|
VALPARAISO
-- Two years from now, when Crown Point guard Alex Webster is playing
college basketball, her playmaking will be valued much more than her
offense.
For
now, though, her team needs Webster's scoring punch. And it wasn't
getting it for three quarters in its Duneland showdown with Valparaiso
on Saturday. She was 1 of 9 from the field through three quarters, and
stumbled woozily back to the bench at one point after a mid-court
collision that brought her to the floor in a heap.
"You
just have to keep shooting until they go in," Webster said.
"My shot just wasn't falling, but I wouldn't have helped my team
any by passing up shots. I need to show up before the fourth quarter.
After a while, I just didn't think about it and that makes them go
in."
As
Crown Point coach Tom May said after the game, smooth shooting guard
Sarah Zondor got the Bulldogs through the first half, but it was Webster
that got them home. The 46-35 victory was sealed by Webster's 12-point
fourth quarter, in which she broke out of her slump and hit 5 of 6
shots.
Her
floater through heavy lane traffic -- ill-advised if it didn't go in --
stretched the CP lead back to double digits with about two minutes to
play after Valpo's Courtney Rosenbaum nailed a 3-pointer to keep the
Vikes breathing.
For
all intents and purposes, Webster's final-quarter fury sealed the 'Dogs'
first Duneland Conference championship, and their second win in three
seasons over the school that supposedly had overtaken them as the
glamour program of the Region.
"She
obviously took over the game," Valparaiso coach Greg Kirby said.
"She's a real nice guard. I thought we defended her well for most
of the game, but we got tired in the fourth quarter and she responded in
crunch time."
"I'm
extremely hard on her," May said. "She can do a lot of
different things out there, and the more things you do, the more chance
there is for the coach to find ways to be critical of you."
Valpo-CP
is the best sort of rivalry -- mutual respect flavored with a dash of
healthy tension. To wit:
*
Four extremely large, state-shaped banners hang majestically over Crown
Point's court, commemorating two back-to-back state championships in the
'80s and a pair of runner-up finishes. Valparaiso has a rich history as
well, although the minimalist interior decorators leave little evidence
on the walls of Viking Gym.
Valparaiso's girls have made five trips to the state finals and fallen
in the title game three times, including last season's heartbreaking
loss to Ben Davis. But even state champions only rate a single line on
one of three banners hanging in the entire place.
"It
comes down to tradition," May said of his team's recent success on
Valpo's floor. "If you study the history of girls basketball, we
have two state championships in our trophy case and they have none. Our
kids have to believe that we're the ones with the program.
"We
tell our kids that Valpo has a great program, but you are the ones with
that history behind you."
*
The two teams came into the game deadlocked at No. 8 in the Class 4A
state rankings. It was a prime-time matchup with a 12:30 p.m. start,
touching an old nerve.
"I'm
not happy with the Saturday (afternoon) start," May said, "but
it's Valparaiso's home game and they can do whatever they want to do.
I'll tell you this -- if you have the eighth-ranked boys team in the
state playing another team that's also ranked No. 8, they wouldn't be
playing on Saturday afternoon."
"I
just wish this game would have been at night," said Webster
longingly. "You put this game at 7 or 7:30, and you've got a packed
house. I think it's kind of a slap in the face to girls
basketball."
It's
only fair to mention that Valparaiso's boys also endured a red-eye home
tip recently. But an evening start on Saturday would have made sense,
and probably drawn a larger and noticeably more enthusiastic crowd to
such a big game.
However
-- luckily for the Bulldogs -- despite the early tipoff, the alarm clock
in Webster's game rang just in time.
* Jeff Carroll can be reached at jeffcar@howpubs.com or at (219)
933-3373.
|
