high school gym. Pictured, from left to right, are Steve Rozow, Nils Haugland, Jon Shoemaker, Rob Jewson and Coach Tim Caldwell. (Photo by Ron Baumgartner)

The state meet was in fact only the third time this season that the four swimmers had teamed in the 200-yard medley relay. “We needed them to score in other places,” explained Coach Tim Caldwell. \ Thirty-two teams participated in the state swim meet at the Natatorium. Columbus North took the team championship. The 200-yard medley relay event, run in four heats like a track meet, was won by Warren Central’s quartet in a time of 1:38.5.

Finals in Indianapolis. To the Lady Warriors’ way of thinking, being “good” means being “balanced,” and that they were. As usual. The five starters all scored between 10 and 15 points.' “Look at your book,” Coach Dale Brannock told the assembled media after the contest. “Ten, 10,15,10,11. That’s a team. I defy a singleplayer to beat a team if a team is right. That’s the key for us right there — balance all the way down the line. It’s unbelievable as far as I’m concerned.” When Brannock referred to the “single player,” he probably meant Austin’s Jodie Whitaker. Or he may have meant Tina Reece, Whitaker’s backcourt mate. Both are all-state candidates, and they were averaging about 50 points a game between them entering the state finals. They’d scored 38 points between them when, with six seconds left in the game and Wawasee ahead by two points, Whitaker intercepted Christy Speicher’s in-bounds pass at Wawasee’s end of the court. Whitaker, the first girl in Indiana high school girls’ basketball to score more than 2,000

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LOOKING TO SCORE — Wawasee’s Christy Speicher goes up to shoot near the basket during the Lady Warriors’ 70-57 victory over Austin. Speicher, a senior forward, scored 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the game. (Photo by Chris Cauley)

Wawasee finished 29th out of the 32 teams. But, Caldwell said, “I can’t be disappointed at all. I think they were at first. They wanted to place, but they swam just about as fast as they could go. It was a good experience, something they can look back on.” And, by the way, the local contingent was able to make it over to Market Square Arena to watch the Lady Warriors play their afternoon game against Austin.

points and a 53 percent field goal shooter this season, drove the left side and pulled up for a 15-foot jumper. The shot rimmed out, but right into the hands of none other than Tina Reece, who shot a mere 58 percent from the floor this season. Reece’s 8-foot shot just before the buzzer also missed, and the Lady Warriors had a 56-54 victory. As said, it helps to have Lady Luck on your side. “They just wouldn’t fall,” said Austin coach Rick Rigel. “Some nights things go your way and some nights they go your opponent’s way. Tonight they went Wawasee’s way. “I’m bitterly disappointed myself and I know the kids are broken-hearted,” Rigel added. “But hopefully by Sunday or Monday we’ll realize that we played very well this year and that there are a lot of things we can be very, very proud of.” The Lady Warriors did many things right in winning, but two key factors were their domination inside, both scoring and on the boards, and their defense. The Warriors’ starting front-

Then the swimmers returned to the Natatorium to swim at They stayed until the meeFwas over at 10. The Wawasee swimmers enjoyed a good 1984-85 season in general, Caldwell said. They finished 10-4-1 in duel meets and 6-0-1 in NLC meets. That is Wawasee’s best-ever conference finish, and the Warriors’ third place sectional finish tied the team’s best previous placing. “We never expected any of that, with only three seniors coming back,” Caldwell said. The team will begin lifting weights in two weeks, the coach said, and will open the pool for interested swimmers as soon as school is out. Caldwell looks for 12 swimmers to return next fall, eight of them lettermen from this season. “This year we only had three seniors arid next year we’re only going to have two,” he said. “So the young guys are really going to have to come through for us.” To show game on television Word has been received from both Noble Cable Television and Wawasee High School officials that the girls' basketball championship game will be shown on the Message Center (local access cable-television) at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 2, and at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 6, at 6 p.m. Permission for the broadcast has been granted by the IHSAA and WKJG, Fort Wayne.

court of Lori Galloway, Christy Speicher and Michelle Harter outscored their counterparts from Austin by 35-16 and outrebounded them by 34-18. Galloway, a junior center, finished the game 6-for-ll from the floor and was the game’s leading rebounder with 13, nine of them in the first half. “We were just not strong enough on the boards,” Rick Rigel said. “They killed us there during one stretch. It was a very physical game. That’s tournament style.” Defensively, the Warriors, playing their zone defense, limited Austin to 35 percent shooting from the field. Reece and Whitaker were a combined 18-for-54. “We have two very good guards (Anita Swope and Sandy Payne),” said Dale Brannock. “That’s my defense. We knew Whitaker and Reece were going to score. We just tried to put a little extra pressure on them, know where they were all the time, because we felt that was most of their offense.” With the Warriors dominating on the boards and Austin not hitting, Wawasee’s fast-break offense was also in high gear, and the Warriors scored on several layups. There were two key scoring surges for Wawasee. The first came at the start of the second quarter, a 12-point run that gave the Warriors a 26-15 lead. Galloway scored three of the six buckets, with Swope and Payne both connecting from outside. The Lady Warriors maintained an 11-point advantage going into halftime, then increased it to 44-31 with an 8-point run in the middle of the third period. Typically, the four baskets were aU scored by different players. Then, like Kokomo had done against Wawasee in the semi-

Warrior Balance Wawasee (56) FG FT Pts Speicher 5 0-1 10 Harter 5 0-2 10 Galloway 6 3-4 15 Payne 5 0-0 10 Swope 5 1-3 11 Stiver 0 0-0 0 Totals 26 4-10 56 Austin (54) FG FT Pts White 4 1-2 9 Robinson 0 0-0 0 Jul. Whitaker 2 34 7 Reece 8 0-0 16 Jod. Whitaker 10 2-3 22 Holbrook 0 0-0 0 Sexton 0 0-0 0 Totals 24 6-9 54 Wawasee 14 20 10 12 — 56 Austin 15 10 15 14 — 54 Fouled out - None. Total fouls - Wawasee 11. Austin 13.

Shorts on sports/ by Chris Cauley

\ There’s nothing like high school basketball when it comes to generating fan fervor in the state of Indiana, and the Wawasee Lady Warriors and their legion of fans got a good taste of it last week. Pep sessions, photo sessions, interview sessions — where would it all end? Everyone wanted — badly —for it to end in a state championship Saturday night, and it nearly did. The Lady Warriors won their first game at Market Square Arena, 56-54 over. Austin, but then lost in the championship game to Crown Point, 48-31. The way the Lady Warriors played in their afternoon game, and the way Crown Point played in their 46-42 afternoon win over Rushville, you had to feel confident about the Warriors’ chances while you were touring Indianapolis between games. Wawasee had looked excellent, Crown Point only so-so. But in the final game, it was different. Crown Point, the defending state champs and in the final game for the third year in a row, played like the Final Four veterans they were. Their execution was flawless, both in terms of what they wanted to do when they had the ball and what they wanted to do when Wawasee had it. The loss was a bitter pill to swallow for the Wawasee players and Coach Dale Brannock, but they did make it to the championship game, and isn’t that what it’s all about? “It was fun,” said senior guard Sandy Payne, the Lady Warriors’ career leader in assists. “It was a good experience.” Added senior guard Anita Swope, the carear scoring leader at Wawasee, “It was something we’ll never forget. It was a dream we had and we fulfilled that dream, except for winning the final game.” In the Warriors’ afternoon win over Austin, the Warriors dominated play inside while Swope and Payne proved they were up to the task of guarding Austin’s pair of high-scoring guards, Jodie Whitaker and Tina Reece. The Austin pair had accounted for an average of 50 points per game this season, and both were comfortably over the 50 percent mark in shooting accuracy. Against Wawasee’s zone, Whitaker and Reece were a combined 18-for-54 from the field. “They were fast,” Sandy Payne said of the Austin guards. “They were really good. Sometimes they got out of control, though, and that’s when we went for the steal.” The Warriors made numerous steals, which led to numerous fast breaks and numerous baskets. When Warrior shots did fail to drop, Christy Speicher, Lori Galloway and Michelle Harter were usually there for the rebound. “They weren’t as tall as other teams, and it was a little bit easier to get rebounds,” Speicher said. Speicher was spared having to wear goat’s horns when Whitaker and Reece both missed last-second shots that would have sent the con-

state, Austin mounted a comeback. The Lady Eagles outscored the Warriors 19-4 over the next eight minutes to take a 50-48 lead with 2:04 left. Galloway tied it with a pair of free throws, and Sandy Payne put Wawasee ahead to stay by scoring on two consecutive layups. The Warriors could have put the game away from the free throw line in the last 40 seconds, but twice missed the front end of one-and-ones. However, Swope did convert a free throw with 22 seconds left, and Galloway made one with 14 seconds left to give Wawasee a

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BIG FREE THROW — Lori Galloway’s free throw with 14 seconds left on the Market Square Arena clock helped clinch the Lady Warriors’ first game win over Austin. Galloway had 15 points and 13 rebounds in the contest. (Photo by Chris Cauley)

Wed., February 27,1985 — THE MAIL-JOURNAL

56-52 lead. Whitaker quickly scored on a layup for Austin, setting up the climatic ending. HARDWOOD NOTES - Statistically, the Lady Warriors finished the game hitting 26 of 65 shots for 40 percent. The Wawasee defense featured seven blocked shots, two of them by Lori Galloway — and two apiece by Anita Swope and Sandy Payne ... The game was very fastpaced most of the time, yet the starters of both teams almost went the distance. Rebecca Stiver was Wawasee’s only sub, getting in for one minute, while Austin’s two subs played only 20

test into overtime. With Wawasee ahead by two and six seconds left, Speicher’s in-bounds lob pass from underneath the Wawasee basket was intercepted by Whitaker, setting up the climactic ending. “I thought I was gonna die,” Speicher said when asked what was going through her mind. “That (the Austin game) was probably one of our better games, all-around,” Anita Swope said. “Too bad we couldn’t have had that game against Crown Point.” i Miss Basketball candidate Anne Kvachkoff poured in 14 points in the first half as the Bulldogs raced to a 27-14 halftime advantage in the title tilt and, the way Crown Point was playing, the second half was all but academic. “Not too many teams could have come close to them the way they were playing,” Speicher said. “They were doing everything right.” “We don’t want to make any excuses,” added Sandy Payne. “They were the better team that night. They deserved to win.” “We had the chance, but we just couldn’t execute,” Anita Swope said. “They simply played better ball than we did.’ 4 Many observers, including Crown Point’s Tom Mas, observed that Wawasee looked tired in the final game, that perhaps Dale Brannock should have substituted more in the first game. The Lady Warriors did indeed look tired in the final game, but it should be noted that Brannock substituted very little in the afternoon game of the semi-state a week ago, and it paid off then. “I really don’t think we were all that tired,” Swope said. “Things just didn’t go well for us. We had a bad night.” “We couldn’t hit from outside and Lori (Galloway) was getting beat up on inside,” added Payne. “We couldn’t make ’em and they couldn’t miss,” said Speicher. The three Warrior seniors also wanted to thank their many fans, who supported the team all season long, even turning out in force for a pep session the day after the championship game loss. “They were great,” Payne said. “The three communities were terrific. When we lost, we didn’t expect the welcome that we got. It was as if we had won. Everyone was so appreciative.” “We wanted to win for ourselves, but also for them,” Swope added, “because they’ve shown a lot of support for us all four years that we’ve been in high school here.” Even though they did lose the championship, the players went far enough to become a part of Indiana girls’ basketball history. First it was the Sweet 16, then the Final Four and finally the final two. Quite an accomplishment for a girls’ team from a little-known school in northern Indiana. “I don’t think we realize it yet,” Payne said. “I know,” Swope said. “It doesn’t seem like it’s anything big right now, but I’m sure it will later.”

minutes of a possible 160 minutes ... In addition to Galloway’s 13 rebounds, Christy Speicher had 11 boards, Michelle Harter 10 and Swope 7 .. . Attendance for the two afternoon games was 14,128, a new record for girls’ basketball at Market Square Arena .. . Austin finished the season 24-4 while Wawasee improved to 23-1 .. . Basketball photographers had two great shots Saturday. One was of Bobby Knight throwing a chair in Bloomington, the other was of the heart-broken Austin team falling to the floor in unison when Reece missed the last-second shot.

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