By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
VINCENNES – One of these days, Alices . . . Bang, zoom! Bedford North Lawrence sent Vincennes Lincoln into orbit with an offensive thrust and takeoff, as awe-inspiring as a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.
Playing at a full-court speed that was fast enough to escape the gravitational pull, the No.3 Stars rumbled and roared to a 78-28 victory over the overwhelmed Alices on Monday night. Chloe McKnight lit the fuse and scored 16 points as BNL blasted to 17-2 while playing its fourth road game in the last six days.
Tired? Maybe at first, when the legs were balking and the jumpers were bouncing off. After McKnight caught fire, scoring 13 points in the second quarter to create a 20-point lead, the Stars put on a show worthy of a NASA mission blast.
Bang! BNL exploded for 33 points in the third quarter. Zoom! The Stars converted 15 of 16 shots during that remarkable flurry, most of them runaway layups on the business end of a fast break following a turnover or miss. And Lincoln (8-8) had a lot of those.
When the smoke cleared, BNL had a 65-20 lead. Nobody can withstand that kind of assault.
“We’re a streaky team,” BNL coach Jeff Allen said. “A lot of it has to do with where our legs are right now. We’re pretty tired. Hopefully we’ll get some rest. This has been a long week of travel. We’re just happy to come down here and play well, stay at the level of basketball we need to be for the tournament.”
Few can match that level. Lincoln is not a walkover weakling. The Alices have a Junior All-Star and talented scorers. But they got rocked.
“We thought we could be competitive, and we weren’t,” Lincoln coach Tim Young said. “They’re just a well-oiled machine. That’s a team that plays the way I like to play. It was just a layup drill.”
That third quarter was played at a dizzying pace. Chloe Spreen, Makena Moore, Irye Gomez, Jenna Louden . . . layup after breakaway after wide-open layup. Heck, some teams might not make 15 of 16 in the pregame drills. The Stars were at hyper-speed.
“We just kept fast breaking,” sophomore point guard Karsyn Norman said, and she compiled quite a stat line of assists. “It was a steal, or a rebound, and we just pushed it.”
McKnight’s 13-point blitz in the second quarter included three 3-pointers. Meanwhile, the Alices were a miserable 1 of 19 from the field in the first half, the only basket a Marissa Carmean 3-pointer (in her first game back since missing 6 because of virus quarantine) at the 5:12 mark of the second period.
“We missed shots early, but we wore them down with our depth,” Allen said. “We finally got some separation. My kids played really well on the defensive end. That’s what I was happy about. And they’re a decent team, they can play. For us to put that kind of pressure on them in the halfcourt was something.”
Spreen finished with 14 points, Gomez totaled 11, and Moore added 9 (all in the third-quarter devastation). Norman was a catalyst with 7 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 0 turnovers. She’s been on the receiving end of coach criticism for some decisions on the offensive end. This performance, she was brilliant and earned praise.
“He’s been tougher on me this year, but it’s because I’m not a freshman any more,” Norman said. “He always says ‘I love you, that’s why I’m harder on you.’ He’s drilling things into my head about being smarter. He pushes me, and it’s good.”
Perhaps the week of games without practice sessions was worth it.
“I’m definitely a little bit tired,” Norman said. “I definitely like playing more than practice, by far. So it’s OK.”
Lincoln is in a similar schedule mode. The Alices have played five games in seven days, and they will continue the weary journey by hosting Jasper on Tuesday. That can be some of the reason for the lack of production. Leading scorer Maycee Lange was held scoreless, high-scoring guard Dani Kroeger had 2 free throws, and Lincoln was a chilly 7 of 37 from the floor. Carmean had 8 points.
“We didn’t have very good effort,” Young said. “I have talented young ladies, but I’m just not doing a good job to get them to play as a team and play past the threshold of being tired. I’ve never had a group I couldn’t motivate.”
BNL will get some days off before finishing the five-game road swing at Jasper on Saturday.
BEDFORD NL STARS (78)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
22 Irye Gomez, f 1-3 5-9 0-0 3 0 11
11 Chloe McKnight, f 4-9 6-12 0-0 1 2 16
2 Chloe Spreen, f 0-1 7-12 0-0 4 3 14
21 Karsyn Norman, g 1-3 2-4 2-2 6 2 7
23 Jenna Louden, g 0-2 2-4 2-2 3 2 6
40 Haley Deckard 0-0 1-2 0-0 3 0 2
24 Carlee Kern 0-0 1-2 1-2 4 1 3
12 Makena Moore 1-2 4-5 0-0 3 0 9
20 Emma Brown 0-1 1-2 1-1 1 0 3
32 Madisyn Bailey 0-0 2-3 0-0 2 1 4
44 Grace Kinser 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 1 3
31 Ella Turner 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 8-21 32-55 6-7 34 12 78
VINCENNES LINCOLN ALICES (28)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
5 Chloe Cardinal, f 0-2 0-3 2-2 6 0 2
42 Maycee Lange, c 0-3 0-6 0-0 6 0 0
13 Dani Kroeger, g 0-5 0-7 2-2 5 2 2
1 Gracie Kramer, g 0-0 0-5 5-6 0 1 5
21 Marissa Carmean, g 2-7 2-8 2-2 1 2 8
3 Faith Fleetwood 0-0 1-1 0-0 0 0 2
34 Macy Sexton 0-0 1-1 0-0 1 1 2
4 McKinsie Halter 0-0 1-2 0-0 1 0 2
20 Gracie Hartley 1-1 2-2 0-0 0 0 5
32 Marty Meadows 0-0 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
31 Madalynn Grube 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 3-19 7-37 11-12 22 6 28
Bedford NL 13 19 33 13 – 78
Vin. Lincoln 4 6 10 8 – 28
Turnovers – BNL 7, Lincoln 20
Field goal percentage – BNL 32-55 (.582); Lincoln 7-37 (.189)
Free throw percentage – BNL 6-7 (.857); Lincoln 11-12 (.917)
