FORTVILLE – A halftime speech is all it took to ignite the IndyStar Indiana girls’ Senior All-Stars.
Up by a slim two-point margin against the Junior All-Stars after the first quarter on Wednesday night, and six points at the break, head coach Joe Huppenthal delivered a wake-up call during intermission.
The Lake Central coach’s words landed, and his Indiana Senior All-Stars wasted no time flipping the switch in the second half.
Lawrence Central’s Lola Lampley, an LSU commit, sparked the second-half onslaught with seven points in the first five minutes of the third quarter en route to a team-high 12 points and seven rebounds, and the Indiana Senior All-Stars rolled to a lopsided 80-46 win at Mt. Vernon High School.
“We all had our mistakes in the first half. I had my mistakes, but we were patient with each other. Coach told us that it was a bad first half, but we had an opportunity to fix it, and I think we really took that in, and we applied that and started to get going,” Lampley said.
Lampley’s had four points in the first half, but two quick buckets to start the second half fueled a decisive 18-4 run for the seniors, who built a 28-point lead by the fourth quarter.
The seniors carried a 14-5 advantage in the first quarter before the juniors charged back behind a feisty performance by Eastern Hancock’s Kenzie Koch, a Ball State commit, who spearheaded a 9-2 swing to cut the deficit 16-14 by the second.
Koch finished with a team-high 12 points (5 of 12 shooting) and three rebounds. The 5-9 reserve guard contributed immediately with a pair of 3-pointers, a block and a steal in two minutes late in the first quarter.
A buzzer-beating jumper by Hammond Morton’s Kylah Patterson (three points, three rebounds) to end the first quarter kept the juniors close.
Northview’s Carlee Schrader and Roncalli’s Elliot Leffler both had six points apiece for the Junior All-Stars. McCutcheon’s Lillie Graves provided four points and a team-high eight rebounds.
“I wanted to show everything I could because it’s not all about scoring,” Koch said. “I don’t know how many points I had. I just think that I really showed my playmaking, finding my teammates, finding shots, finding different cuts and all that.”
Koch tallied eight points by halftime, relishing the chance to state her case for a potential future Indiana Senior All-Star selection.
“I kind of wanted to speed up the tempo a little bit,” Koch said. “We have no senior all-star jerseys hung up in my gym, so my main goal is to make the senior all-stars and be the first person to hang that jersey in my school. I think that’ll really show my mark coming from a small school.”
The Indiana Senior All-Stars had momentum and chemistry in mind with their two-game series against Kentucky coming up this weekend.
Their exhibition against the juniors was the team’s first appearance together on the court. Their victory improved the seniors’ overall series record over the juniors to 43-12 since 1996.
The Indiana Senior All-Stars travel to Kentucky on Friday and host the second game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Saturday.
“It’s an exhibition. It’s a practice, but we don’t have much time for a turnaround. We literally play in, what, a day? It’s good to practice good habits,” Lampley said. “Everybody is a competitor. We all wanted to win, so I knew at halftime, we have to turn it around, and that’s what got me started a little bit.”
Lampley, a Class 4A state champion in 2024, played in the McDonald’s All-American Game in Phoenix in late March, and the 6-2 wing had 10 points during her East Team’s 91-71 win.
Lampley and her Indiana Senior All-Star teammates want the same result against the Kentucky Senior All-Stars, which swept the series last year for the first time since 2012.
“I’m super grateful. All these opportunities are blessings. That experience was great,” Lampley said. “They’re the best of the best, and it was an honor to be one of the 24. It’s crazy to say, and it’s a blessing.”
She feels the same while wearing her Indiana All-Star jersey.
“It’s a blessing because anybody would want to be in my shoes right now,” Lampley said. “We definitely have a chip on our shoulder, and we have something to prove for sure.”
IndyStar Indiana Miss Basketball Gracyn Gilliard of Center Grove had 10 points, four rebounds, four steals and two assists for the seniors. Silver Creek’s Brooklynn Renn (Kansas) posted a team-high 12 points (4 of 7 shooting) with six rebounds.
Norwell’s Vanessa Rosswurm (Indiana Wesleyan) had nine points and four rebounds. Both Warsaw’s Brooke Zartman (Miami (Ohio)) and Lapel’s Laniah Wills (Butler) each had eight points.
“From day one, that’s what we’ve tried to emphasize. Have fun. Be a great teammate. Have people leave here and talk about what a great team you are and how hard you guys play,” Huppenthal said. “I also told them, there’s one goal to go, Kentucky. They don’t like us, I’m sure, but we don’t like them, in a competitive way. It’s bragging rights.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Girls Indiana All-Stars flip switch, rout Junior All-Stars in preperation for Kentucky
Reporting by Richard Torres, For IndyStar / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Richard Torres, For IndyStar | USA TODAY Network
