TROJANS UPSET BID FALLS ONE QUARTER SHORT IN 33-26 TITLE LOSS TO VALPO

Tom Keegan

onwardtrojans.com

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Chesterton sophomore Novea Brandon stood her ground and then fell to the floor when Valparaiso basketball star Lillian Barnes dribbled into her.

The referee put one hand behind his head and pointed his other in the opposite direction. The home crowd erupted. On her feet quickly, Brandon, normally on the stoic side during games, hammered the air with a mighty punch and let loose a primal scream. It was a huge play and everyone in the gym knew it.

Barnes headed to the bench with her fourth foul and second in a short stint, both drawn by Brandon on charges, with more than four minutes left in the third quarter.. That was the opportunity Chesterton needed to build a big lead before she returned.

It didn’t happen.

Barnes left a close game and returned to one and Valpo pulled away at the end, defeating its rival, 33-26.

“Lilli did what she needed to do, which was what Lili does,” Chesterton star Kenedi Bradley said. “I bet she was dying when she sat on the bench, seeing her teammates playing without her. So I knew that when she came in she would give it her all.”

Said Wilson: “Lilli hit some big ones at the end and that’s what she does.”

On a night her shot was off, Barnes scored 11 of her game-high 17 points in the fourth quarter, when she made 6 of 6 free throws. Barnes’ only 3-pointer snapped a 22-22 tie early in the fourth and the Vikings led the rest of the way.

Barnes’ departure made Valparaiso easier to defend, but didn’t do anything to take the lid off Chesterton’s basket. Valpo junior Cadynce Clark (eight points) made sure her team didn’t lose any ground by turning a steal into a fastbreak layup and free throw. She also made a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter that tied the score 22-22. Clark and Barnes scored all 17 of Valpo’s second-half points and Chesterton scored all of nine points over the final two periods.

“The ball just didn’t fall for us at the end. We got some shots, just didn’t put it in,” Wilson said. “Especially when Lilli was out of the game, we needed to take more advantage and we just didn’t put that ball in the hole. It was kind of a stalemate by both teams there for a while.”

Both teams played an unusually physical basketball game and Chesterton had countless shots at close range roll off the rim.

Chesterton scored one more point in four quarters than it did the previous night in the first quarter on the way to avenging an 11-point loss on Jan. 10 with a 58-54 victory in the semifinal.

In a 180-degree turn from the previous night when Chesterton came out playing at a wicked fast pace and on fire from close and far, the Trojans managed just three points in the first quarter on a Bradley free throw and a Brandon bucket, falling behind 6-3 at the quarter. And that wasn’t the lowest-scoring quarter of the game. Both teams managed just three points in the third period.

Valpo built on its early lead to go up 11-3 as the Trojans continued to defend well but couldn’t find the range. Bradley got going in the second quarter, scored seven of her team-high 12 points and took the Trojans into the locker room with a 17-16 lead, which strange as it sounds, became a 20-19 lead after three quarters.

Reese Dilbeck, a freshman up to the big moment in both sectional games, came off the bench, handled the ball well and scored four points in the second period.

“She’s very poised and she’s only going to get better,” Wilson said.

Fellow reserve Liz St. Marie scored three of her five points and helped on the boards.

In last year’s sectional, when Wilson was coaching Valpo and her high school coach was still coaching her alma mater, the Trojans got Barnes into foul trouble and Wilson left her in the game. Barnes fouled out and Chesterton chipped into the lead but couldn’t overcome its deficit.

“We talked about it, but I didn’t know if we were going to be able to do it,” Bradley said of getting Barnes to take charges. “If we did, I knew the one person who would execute it was going to be V. She always takes one every game. I feel like she’s the one person who will spring right up from it, and it motivates us and gets us all going.”

Wilson called those two plays, “Phenomenal. Phenomenal. She had a really good game, she really did. She played with a lot of intensity and we had some kids come off the bench and do a really good job.”

The second charge was a particularly big moment, but the Trojans’ shooting woes kept it from morphing into a pivotal play.

Barnes scored 32 points against Chesterton in the regular season and the Vikings rolled to a 63-35 road victory in the Trojans’ first game without Tenley Davis, who never returned after suffering an aversion fracture of the ankle.

“We obviously know Lilli is going to be aggressive to the hoop, and getting her in foul trouble was the best thing we could do, and I just put my body on the line,” said Brandon, steadily growing taller and staying very thin. “I’ve never really been scared of anyone. I’ll put my body on the line for winning.”

A close loss didn’t match what anybody on the home side of the gym wanted, but the Trojans (15-9) made their new coach proud.

“They played their guts out, left it all out there. Both teams, I think, are pretty bruised and battered from that one,” Wilson said. “it was very physical, but they didn’t back down. I’m so proud of them. I was telling them I’ve had groups where the seniors, they’re done, they get senior-itis. This group (Isabelle Connors, St. Marie and Hailey Geiser) was the polar opposite, stepped up at the end, led everybody. We had a lot of younger kids step up, give great minutes, and Kenedi’s just been a rock too this whole time, really. She’s been phenomenal the entire season.”

Through the toughest stretch of the season, when Davis went down and the team temporarily shifted into reverse, Wilson sounded a confident tone in talking about better times being on the horizon.

“It was everything we knew we could be, and I knew it would take us a while to get there, and we peaked at the right time,” Wilson said. “This is when you want to peak. That’s one of the best teams in the area and we beat another best team last night, so what more can I ask? They left everything out there and played hard.”

Four of the five girls who started the sectional title game return next season for the Trojans (15-9). Valparaiso (18-7) moves onto regional play riding a nine-game winning streak.