GREENFIELD — Heritage Christian sophomore guard Elyse Snively was running a 101-degree fever on Thursday and Friday and woke up feeling ill with a headache on Saturday. The Eagles’ 2A regional championship tilt against Union County was only hours away.
The family consensus was not to take Snively’s temperature ahead of the game at Greenfield-Central High School, fearful of what the result might be. “I was OK with not checking,” she laughed after scoring 18 points and playing a key role in the Eagles’ 71-29 rout of the Union County Patriots.
“I think I just tried to be confident the whole time,” Snively said afterwards as her mates cut down the nets. “Being sick or not, I prepared for this moment.”
Snively’s fellow sophomore Riley Johnson led Heritage Christian in scoring with 24, above her season average of 16 points coming into the contest. Heritage Christian (19-8) advances to next weekend’s semi-state round of the IHSAA 2A tournament. Union County finished 14-12.
The Eagles obliterated the Patriots with a 35-2 run over 14 minutes starting with three minutes to play in the first quarter. At that point the game was even at 15. Heritage Christian scored the final seven points of the frame and when Johnson scored seven points to open the second quarter, the rout was on. With three minutes gone in the third quarter, Heritage Christian had galloped to a 50-17 lead.
Union County could not compete on the boards with the taller Eagles and compounded their problems with a cascade of turnovers. But for all of Heritage Christian’s offensive firepower, it was a defensive change from a 3-2 zone to a 2-3 footprint that sparked the blitz according to coach Jessaca Stults.
“Our game plan is always defense and I think we did that really well after the first couple of minutes,” Stults said. She felt the change to the 2-3 helped with the defensive rotation and stopped Eagle drives to the basket.
Once the defense locked in, the Eagles’ offense took off too, hitting 57% of its shots from the field and an impressive 8-18 from the 3-point line. Half of Johnson’s 24 points came from beyond the arc.
Union County coach Joey Sidell knew stopping the long ball was going to be critical. “Our key was we had to contest the 3-point line and force their drives and we didn’t do that. We let them get going at the 3-point line and it just got away from us.”
Inside, Union County couldn’t compete with 5-foot-11 Trinity Taylor who collected 13 rebounds. Point guard Kihanna Mellanson added 9 points, including a seven-point run of her own to stretch the advantage to 21 points late in the second quarter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 35-2 run launches Heritage Christian to easy girls basketball regional title
Reporting by Les Morris, Special to IndyStar / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
