This is the first week of the 46th annual Indiana High School Athletic Association girls basketball tournament, and the long history of the sport in the state demonstrates it is an anything-goes event.
Trinity Lutheran’s mission after spending the regular season as the top-rated team in Class A is to keep on playing, not merely through this weekend when the Cougars compete in the Edinburgh Sectional, but all of the way through the month.
Trinity believes it has the right stuff to go all of the way.
“Their sights are set on the fourth weekend in February,” coach Mike Lang said of his 18-4 bunch that opens the sectional at 6 p.m. today against Shawe Memorial.
Senior center Sydney Jaynes, a 19-point-per-game scorer and a dominating rebounder, said she and her teammates are determined to do something special and want to take home a state championship trophy.
“We do have the talent,” Jaynes said.
Jaynes and sophomore guard Bailey Tabeling, who averages 20 points a game, have a partnership of cooperation that provides an inside-outside punch that often overpowers foes.
“We’re ready,” Tabeling said. “I think we can win the sectional. This entire year, we’ve been pushing to get to state.”
Going far in the tournament has been a team goal since fall practice began, she said. Trinity may play in the smallest classification, but on several occasions, the Cougars played up, scheduling games against bigger schools in 2A, 3A and 4A.
Trinity went 2-1 against 4A teams, 3-2 against 3A teams (both losses coming to Brownstown Central) and 2-1 against 2A teams. The idea was to toughen up the Cougars for tournament competition.
Lang said veteran players like Jaynes, senior Genesis Munoz, the first substitute, and Tabeling do a lot of peer-to-peer talking to younger or less experienced players to let them know what to expect and what kind of attitude they should bring to the floor.
“Genesis, she is such a great leader in practice and in the locker room,” Lang said of Munoz, who was the goalie on the girls soccer team and catches for the softball in her other sports seasons. “They make my job easier.”
Trinity won this sectional last year but lost in the first round of the regional. The players felt they should have gone deeper in the tournament. That should be motivation for 2021, Lang said.
“They know they left something on the table last year,” he said.
To win this weekend over Shawe Memorial and then defeat the winner of the Crothersville-West Washington game Saturday night, Lang said two things are necessary.
First and foremost, especially in a season when the coronavirus has interrupted play for so many teams, the No. 1 assignment is to stay healthy.
And he wants his club to win the battle on the offensive boards.
“We want to eliminate offensive rebounds,” Lang said. “We need to keep the other guys off the boards.”
Whether it is the virus or unfortunate timing with tweaks and bruises, that could be about luck. The other involves digging down and working hard.
TRINITY LUTHERAN PROBABLE STARTERS
(Player, year, scoring average)
Sydney Jaynes, Sr., (19.2)
Kailene Cockerham, Jr., (8.0)
Emma Schepman, Jr. (3.4)
Bailey Tabeling, So. (20.7)
Liza Froedge, Fr. (7.1)