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Girls Basketball: No way out for East Chicago
VALPARAISO — Dig yourself a hole against Penn, and you’re in trouble. East Chicago Central knew that going into Saturday’s Class 4A Valparaiso Regional championship game against the Kingsmen.
Yet, the Cardinals dug themselves a hole. And, sure enough, they couldn’t dig themselves out of it.
East Chicago turned the ball over 12 times in the first quarter and trailed by 10 points at the end of the period before falling to Penn 57-33.
“There were some nerves at the beginning of the game big time,” Cardinals coach Eric Kundich said. “Penn is a very good team, and they know how to take advantage of a nervous team.”
For the middle two quarters, the two teams played fairly even basketball. East Chicago (18-7) trailed 22-11 at the half but was able to pull within seven twice midway through the third quarter. But the Kingsmen (25-1), fundamentally solid in all aspects of the game, built their lead to 12, 35-23, by the end of the period.
“We knew East Chicago wasn’t going to quit; they were here for a reason,” Penn coach Kristi Kaniewski said. “We knew they were going to push it and make a run at us. We just had to keep our composure and remain poised.”
The Kingsmen certainly did. In fact, they turned it on even more in the fourth quarter, using an 8-2 run midway through the period to put the game out of reach at 47-29 with just over two minutes to play.
“They’re tough to come back on,” Kundich said. “In my opinion, they’re the best team I’ve seen. And I think they’re the eventual state champion.”
Even though her looks were limited, East Chicago senior center Andriana Moore finished with game highs of 15 points and 15 rebounds.
“They took her away and she still ended up with 15 and 15,” Kundich said. “Credit her for working hard.”
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