Lady Cougars pick up three wins
By Jim McCarter Contributing sportswriter

Carroll's Lady Cougars had a great week of basketball, picking up three victories to improve to 9-9. The Lady Cougars defeated a quality team with a 38-32 come-frombehind victory over the Lewis Cass Lady Kings, and rode the energy from that game to a pair of blowout wins Saturday. Carroll rolled over Rossville 55-34 in the morning then pounded Lowell 59-38 that afternoon in a makeup game from Dec. 15 when a snowstorm kept the Red Devils from participating in the Carroll Classic.

The three-consecutive victories follow a stretch of fourstraight losses that had Carroll coach Mike McCroskey a bit concerned.

"Our biggest concern wasn't that we lost four games in a row," McCroskey explained. "We lost to four good teams (Winamac, Maconaquah, Lafayette Central Catholic and Tri-Central). We were concerned our girls would lose confidence in themselves, but that didn't happen. They saw that we were getting better each week. Our win over Cass carried over to Saturday's games and hopefully will give us confidence next week and in the sectional."

Lewis Cass at Carroll

In a season full of close calls and moral victories the Lady Cougars found a way to finish off a strong Lewis Cass team.

"No question, the big change in the 2nd half was our rebounding," McCroskey said. "We were attacking the boards in the 2nd half. Another key was we started driving to the basket. In the 3rd quarter we got some penetration and kicks and Jess [Yoder] and Jaime [McCarter] each hit a big three."

The Lady Cougars were trailing 21-16 when Jess Yoder hit McCarter on the right wing where she knocked down Carroll's first 3-pointer of the game. Following a two-point basket by Cass, Quinci Eller found J. Yoder in the right corner for another three ball. The next time down the floor Eller drove to the basket and put a spin move on the Lady Kings for a lay up and Carroll's first lead at 24-23 with 2:19 left.

Cass scored five unanswered points to end the quarter to take a 28-24 lead. The 4th quarter brought bad news for the Lady Cougars when Brooke Yoder drove to the basket, was fouled and went down hard, leaving the game with an injury to her right knee. The injury was to her ACL, but she may make it back in time for sectional play.

Krystal Brazel replaced her and hit a pair of free throws to cut the gap to 28-26. McCarter followed with a driving lay up to tie the game, then Abby Reinke hit two more free throws to give Carroll a 30-28 lead.

Pressure defense by the Lady Cougars forced Lewis Cass turnovers on the Lady Kings' first three possessions of the 4th quarter. Carroll's pressure also got to the Cass shooters who hit just two of 10 fieldgoal attempts in the 4th quarter, scoring just 4 points.

"Steve [Ford] does a great job with his girls," McCroskey said. "I didn't think our press would get us a lot of steals because Steve's teams don't make a lot of mistakes. We wanted to press to keep them out of their set offense and I think we caused them to take quicker shots than they wanted."

A steal and a lay up by Brittiani Gillem tied the game with 3:41 left, but the Lady Cougars would score the final six points of the game.

Eller hit a lay up and got fouled for a three-point play to put Carroll on top 35-32 with 3:00 to go, then the Lady Cougars took nearly 2:00 off the clock with excellent ball control.

McCarter hit a pair of free throws with 1:03 left for a 37-32 Carroll advantage, then Reinke closed out scoring with another free toss with just :06 left.

Carroll hit 16 of 20 free throws in the game (80%), including a game-winning 10 of 11 in the 4th quarter.

Reinke paced the Lady Cougars with a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. McCarter added 9 points and Eller scored 6.

Rossville at Carroll

Whatever Carroll's head coach said to his team at halftime Saturday morning, let's hope someone wrote it down.

The Lady Cougars came roaring out of the locker room and steamrolled the (7-12) Rossville Lady Hornets 27-4 in the 3rd quarter and coasted to a 55-34 Hoosier Heartland Conference victory.

The win capped a good 3-2 showing in conference play. The Lady Cougars finished alone in 3rd place behind Tri-Central (5- 0) and Central Catholic (4-1).

The final score might not indicate it, but Carroll struggled through most of the first half. After scoring the first four points of the 2nd quarter to take an 11- 10 lead the Lady Cougars looked poised to take control. The Lady Hornets would have none of that. Rossville scored the next 11 points, including three 3-pointers in less than two minutes to take a 21-11 lead with just 3:21 left in the half.

"We were in trouble when they were up 21-11," Mc- Croskey said. "Our girls had that deer-in-the-headlights look. Then Jess [Yoder] got a steal and got us going."

J. Yoder hit a 3-pointer, then followed with a steal and a lay up. She got another steal on Rossville's next possession and sister Morgan Yoder finished with a jumper from the foul line. When Rossville called for a time out with 1:17 to go in the half, the lead had dwindled to 21-18.

"At halftime we didn't yell at them or anything," McCroskey said. "We really just said we needed to pick up our defensive pressure and take care of the ball."

Trailing 24-20 at halftime Carroll scored the first 16 points of the quarter to take a 36-24 lead with 4:23 to go.

J. Yoder and McCarter, got the attack going and everyone else joined in. J. Yoder made a driving lay up to start the scoring onslaught, then got a steal that led to a 3-pointer by Mc- Carter thanks to a nifty pass from Brazel. Just nine seconds later McCarter picked off a Rossville pass and made a lay up. Another steal by McCarter led to a lay up by Eller. J. Yoder hit a 3-pointer from the left wing prompting a Rossville time out. It didn't help. Reinke and Brazel each scored a basket to finish off Carroll's 16-0 run.

Rossville's four points in the 3rd came on lay ups by Savannah Crow and Claire Bowyer when the Lady Hornets got the ball behind Carroll's defense.

Following Crow's basket Carroll ran off 11 unanswered points and the Lady Cougars' lead ballooned to 47-26. Amber Hughes finished off the scoring on that Carroll run when she came off the bench late in the 3rd quarter. Hughes used a wicked crossover dribble and drove straight to the bucket for an easy lay up.

"I can't stress enough how good our play off the bench was," McCroskey said. "Amber (Hughes) came in a scored a quick basket and Carly Yoder made a nice cut for a lay up when she came in. And Jess (Yoder) came off the bench to score 20. That's important when we're so short on the bench."

J. Yoder had eight steals and two defensive deflections, and McCarter was credited with four steals and five deflections. Yoder also paced the Lady Cougars' offense, scoring a career high 20 and had 4 rebounds. Eller and McCarter each scored 7. Brazel had a nice game with five points, four rebounds and five assists.

Lowell at Carroll

McCarter came off the bench to score a career-high 24 points, and Reinke added 18 to lead Carroll (9-9) to a 59-38 victory over Lowell (2-16).

"Some kids are better coming off the bench and I think Jaime answered that question for us today with 24 points," Mc- Croskey said. "We would like to have more balanced scoring, but how would you like to be a coach scouting our team right now? Quinci (Eller) has scored over 20 points in a game and earlier today Jess Yoder scored 20. Abby had 18 and Krystal (Brazel) and Brooke Yoder have been close, too."

McCarter hit 9 of 13 fieldgoal attempts (69%), including 2 of 3 from 3-point range. Reinke also shot at a torrid pace, finding the net on 8 of 14 attempts (57%).

The Lady Cougars used fullcourt pressure defense to break open a close game. This time they did it in the 2nd quarter. Leading 11-9 at the first stop, Carroll outscored Lowell 23-8 to take a 34-17 lead at the half.

McCarter scored 13 points in the 2nd quarter, including 8- straight points to stretch their lead to double figures. Carroll led 16-11 when McCarter hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with 6:01 to go. She then hit a pair of free throws, and followed that with another 3-pointer. Following a steal and an assist by McCarter to Eller for a lay up, Reinke hit a short jumper to give Carroll a 28-11 lead.

Reinke asserted herself from the start. She scored seven of Carroll's first eight points with a pair of baskets in the lane and a 3-pointer from the right corner. Reinke just missed getting her second double-double of the week with 18 points and nine boards and five steals.

Eller added 11 points, four rebounds and four steals. J. Yoder was a beast in the press with six steals and eight defensive deflections. Brazel pitched in seven rebounds.

"When I scouted Lowell right at the top of my scouting report I wrote 'Press them out of the gym.' McCroskey said. "By pressuring them full court we took their big girls out of the game."

Lowell turned the ball over 35 times to Carroll's swarming defense.

"Something we now see happening is other teams are having to adjust to our small, quick lineup," McCroskey explained. "Our players on the bench are starting to notice when we have a mismatch, and our players on the floor are finding them."

Carroll attacked the basket throughout the 2nd half and the Lady Red Devils had no answer. The quicker Lady Cougars drove to the basket almost at will, pulling away to a 59-29 lead before going to the bench early in the 4th quarter.