FRENCH LICK
Celebrations do not follow seasons that end with defeats.
More often, players emerge from the locker room with tears in their eyes, and that was true for the Trinity Lutheran girls basketball team Saturday afternoon.
Their months of hard work and grand aspirations of winning a Class A title concluded with a 57-46 loss to Loogootee in the opening round of the Spring Valley Regional in the Indiana State High Athletic Association tournament.
A week earlier, the Cougars applied a handful of shifting defenses to blitz through the Edinburgh Sectional. This time, none of those defensive choices were effective enough.
“We wanted it so badly,” said senior center Sydney Jaynes, who fought to hold back tears, then choked up over the abrupt end of the 2020-21 season.
Not even establishing a new Trinity girls career scoring record was much consolation to her as she tried to process the loss. Jaynes is headed to a college career at Butler and entered this game needing just 12 points to equal the school mark.
She finished with 17 points but did not know at what point in the game she broke the record and seemed unaware she had really done it.
“Did I?” Jaynes said when informed she did break the record of 1,593 points held by Brittany Tabeling.
Jaynes came into the game with 1,581 points over four years and now has 1,598. The record-setting play was a jumper from near the top of the key with 2 minutes, 22 seconds left in the third quarter.
“Oh, that was it,” Jaynes said.
Trinity (20-5), which has steamrolled many opponents this season, was taken out of its game by Loogootee, the defending Class A state champ, which later that night beat Tecumseh 55-38 to capture the regional.
The Lions’ scrappy defense double-teamed the 6-foot-3 Jaynes but also sealed off most of the Cougars’ other options.
A seasoned team with eight seniors, though no one of significant height to halt Jaynes single-handedly, Loogootee’s bunch of 5-8, 5-9 and 5-10 defenders covered ground on the perimeter quickly.
Offensively, the Lions overshifted on the right side to find Makenzie McHoy open for 3-point shots. McHoy set an early tone with four 3-pointers in the half and six for the game for 18 points. Those long-distance shots were daggers to Trinity.
“A good 3-point shooter makes 35% of her shots,” Trinity coach Mike Lang said. “She made 80%.”
Despite McHoy’s fast start and big shots, the first quarter ended with the Cougars ahead 12-11. Freshman Liza Froedge, who put on that same kind of shooting show last week in the sectional championship game against West Washington, scored Trinity’s first points on a layup and hit a 3-pointer and made another drive for seven points in the period.
Forward Emma Schepman’s traditional three-point play of a layup and a foul shot looked big at the time.
Trinity, which was ranked No. 1 in Class A for most of the season, managed a 25-23 halftime lead but appeared a bit shaky. Loogootee’s Brooklyn Jones capitalized on a layup and a base-line jumper, and the Lions hung tight as Jaynes scored her first points.
“Just silly turnovers and their defense turned it up,” Lang said of the critical juncture when Loogootee came on strong in the second.
Coming out of the locker room in the third quarter, Loogootee was able to diversify its offense somewhat and stalemate Trinity guard Bailey Tabeling, a 20-point-per-game scorer who never completely got into rhythm and fouled out.
Jaynes scored her milestone career points in this quarter, but nobody blinked or acknowledged it. As seemed likely ahead of time in what shaped up as a close game, the points came in the flow when the score was close.
Loogootee went up by eight points in the third, but Trinity closed to within 40-37 entering the fourth period. This was the time to make a move, but the Cougars could not. Instead, they went cold and the Lions surged ahead 50-40.
Trinity guard Kailene Cockerham interrupted that streak with a 3-pointer, and the Cougars scratched back to within 50-44 as the clock wound down. Cockerham unwound another three-point attempt from the left corner. If it went, the score would have been 50-47. But it bounced away, and then the Lions finished off Trinity with free throws.
The loss was painful. Loogootee knocked Trinity out of the tournament last year, too.
“I don’t know what it was,” said Tabeling, who had red eyes and tears on her cheeks, of the somewhat slow start. “We thought that we were ready. We just couldn’t get anything to fall. They were tougher than we were used to.”
Trinity players had a strong belief in themselves and were confident they would advance beyond this game.
“Very surprised,” Jaynes said of the loss. “I think all of us thought we were going to win.”
Many stretches tilted Loogootee’s way m — no matter how hard the Cougars tried.
“In the scheme of the game I can’t fault our kids’ effort,” he said.
Trinity Lutheran;12;13;12;9;—;46