Published: January 19, 2008 11:27 pm            

GIRLS BB: NW girls secure MIC title

Tigers beat Braves to improve to 6-0 in the league.

The Northwestern girls basketball team put the wraps on a memorable week Saturday afternoon.

Two days after beating No. 1-ranked Twin Lakes in a showdown between the last two undefeated teams in Class 3A, No. 9 Northwestern topped visiting Maconaquah 53-45 to claim the outright Mid-Indiana Conference championship.

The Purple Tigers improved to 18-0 overall and 6-0 in the MIC. They have one game remaining in league play, but their closest competitors are two games back.

“I am so proud of the girls because a lot of team have waited for a long time to have this opportunity and now that it is here, they are grabbing it by the horns,” Northwestern coach Todd Miller said.

Northwestern avoided an emotional letdown following its upset of Twin Lakes, emerging with the victory as Maconaquah threatened to take a statement win of its own.

The Tigers led 18-13 after the opening quarter, but the Braves came alive in the second quarter and took a 33-27 lead into halftime. The Tigers regained control by outscoring the Braves 17-3 in the third quarter.

Northwestern trailed 33-29 when leading scorer Natalie Appelhans picked up her fourth foul and went to the bench for the rest of the quarter. No problem — Becki Lowden and Sarah Lubben picked up the slack.

Lowden came up with a steal and an offensive rebound for four points that put the Tigers ahead 35-34 and Lubben followed with three 3-pointers in the final 1:51 of the quarter to give Northwestern a 44-36 advantage. Lubben drilled another 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter for a 47-36 lead.

Appelhans fouled out 20 seconds later with a season-low 10 points, but the Tigers had control of the game. The Braves came no closer than seven the rest of the way as the Tigers worked the clock when possible.

“With Appelhans and [Becca] Cardwell in foul trouble, I thought Lubben and Lowden just took over the game. They were unbelievable,” Miller said.

Lubben, a sophomore guard, went 4 of 4 from 3-point range in the second half and finished with a career-high 19 points. Lowden, a senior post, had 13 points and 18 rebounds — nine of which came on the offensive end.

“We did a lot of things we wanted to do — we got Appelhans into foul trouble. The person we didn’t effectively [control] was Lowden. She is the one who hurt us,” Maconaquah coach Stacy Broyles said.

“Northwestern is a fine team. They play hard and they have a lot of different options. I’m disappointed how flat we came out in the third quarter, but overall, the kids played hard and I can’t ask for anything better than that.”

Maconaquah (12-4, 3-3 MIC) looked on its way to an upset after dominating the second quarter. Northwestern led throughout the first quarter, including 9-2 at the halfway point and 18-13 at the end at which point Appelhans had eight points. Maconaquah opened the second quarter with an 11-0 run. Chelsie Carmichael started the run with a three-point play and Deja Mattox followed with a backdoor layup, a three-point play and a 3-pointer from the top of the key for a 24-18 lead.

Northwestern regained the lead at 27-26, but Maconaquah scored the final seven points of the half for a 33-27 lead. The Braves shot 7 of 15 from the field and committed just one turnover in the quarter while the Tigers went 4 of 16 from the field and turned the ball over five times.

The Braves looked like a completely different team in the third quarter. They made just 1 of 10 shots from the field and they turned the ball over 10 times. Lubben and Lowden made them pay for their mistakes.

“The difference in the game was we had five turnovers going into the second half, then we ended the game with 18 and obviously the majority of those came in the third quarter,” Broyles said. “… We’ve seen lot tougher presses than that, but that gave us problems and I’m not sure why. I think we just got a little [lackadaisical] and tried to force some things that we don’t normally do.”

Northwestern kept Maconaquah standouts Deja Mattox and Kayla George in check in the second half. They combined for 22 points in the first half, but just five points in the second half.

“In the third and fourth quarters, I thought Anne Tarkington and Lubben did tremendous jobs on them,” Miller said.

George finished with 14 to lead the Braves, Mattox had 13 and Carmichael had nine off the bench.

        

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