North Manchester Lady Squires
Class 2A Basketball Sectional
Squires End 14-Year Sectional Drought
By Jeff Holsinger, Times-Union Staff Writer
WABASH –Fourteen years, Manchester players waited.
They waited to cut down the nets. They waited to raise the trophy in the middle of their huddle. They waited to be called sectional champions. The wait ended Saturday.
The Manchester Squires girls basketball team claimed its first sectional title since 1984 by beating North Miami 64-44 in the Northfield Sectional championship game. Manchester, which ended the season ranked ninth in 2A, improved to 19-3. North Miami finished at 16-7. Manchester coach Jody Shewman, decked out in Manchester colors –red blazer, white shirt, black pants – raised both fists in the air and pumped them when the horn sounded to end the game. Then she walked over to one end of the gym, climbed up the ladder and cut down her portion of the net. When she sat down and put on the headphones to do radio interviews, she carried the net with her. When she talked with print reporters, she clutched the net in her hands. The net served as a reminder just how far Manchester had come. Only two short years ago, the Squires failed to win five games in one season. Shewman took over as head coach last year, when they won 14 but didn’t win the sectional title. “This is such a great feeling,” Shewman said. “The program has been down for a little while. No one ever really showed us much respect. These kids have worked so hard in practice, in the offseason. They deserve so much. This tops it right now.” For the second straight night, no one on the court could top a freshman in scoring. Jessica Hicks, a 5-foot-11 freshman forward, led Manchester with 18 points and eight rebounds in Friday’s 73-35 semifinals win over Wabash. Not even changing her uniform number from 33 to 52 before the championship game could slow her. She led all players with 18 points and nine rebounds. She hit 8 of 10 shots from the floor and scored 12 of the 18 in the second half. Once she got the ball in the low post, the Warriors couldn’t stop her. She was the girl all the radio stations wanted to talk to first. “For a while, (Hicks) was our go-to girl,” Shewman said. “As a freshman, that’s a lot of pressure. It didn’t even faze her.” And what would Hicks have done had she been told at the beginning of the year that she –not Megan Eckert, not Katie Parker, not Jodie Peden – would score the most points for Manchester in two straight sectional games? “I would have laughed at you,” she said. “I’ve always dreamed about this, getting to the championship. “At first I came off the bench to start the season. Then (Shewman) moved me into a starting position. Then she kept working with me and began using me more and more.” But Manchester couldn’t have done it without Eckert, Parker and Peden. Parker finished with 14 points, five steals and four assists. Peden had nine points, eight assists, four rebounds and three steals. Eckert chipped in with nine points and five rebounds. For three quarters, a North Miami team that relied on only six players and played three games in five days kept up with the Squires. But in the fourth, Manchester, a deeper team that got to the finals after winning one game, had more energy. The Squires’ defense tallied seven steals as they outscored the Warriors 25-10 in the last quarter. “They hung right in there with us,” Shewman said. “I thought coming in they might be a little more tired than we were, but they gave everything they had. Luckily we got a big enough lead that we could hold.” Scoring runs highlighted this game, and none was bigger than the one Manchester went on to close out the fourth quarter. The Squires held a tedious 44-40 lead with five minutes left in the game, but they outscored the Warriors 20-4 from then on to turn tedious into a blowout. The Warriors had their fans to thank for that. Parker, a 5-5 guard, scored eight of her 14 points in the last quarter. She had tossed up an air ball earlier, so North Miami fans rode her every time she touched the ball. Wrong person to razz. Parker has played varsity since her freshman year. “The fans, they were yelling stuff, but we didn’t let it get to us,” Parker said. “I was getting the ‘air ball’ big-time from them. The only way to shut ’em up was to score, so ...” She did. All eight came in a row. Because of her, the Squires went from hoping to win to blowing the thing open. After Hicks scored to bump Manchester’s lead to 46-40, Parker scored the next eight Manchester points to turn it into a 54-41 game with three minutes to go. Her biggest baskets arguably took place with 3:36 left. She tore through the lane, spun around, hit a layup and drew a foul. She raised both hands and grinned –take that, loud-mouth Warrior fans. Her three-point play put Manchester’s lead in double digits at 51-41 for the first time in the quarter. More importantly, that was the basket that handed the Squires the momentum they rode to the win. Before Manchester’s 20-4 run to end the fourth, there was a 22-3 Manchester run that sandwiched halftime, followed by a 14-2 North Miami run at the end of the third quarter. With North Miami leading 17-15, Manchester ended the first half on an 11-0 run to take a 26-17 halftime lead. Reserve Christy Markstahler finished with only four points, but she triggered Manchester’s 11-0 run by scoring the first two baskets. Once Markstahler handed the Squires the lead, they kept it until the horn sounded to end the game. The Squires started the second half the way they ended the first half. Hicks scored six points in an 11-3 Manchester run that increased the Squires’ lead to 37-20. Then Manchester’s offense fell apart. The Squires scored no field goals in the final four minutes of the third quarter. The Warriors went on the 14-2 run to pull within 39-34 to start the fourth quarter, only to see Manchester widen the gap once they closed in. And the Squires had their 64-44 win. “As a coach, you never want to get overconfident, and I didn’t want my kids to be overconfident,” Shewman said. “We’re human. The No. 1 team in the state (Woodlan) got beat in the first round of the sectional. I kept telling the kids it’s anybody’s game. Deep down, I figured we could win it.” They did, so Manchester’s 14-year wait is over.
NORTHFIELD ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM First Team Megan Eckert (Manchester) Abby Wilson (Northfield) Jessica Hicks (Manchester) Katie Parker (Manchester) Tara Emery (North Miami) Mandy Sopher (North Miami) Jami Savage (North Miami) Staci White (Northfield) Honorable Mention Jodie Peden (Manchester) Sarah Garvin (North Miami) Kristina Williams (North Miami) Lauren Keys (Maconaquah) Gina Curtis (Wabash)
Girls sectional pairings set
By The Plain Dealer staff
WABASH, Ind.North Miami and Maconaquah will open the 1998 IHSAA
girls' basketball sectional next week at Northfield High School.
The two Miami County schools will meet in opening round action of the
Class 2A tourney.
Here is the schedule announced today by the IHSAA:
Northfield
Tuesday
6:00—N.Miami vs Maconaquah
7:30—Northfield vs Southwood
Friday
6:00—Wabash vs Manchester
7:30—Tues Winner 1 vs Tues Winner 2
The winners of Friday's games will meet Saturday in the championship game.
Full details of the drawing, including reaction from the local coaches, can be
found in Tuesday's Wabash Plain Dealer.
Lady Squires favored to win
By Elemuel D. Williams
WABASH, Ind. — Manchester, ranked No.9 this week among Class 2A
schools, has been tabbed the favorite in next week's Northfield girls'
basketball sectional.
Pairings for the 23rd annual girls' tournament, but the first with four classes,
were drawn Monday afternoon by the IHSAA.
The IHSAA has eliminated the idea of the teams playing in one class, and
expanded it to four classes — Class 4A, 3A, 2A and A. This will allow four
teams to advance to the championship and play in a "Final Four"
atmosphere.
While three county coaches picked the Lady Squires as the favorite, their
coach isn't taking any team lightly.
"We're not taking anything for granted," Manchester coach Jody Shewman
said. "There is always a chance for an upset."
Manchester (16-3) will face Wabash (1-17) in the first semifinal game at 6
p.m. Feb. 20. The two winners from next Tuesday's first-round games will
meet at 7:30 p.m.
Those first-round games pit two Miami County schools — North Miami
(14-5) and Maconaquah (5-13) — at 6 p.m. Tuesday and two Wabash
County schools — Southwood (5-13) and Northfield (4-15) — in the
second game at 7:30.
The championship game is set for Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. The winner meets
the winner of Sectional 38 (at Northwestern), which includes Pioneer,
Taylor, Delphi, Eastern, Northwestern and Cass in the regional at
Maconaquah on Feb. 28.
"I think this idea (class basketball) will add some excitement to the
tournament," Southwood coach Rob Cole said.
Southwood edged Northfield, 57-53, in overtime in their last meeting.
However, Cole isn't focusing on that victory or the sectional at this time.
"We haven't focused on the pairing," Coles said. "We're focusing on finishing
the season strong."
Northfield coach Steve Desper said he is happy with the draw.
"We're happy to play Southwood," Desper said. "It's going to be a good,
hard-playing game, and that's what sectional should be — hard-playing
basketball."
Wabash coach Larry Vaughn said his team has nothing to lose playing
Manchester, which has everything to lose.
Manchester Doesn’t Look Past Wabash
By Jeff Holsinger, Times-Union Staff Writer
WABASH – There would be none of that “anything can happen on a given night” stuff. Not at Northfield, not on Friday, not with the two teams playing. Manchester’s girls basketball team played like a 17-3 team, and Wabash played like a 1-19 team. Manchester drilled Wabash 75-35 in the Northfield Sectional. “We just wanted to make sure we didn’t play to their level,” Manchester coach Jody Shewman said. “Normally we play to the level of the team we’re playing and let them stay with us. Tonight, we took advantage of their guard weaknesses and put a lot of pressure on them.” The win puts the Squires in this evening’s championship game against North Miami (16-6), who beat Northfield (6-16) 38-37 in Friday’s second game. If the Squires win that, they will capture their first sectional title since 1984. Manchester hosted and hammered North Miami 62-39 on Jan. 12. An already shorthanded Wabash team became even more shorthanded against Manchester. Jan Eichennauer, the Apaches’ leading scorer with 10.7 points per game, has been sidelined with an injury the second half of the season and was still out. The Apaches then lost Tiffany Richards, who came in averaging 7.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game, in the first three minutes to an injury. She had to be carried off the court. Wabash needed a miracle. It didn’t happen. Only against Wabash could the Squires shoot 5 of 19 from the field in the second quarter –and extend the lead. Manchester led 21-8 after the first quarter, thanks to 12 Megan Eckert points. When halftime arrived, Manchester’s led grew to 20 at 35-15. The Squires had 13 steals in the first half. The troubles continued in the second half for Wabash. With 5:04 to go in the third quarter, the Apaches had more turnovers (20) than points (19). Manchester’s leading scorer on the night wasn’t Eckert, who came in averaging more than 18 per game. Nor was it Katie Parker or Jodie Peden, starting guards who score more than 10 a game. Jessica Hicks, a 5-foot-11 freshman, led the Squires with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting. She also pulled down eight rebounds. “We’ve been working the past three weeks on post moves,” Shewman said. “She did a tremendous job. She has great hands and just took the ball to the hole. Just what we wanted. “(Wabash) is small, and we took advantage of that on the inside. I told the kids, This is the time. Either we’re going to lose and we’re done, or we’re going to win and go on. I wanted them to have that hunger in their eyes.” No matter who Shewman put in the game, they contributed. Jennifer Jester had seven points, four rebounds and three assists off the bench. Sherri Wagoner, another reserve, had six points and two rebounds. Christy Markstahler, yet another reserve, delivered two points, four assists and three steals. And so on. The only thing that didn’t go Manchester’s way took place in the fourth quarter. With a minute to go in the game, the Squires made a concerted effort to get Jodee Ruppel the ball. Ruppel, a senior, has played sparingly this season, so her teammates and fans wanted to see her score in a postseason game. Try as she might – she fired up five shots in the game – she didn’t score, and with each miss disappointed Manchester fans groaned. But that was the only thing that went awry. Eckert finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Peden scored 14. Parker scored seven and had six steals and four assists. The Squires won’t have to be worried about being tired for tonight’s game. Starters Eckert, Parker, Peden and Lindsay Seagert played only the first three quarters. Hicks played only at the start of the fourth then came out. Tonight’s championship game takes place at 7:30.
© 1997 brhicks@ctlnet.com
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