GIRLS BASKETBALL

BRINGING BACK THE TITLE

Girls basketball team wins 4A state title for first time since 1985 after 44-34 win against Brownsburg

Senior Alyna Santiago (left) and junior Jessica Carrothers (right) rush towards each other as the buzzer goes off at the end of the fourth quarter of the 4A Girls Basketball State Championship game, signifying the team’s win. PHOTO BY EMILY HELMUTH

BY SAMUEL BREWER co-sports editor

The girls basketball team has overcome the ultimate challenge. For the first time since 1985, the team has won the Indiana Class 4A State Championship, giving the program its third state title.

The girls won the game against the Brownsburg Bulldogs 44-34 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. For junior center and forward Lily Stoddard, this was a great culmination of the team’s work over the season.

“It was a crazy feeling to watch the clock count down the final few seconds of the game. It was a great feeling to see everyone in the crowd that supported us this year. It was really cool to see all of our hard work pay off,” Stoddard said.

The girls won the game after a semistate victory against Caroll 62-46. Head coach Chris Seibert knew that there was a lot of preparation needed for the girls to be successful at state.

“It was a whirlwind week as far as the different obligations were concerned. The team was very excited to have that opportunity to play in the state championship game, something that nobody in my coaching staff besides coach (Scott) Reid had experienced. We tried to make the preparation as normal as possible, with practice, scouting report, and film,” Seibert said.

The preparation had the girls ready to face off against the Brownsburg Bulldogs. According to senior guard Alyna Santiago, the team was ready to bring a title back home.

“We all were obviously so happy to be there, but we knew that since we made it that far that it would be nice to bring a state championship title back home. We all wanted it so bad and I believe that’s why we got the outcome we got,” Santiago said.

Even though the team was confident and ready, they came out of the first quarter losing 19-10. Although this may have discouraged some teams, the girls had experience with these types of deficits, being down 12-5 against Caroll in semi-state and 13-0 against Penn in the regional finals.

The team responded with a 14-0 run in the second quarter.

Santiago believes that that experience the team has had in the past had kept them from losing their focus. continued on next page

Bringing back the title continued

“It’s been a trend for our team this post season to be down after the first quarter or even to just be down and come back. So I didn’t lose faith at all because I knew that we could come back from a deficit like that and still win,” Santiago said.

Starting the comeback was Stoddard, hitting two back to back field goals, one being a three-pointer. She describes what she was thinking during that quarter.

“During that quarter I was thinking that we needed to get some momentum. My teammates were able to get me the ball and give me good passes. During the second quarter there were some other players on our team that hit some good shots,” Stoddard said.

While the 14 point run was impressive, arguably more impressive was the total of zero points allowed by Crown Point during the entire second quarter. In fact, the team ended up allowing only 15 points in total after the first quarter. Seibert praised the team’s defensive cohesiveness, giving it ‘‘ I could easily see them come and win back to back which would be amazing. Don’t rest on your laurels. Enjoy it, take a month to enjoy and then get back to work. Especially being a leader and making sure the younger kids are coming in all summer and working hard. Let’s not just rest on one, let’s go for two.

1984 and 1985 state champion and teacher Anne Equihua

credit for their strong defensive performance.

“We have some individual players who are tremendous, but I think our greatest strength is them as a whole, as a unit, communicating, being able to switch all five positions, everyone rebounding the basketball, and using a scouting report to take away a lot of things that they (opponents) want to do. I think they did an outstanding job with that from the second quarter on,” Seibert said. After the team took the lead in the second quarter, they never looked back. The team won the third girls basketball state championship in the school’s history, the other two coming in 1984 and 1985. Santiago recounted what it felt like to have her last game in high school be winning a state title.

“It definitely was a sad moment for me because I never wanted it to end. Playing for that team was my life for four years and for it to end, no matter the outcome, it’s still

(Top) Junior Jessica Carrothers, junior Alyvia Santiago, senior Allie Govert and senior Alyna Santiago (left to right) begin to celebrate with seconds left in the fourth quarter. (Right) Junior Lily Stoddard poses with the state trophy. PHOTOS BY EMILY HELMUTH

(Left) The bench storms the court as the buzzer goes off; signifying the team’s win.

(Top) Junior Jessica Carrothers (right) fights off Brownsburg’s Ally Becki as she goes for a basket. Carrothers scored 25 out of the 44 points for the Bulldogs and was recently named the 2020-21 MaxPreps Indiana High School Player of the year.

PHOTOS BY EMILY HELMUTH

(Right) Senior Alyna Santiago dribbles down the court. Santiago plans to continue her basketball career next year at Indiana University Northwest.

heartbreaking. But we went out with a bang and it’s so nice because I feel like it’s a reflection of all of our hard work these past four years,” Santiago said.

Watching the game in the stadium was Taft Middle School math teacher and former Lady Bulldog Anne Equihua. She was one of the players who won the back to back state titles in 1984 and 1985. She even went on to write her name in history after being inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. According to Equihua, there were a lot of similarities between the current team and the ones who won state.

“It’s funny because even following the girls all season long, not being able to go to the games but following them through live streams and watching them, their team reminded me a lot of both our ‘84 team as well as our 85’ team,” Equihua said.

After only graduating three seniors, Seibert is confident with the ability of the underclassmen to possibly to win the title again next year.

“(The juniors) have the potential to be the most successful group to ever come through Crown Point High School. It’s a large group, six of them, four of which played major minutes. I expect all six will contribute next year. They’re all great leaders, great kids, what they’ve accomplished is amazing but we’re very excited about what the future holds,” Seibert said.

In fact, Stoddard has already set some goals to ensure that her team has continued success far into next year.

“Next year I’m hoping that we can make it far into the post season. I focus on rebounding a lot, and I’m trying to expand my game and work on my versatility. I’ve been working out with my shooting coach, Niko Panousis, to work on shooting and different moves,” Stoddard said.

According to Equihua, that work ethic is exactly whats needed to push the team to winning big next season, but it’s important to let the moment sink in.

“Basically, don’t stop,” Equihua said. “I could easily see them come and win back to back which would be amazing. Don’t rest on your laurels. Enjoy it, take a month to enjoy and then get back to work. Especially being a leader and making sure the younger kids are coming in all summer and working hard. Let’s not just rest on one, let’s go for two.” ‘‘ We all were obviously so happy to be there, but we knew that since we made it that far that it would be nice to bring a state championship title back home. We all wanted it so bad and I believe that’s why we got the outcome we got.