This story has been updated with results and comments from the semi-state championship game.
FRANKFORT ― No matter what the scoreboard said in Case Arena at Frankfort High School late Saturday night, the Bremen girls basketball team were champions regardless.
The No. 7 Lions saw their dreams of the first IHSAA Class 2A semi-state title in program history dashed though by a championship effort by No. 12 Oak Hill. The Golden Eagles rode big back-to-back quarters in the second and third periods to down the Lions 66-57.
Oak Hill, which claimed the fifth semistate title in program history and first since 2019, improved to 24-3. The Golden Eagles move on to face either Parke Heritage or Eastern in the Class 2A state title game at approximately 12:45 p.m. Feb. 28 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Bremen, which had four players score in double figures, finishes at 24-3.
The Lions hearts were strong, but heavy on Saturday. Bremen played just two days after Jessica Feathers passed away Thursday night. Feathers, a former standout basketball player at New Prairie High School as Jessica Vaundry, died after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Her two daughters, junior Teagan and sophomore Skylee, are members of the Bremen team.
Bremen, which cut a 20-point deficit to six in the final period, says goodbye to a stellar senior class of Emma Lawmaster, Emma Kincaid, Eliana Grubbs and Natalie Harmon. All four started Saturday night.
“Our seniors are an amazing group,” said Bremen coach Alex Robinson. “We’ve been extremely blessed these last three years to have them lead this program. It’s just how good a people they are, both on and off the court.
“It’s all about how well they got along and the chemistry we had because of them. They have definitely led us.”
Bremen led 18-17 after the opening period as Grubbs drained a triple at the horn. Oak Hill opened the second stanza with a 9-0 run to take the lead for good at 26-18.
Oak Hill star sophomore Brianna Dailey, a 6-1 force inside, went to the bench with two fouls with 4:21 to play in the first half. Bremen, however, still trailed 37-30 at halftime.
The Golden Eagles, who knocked off No. 1 Whitko in the second semifinal game earlier Saturday, used a 17-8 third period to stretch their lead to 54-38. Dailey, the team’s top scorer at 15.8 ppg., scored six points in the frame. Oak Hill led by as many as 20 points at 52-32.
Bremen refused to go down without a fight. The Lions took advantage of seven Oak Hill turnovers in the final frame and drained five triples. Bremen got within 58-52 with 3:53 to play, but could not get over the hump. Dailey hit two big free throws, and 5-11 junior Morgan Cates had a huge rebound bucket to push the lead back to 10.
“These girls would not go down without a fight,” Robinson said. “They battled to the end. We got it down to a few possessions, but it was such a big hole to try and get out of. We just could not get over the hump. We could not get enough stops or scores strung together.
“They were tough to defend. Credit to them for making shots. The way they shot the ball in the first half was tough. It’s not a position that we have been in. We got down double figures and we rushed things.”
Bremen entered play Saturday night allowing just 30 ppg. The 66 points scored by Oak Hill was a season high allowed by the Lions.
Oak Hill shot 25-of-47 overall for the game, including 14-of-29 in the opening half. They also hit 7-of-11 in the key third period and also made seven treys.
Bremen shot 17-of-51 for the game, including just 5-of-24 in the second and third quarters.
Grubbs finished her brilliant career with 14 points in her final game. Lawmaster and Kincaid each scored 13 points and Skylee Feathers added 10, including eight in the fourth period. Teagan Feathers had four points and Harmon three.
Dailey finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Junior Kora Pond had 13 points and junior Erika Newhouse and Cates each added 11. Junior Lily Edwards added nine points off the bench with three triples.
Oak Hill started an all-underclassmen lineup in the semi-state title game win.
Lions upend Lapel in morning semifinal
Not even a double-digit deficit to open their Class 2A semi-state semifinal game versus No. 6 Lapel was going to faze Bremen Saturday morning.
The mentally tough and resilient No. 7 Lions shook off a slow start to dominate the rest of the way to the tune of a 60-43 victory in the Frankfort Semistate inside venerable Case Arena.
Senior Grubbs led the way for Bremen with 21 points. Senior Kincaid scored 17 for the winners.
Senior star Laniah Wills, a 6-0 Butler recruit, led Lapel with 21 points. Wills, who also had 12 rebounds, shot just 7-of-26 from the field. She scored 10 of her points in the fourth quarter with the outcome already decided.
Wills ended her prep career with over 2,400 career points and as the state’s all-time leading rebounder with more than 1,400 caroms to her credit. She entered Saturday’s game averaging 26 points and 12 rebounds per game and shooting 60% from the field on the season.
Senior guard Sophie Goodwin scored 14 points for Lapel.
Lapel, which was state runner-up in 2023 and lost in the semi-state in 2024, finished at 22-5. The Bulldogs, who had just one loss to a Class 2A team this season prior to Saturday, had won all four of its state tournament games by blowout margins of 24, 64, 30 and 21 points. Lapel beat No. 2 Rensselaer Central 63-42 in their regional contest.
Bremen trailed 12-2 to open the game as the Bulldogs could not miss against the Lions’ 2-3 zone. Bremen never blinked though. The veteran group went on a 29-6 run from there to take a 31-18 halftime lead. Senior star Grubbs caught fire in the second period to lead the charge for the Lions as she drained 12 points, including a trio of treys.
The Lions outscored the Bulldogs 22-3 in the pivotal second frame, Lapel shot 1-of-11 from the field and also had seven turnovers in the deciding quarter. Lapel shot 5-of-25 from 3-point range for the game.
“This is a mentally tough group and I trust the girls,” said Bremen coach Robinson. “They’ve been there before. Our 2-3 has been our bread and butter the past several years. We settled into it after the start and made them a perimeter-oriented team. We just wanted to limit No. 11 (Wills). She was 100 percent our focus today. We just wanted to swarm her.
“Eliana has done that before where she just takes over like in the second quarter. She’s never rattled. It was just a huge response by our girls in that second quarter. That gave us a lot of confidence.”
Robinson had to stop for a moment and compose himself when asked about the character and strength of his squad.
“I give all the credit to our players today, “Robinson said. “They are just a special, connected group. They are so strong. It was business as usual for them.”
Bremen won its first three tournament games by margins of 43, 19 and 29 points. The Lions also beat Lapel 4-0 in a soccer semi-state game last fall en route to a state-runner-up finish.
The Lions extended their lead to 47-26 at the end of the third stanza. Lapel shot just 1-of-9 from the field in the period. Bremen’s lead got down to 10 points late in the game, but they were never seriously threatened.
Grubbs, her team’s top scorer on the season at 14.4 ppg., said it was all about confidence.
“We were confident in ourselves and knew we could do this,” Grubbs said. “All week, we were super focused preparing for this game. We just came out in that first quarter and were super rushed. We got our composure in the second and I hit open shots. I was confident that I would hit them.
“We have the best 2-3 zone in the state. We have quickness and then we also have size inside.”
Lawmaster, one of four senior starters, had six points for the Lions.
Teagan Feathers, a 6-2 junior starter, finished with eight points and 13 rebounds. Sophomore Skylee Feathers was tough off the bench with six points and seven rebounds.
Grubbs praised the strength of her teammates.
“I’m just super thankful for them,” said Grubbs of the Feathers sisters. “They’re tough. They were at practice yesterday. She (their mother) wanted them to play. We are all there for them and they are both there for us. We just all came together.”
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Bremen girls basketball shows its heart in semi-state title game loss
Reporting by Scott Davidson, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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