[Southsider2k12]

http://nwitimes.com/articles/2007/01/04/sp...259001b1e1f.txt

Wolves stay on prowl

Unbeaten Michigan City tops L.C.

BY BRYAN STEVENS

ST. JOHN | Duneland Athletic Conference teams had better take note, Michigan City is upset and the Wolves plan to take it out on their opponents.

Undefeated and unranked Michigan City dominated play and led wire to wire in a 64-34 victory over Lake Central Wednesday night.

"We wanted to make a statement by taking care of the boards and playing good, solid defense," Michigan City coach Gary Collins said. "This was a good statement game early in the DAC schedule."

Michigan City (14-0, 8-0) hit Lake Central early with full-court defensive pressure that the Indians had difficulty handling.

"We threw a different press at them early," Collins said. "We wanted to make someone other than (Allison) Aguilera handle the ball."

The Wolves' defense produced turnovers and their high-octane offense generated a 15-5 lead with more than four minutes left to play in the first quarter.

"We were not mentally ready to play. We got beat in every facet of the game," Lake Central coach Tim Powers said.

The quick start by Michigan City didn't come as a surprise to the Indians.

"We expected them to come at us, we knew they'd bring it," Lake Central senior Suzanne Huebner said.

Lake Central (5-8,3-5) started the second quarter with a 7-2 run to cut the Michigan City lead to 10 points, but would get no closer in the balance of the game.

Michigan City senior Emma Tucker played her usual solid game with nine points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots while only seeing limited playing time in the second half.

Sophomore Bianca McGee led all scorers with 13 points and added five rebounds and five assists.

"Bianca took it to the basket hard tonight and her passing was phenomenal," Collins said.

Despite being undefeated, Michigan City cannot be found in any state rankings, a fact not lost on the Wolves.

"We're not getting enough respect with the state," McGee said.

Junior Brandi Fehrman led Lake Central with 10 points. Senior Jamie Auer added nine points.

[Southsider2k12]

The Wolves got blitzed from the early going and never made a game of it, losing 71-35 to Washington

[Ang]

I was very disappointed, but Adam Parkhouse wrote an excellent story about it in the News Dispatch. I totally agree with what he said. Southsider, I don't know how you add the stories here, could you please put Adam's story in last weekends ND here? It was an excellent read with very good and valid points.

[Southsider2k12]

I was very disappointed, but Adam Parkhouse wrote an excellent story about it in the News Dispatch. I totally agree with what he said. Southsider, I don't know how you add the stories here, could you please put Adam's story in last weekends ND here? It was an excellent read with very good and valid points.

No real system to it, I just read around and see what is out there that is interesting and timely and put it up here. BTW, good call on this article

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200...e_adam/col2.txt

City girls' loss has upside

It's gonna be tough to convince Gary Collins of this, but what happened Friday night might have been a good thing.

The Michigan City girls basketball team got embarrassed Friday night in the biggest regular season game in the program's history. South Bend Washington “out-everythinged” City, as Collins put it, in a 71-35 drubbing.

Even Panthers coach Marilyn Coddens was shocked. Not even she expected her team to perform so well.

But for at least two reasons, I think the loss might end up being a good thing for City. At least, that's the hope.

First, Washington exposed a weakness that I had seen earlier in the season, but none of City's prior opponents could make the Wolves pay for it.

The weakness is that when the Wolves are forced to play a half-court game offensively, they're far from great. They excel in an uptempo, transition style of play. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. Every team has something it does better than other things.

But being able to be efficient in half-court sets is paramount to postseason success. You can't simply rely on scoring 40 fastbreak points per game against really good teams.

Even at the South Bend Clay Classic over the holiday break, where City played very well, this inability to consistently score in a slowed-down game was evident.

I'll leave most of the X's and O's to the City coaching staff, but it seems to me that in the half-court offense, things got bogged down when the Wolves tried to force the ball into Emma Tucker through post feeds from the 3-point line.

City's guards are more than quick enough to be able to penetrate and handoff to Tucker, which would seem like a better option.

The second reason that this loss may end up being a good thing can be summed up in one word: ego.

I'm not saying the Wolves were overconfident, but I think they had too much of a chip on their shoulder with this whole polls thing.

On a side note, the fact that City remains unranked - and unvoted for - in the state poll is completely ludicrous. The coaches that vote for this stuff should be ashamed.

But in the long run, who cares? The rankings simply don't mean anything. All you can do is play the game that's in front of you and win.

Maybe this loss will get the Wolves' players and coaches to refocus their efforts on the basketball court, instead of factors beyond their control.

That's crucial because City will get another crack at Washington in the sectional, which takes place at Washington this year.

That means the Wolves have a few weeks to get their heads back together and work out the on-court stuff.

That's actually where the good news comes in for the Wolves. I can't imagine them playing much worse than Friday. I mean, they couldn't make anything, and they were getting good looks at the basket. It was just one of those nights where it seemed like there was a lid on the basket. It's doubtful that will happen twice.

My guess is that Collins and his staff will use their upcoming time wisely. They'll figure out this half-court offense thing and they'll get the girls to focus on the things they can control.

If that all happens, my bet is when the Wolves and Panthers meet again, the final outcome could be very different.