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FAIRMOUNT — Tipton’s girls basketball squad held Alexandria scoreless in the third quarter of Tuesday’s matchup in the Class 2A Madison-Grant Sectional opener before cruising to a 59-40 victory over the Tigers.
Juniors Kacie Juday and Lela Crawford led the Blue Devils’ victory charge. Juday finished the night with a superb stat line of 22 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and four steals, while Crawford added 15 points and 11 boards. Freshman Macie Lively chipped in 13 points to the victory cause.
Tipton (12-9) held a two-point lead over Alex at the first stop, 17-15, before stretching out its lead to 39-25 by halftime.
“Early it was a feeling-out process and we gave up more points that we’d like to, but the end result of the first quarter wore Alexandria down,” Tipton coach Nick Comer said. “In the second quarter we were able to get in the lane without them playing help defense. Defensively, our effort early in the game of wearing on them started to show in the middle quarters.”
The Blue Devils erupted out of the half with a 22-0 run that spanned the entire third quarter to build a 32-point lead at 57-25.
“We did a really good job of sharing the ball,” Comer said. “We had 12 assists on 24 field goals, which is a pretty good number for us. Offensively, we did a good job of getting the ball where we wanted to be.
“Their fatigue really started to show in the third quarter. We were flying around creating deflections and steals which led to scores for us in the open floor. I attribute that to the job we did in the first half of keeping them off balance and wearing them down. We’re happy to get out and play Taylor of Friday.
Shanna Kelly led Alexandria (6-16) with 17 points, hitting three 3-pointers for the Tigers. Paxton Quinn added 10 points and eight rebounds in the loss.
In the opening round Tuesday night, Elwood defeated the host Argylls 42-37 to advance. The Panthers (17-5) will face No. 6-ranked Eastern (17-3) in Friday’s first semifinal at 6 p.m.
Tipton will take on Taylor (7-14) in the second semifinal later that night. The Blue Devils defeated the Titans 60-45 in the teams’ regular season matchup on Nov. 28 at Tipton.
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Huge night: Tipton’s Kacie Juday (32), seen here pulling down a rebound during a game with Western this season, finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and four steals in the Blue Devils’ 59-40 win over Alexandria in Tuesday’s sectional opener. KT photo | Kelly Lafferty
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PREP GIRLS HOOPS: Tipton girls rout Alex in sectional opener
Blue Devils hold Tigers scoreless in third quarter to go up 57-25
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Eastern dominates Taylor in softball
GREENTOWN — The third time turned out not to be the charm for the Taylor softball squad as Eastern improved to 3-0 on the season over its backyard rival Wednesday night, ousting the Titans from the Class 2A Eastern Sectional 15-0 in five innings.
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Barnes sets Taylor's career hits record
Taylor baseball standout Logan Barnes made his final game at George Phares Field one to remember.
Barnes pitched four solid innings to lead Taylor past Monroe Central 9-3 Tuesday. In addition, he went 2 for 3 at the plate, pushing his career hits total to a school-record 142. -
Kats drop heartbreaker
When the postseason arrives, emotions surge like a roller-coaster. One minute, it’s a long uphill, then a wild series of events offer a barrage of frights and thrills. And then, for one team, the ride ends and there aren’t any more tickets for another go around.
After two days of chills and thrills, Kokomo’s softball team ran out of tickets Tuesday night in the Class 4A Harrison Sectional. The Kats dropped a 4-3 decision to Harrison in eight innings, giving up a run in the top of the extra frame, and having a runner tagged out at home in the bottom of the frame.
“It was a great game,” Harrison coach Dick Mitchell said. “It’s always nerve-wracking to coach in one of them, but both teams played their hearts out. Nobody deserved to lose that game, but unfortunately somebody does.” -
Comets turn heads at track regional
Heading into Tuesday’s IHSAA girls track and field regional at Fort Wayne Northrop High School’s Spuller Stadium, event workers alike weren’t sure of Eastern High School’s location.
After the dust settled, they may feel compelled to get a map out and find out where Greentown is located.
Led by seniors Sarah Wagner, Brittany Neeley and Bethany Neeley, the Comets qualified for the state finals in six separate events to finish fourth as a team with 55.5 points, behind host and champion Northrop (78), Bellmont (68) and Carroll (Allen) 66. -
GASKINS: Hibbert’s block was thing of beauty
For the better part of the NBA season, ESPN devoted all kinds of time on SportsCenter episodes to replays of two dunks. Anyone who watches any ESPN at all surely knows the two to which I’m referring: 6-foot-11 DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers posterizing 6-3 Brandon Knight of the Detroit Pistons, and 6-8 LeBron James of the Miami Heat hammering home a dunk over 6-2 Jason Terry of the Boston Celtics.
Day after day, ESPN commentators lavished endless praise, which quickly grew tiresome. The dunks were strong, but Jordan and James were much taller and heavier than Knight and Terry and the dunkers also caught perfect alley-oop passes with the defenders in poor positions to defend. Still, ESPN commentators loved these plays.
I kept wondering if a great defensive play would receive the same kind of love. -
Coons, Walker, Glassburn reach Victory Lane
When the dust settled Sunday evening at the Kokomo Speedway, a pair of drivers who have visited Victory Lane in the past at the local oval found themselves there once again while a talented up-and-comer hit the hallowed ground for the first time.
Jerry Coons Jr. had his way in the sprint car feature and Craig Walker seemed to get faster as the laps wound down to win the Street Stock main event, however Kokomo High School sophomore Kory Glassburn had to scratch and fight before scoring the first feature win of his career in the Thunder Car A-main. -
Field is set for Indianapolis 500
After being bumped from the starting field while sitting on the qualifying line on pole day, Josef Newgarden turned the fastest time on bump day, assuring himself a spot in the Indianapolis 500.
The field of 33 cars will have one final opportunity to practice on Friday before next Sunday’s 97th running of the 500.
One year ago the Sarah Fisher Racing Team withdrew Newgarden’s entry on the first day of qualifying and had to qualify on bump day. This year the team decided not to make another qualifying run and got bumped. -
Athlete of the week
Cole led the small-school Comets to the Kokomo Sectional title, their first title since 1998.
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Kats regain tennis throne
At 10:51 a.m. Saturday morning, the bulk of Kokomo’s girls tennis team sprinted from the viewing hill to the east entrance of the tennis courts to mob No. 1 singles player Morgan Mohr as she came off the court following her 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Eastern’s Courtney Clark.
The No. 3 singles match was still raging, but the team match was already won. The Wildkats had reconquered the throne from two-time defending champion Eastern and were once again champions of the Kokomo Sectional. -
Eastern boys track claims first sectional title since 1998
The boys track and field coach at Eastern High School from 1987 until last season, Paul Nicholson’s parting message to his team was simple: “Don’t deny the gift.”
That motto left such a lasting impression on the Comets’ returning athletes that they had it screen printed on their 2013 season T-shirts.
With Nicholson in attendance to celebrate with them, new coach Austin Roark and the Comets outlasted host Kokomo to win their first sectional title since 1998 Thursday night, topping the Wildkats by 3.5 points, 124.5-121.
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