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Girls Basketball: Boone Grove’s second-half surge leads to win
Updated: December 23, 2011 8:57PM
VALPARAISO — The Boone Grove girls basketball team simply had too much for its South County Tournament opponents. Too much inside, and in particular on Friday night in the championship game, too much outside.
The Wolves broke open a close game with a second-half surge to beat host Morgan Township 48-21, winning the 31st and final title, with the tournament discontinued after this season.
“It’s pretty epic,” coach Candy Wilson said of winning the last South County championship.
Brittany Shaffer scored 15 points for Boone Grove (12-1) and Emily Bobrowski had 13. Both stepped up their games in the decisive third quarter.
Morgan Township (4-8), which lost at Boone Grove 36-31 on Dec. 15, trailed 23-17 at halftime. Just out of the break, Trina Coleman nailed a 3-pointer to make it 23-20.
Boone Grove responded by scoring the final 19 points of the quarter, and 23 in a row.
Shaffer hit a 3-pointer and a conventional three-point play to get things going, and Bobrowski made back-to-back 3s to push the lead to 37-20.
“Offensively, we threw some different things at them,” Wilson said. “Obviously, hitting some outside shots opened things up a lot.”
Coleman finished with nine points to lead Morgan Township.
“We quit attacking the basket like we did in the second quarter,” Morgan Township coach Kevin Krieger said.
Boone Grove led 21-8 midway through the second quarter, but Morgan Township battled back by scoring nine points in a row. A pair of free throws and a basket from Sammy Meschede and a 3-pointer by Coleman brought the home team back.
A couple of key missed offensive opportunities early in the second half, followed by 3-pointers by Boone Grove, proved to be Morgan Township’s undoing.
“You could just see us kind of deflate after that,” Krieger said.
“We’re learning. The way we look at it, we’re learning until sectional,” Morgan Township’s coach said of his young team, which has just one senior.
Boone Grove’s tournament title is something to build on.
“If you’re going to win something like this, it takes four quarters,” Wilson said. “From here, it’s not going to get any easier.”
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