CAMPBELLSBURG — The Indiana High School Athletic Association changed its basketball tournament format this season, switching from four-team regionals and two-team semistates to two-team regionals and four-team semistates.

“No complaints from me. None at all,” Trinity Lutheran girls coach Mike Lang said after his Cougars defeated Springs Valley 71-43 in the West Washington Regional on Saturday.

“Taking a week to prepare for one team compared to two was nice and not being on the road traveling like we were (making three trips to Rising Sun to win the sectional),” he said.

The win gives the Cougars their first regional trophy and advances them to the New Albany Semistate this Saturday.

“It felt amazing,” Cougars star Bailey Tabeling said when asked about receiving the trophy. “Going through those four years and losing the first round of regional gets to you, so changing it to a one-game regional this year and coming out and having to play hard for those 32 minutes and being able to take home the trophy was amazing.”

She said the Cougars worked hard last week.

“We prepared all week, we worked hard, we went over things we needed to work on, but we also had so much fun over the week doing it. That made everything even more special doing it with the girls on the court,” she said.

Tabeling made three 3-pointers, and Jordan Brewer and Liza Froedge each added one to help the Cougars to a 17-14 lead after the first period.

The Cougars went on a 9-0 run early in the second period, and another 3-pointer by Brewer increased Trinity’s lead to 26-16 at the 5:30 mark.

In the middle of that rally, Froedge made a 4-point play, hitting a 3 and she was fouled on the shot and made the free throw.

“We were up three when she got that 4-point play. We were right on the cusp in the first quarter, I felt, of setting the tone for the game,” Lang said. “In the second quarter, it was all four of them. You had Liza, Laura, Bailey and Jordan all knocking 3s down, and I guarantee a couple of them wasn’t on their scouting report.”

Tabeling said, “After Liza made that 4-point play, I think everything was clicking with her, and Laura and Jordan (Brewer) were playing amazing defense throughout the whole game. We kept pushing throughout the whole game because we wanted to come out with this win.”

The Cougars made five 3s in the second period to outscore Valley 25-10 to take a 41-24 lead at the break.

Trinity made 10-of-15 3s in the first half, four by Tabeling, three by Froedge, two by Brewer and one by Laura Roeder.

Another 3 that wasn’t on Valley’s scouting report was the one that Tabeling swished from three-fourths court at the end of the third period that gave her team a 52-33 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“We were 0-for-5 here in the regional (prior to Saturday),” Lang said. “There’s always got to be a first. Getting the first one is pretty sweet. We get to hang out for one more week, and there’s not a better group of kids I’d rather be hanging out with. Now, we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to go get two more next week.”

Tabeling topped the Cougars with 27 points and raised her career total to 2,221 points. She also topped Trinity in rebounds with seven.

“Bailey is playing the best basketball of her career right now,” Lang said. “She is seeing her teammates, she’s driving and she’s hitting shots. She is playing like an Indiana All-Star and a D1 player.”

Tabeling will be playing at Ohio University next season.

Lang said Tabeling did an excellent job of defending Valley’s Bella Nottger. She was held to eight points, while Madelyn Carnes topped the Blackhawks (17-8) with 12 points.

“They crashed the boards hard. They’re going to be a good team coming up,” he said, noting that Valley started a junior and two freshmen.

Froedge finished with 14, Keith with 11, Brewer with 10 and Roeder with nine.

Roeder did all her scoring in the second and third periods.

“It feels pretty good to be the first ones in school history to (win a regional),” she said. “I just felt better than I normally do (shooting). At the beginning, it was hard, but then we got into the groove, and it got better.”

She helped Trinity win a volleyball regional her freshman year and said athletics have given her a lot of opportunities.

“I’m excited to be the first ones in school history to get that chance to play in the (basketball) semistate,” she said.

Lang said, “Madison is the last one that is ever going to have any excuses. She was under the weather. She came out and she played hard. It was a tough assignment. We got her back on the right assignment, and she battled.

“It was a total team effort. I couldn’t be more proud of them. If you would have told me this morning when I got up that we’d win by 28, I’d have said there is no way.”

The Cougars will take on Lanesville this Saturday at noon in the semistate semifinal at New Albany High School. The first game is between Bloomfield and Jac-Cen-Del. The semistate final will be at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Box score

West Washington Regional

Trinity Lutheran;17;24;11;19;—;71

Springs Valley;14;10;9;10;—;43

Trinity Lutheran (22-6): Bailey Tabeling 10 2-2 27, Liza Froedge 6 1-3 14, Laura Roeder 4 0-0 9, Madison Keith 5 1-1 11, Jordan Brewer 3 2-2 10, Dianna Munoz 0 0-0 0, Morgan Brewer 0 0-0 0, Maddie Adams 0 0-0 0, Marci Leinart 0 0-0 0, totals 22 6-8 71

Springs Valley (17-8): Tori McCormick 0 7-8 7, Brynne Buchanan 1 0-0 2, Maci Eckerty 5 0-0 13, Madelyn Carnes 3 5-6 12, Bella Nottger 4 0-0 8, Macy Hall 0 1-2 1, totals 13 13-23 43

3-point goals: TL (Tabeling 4, Froedge 3, J. Brewer 2, Roeder), SV (Eckerty 3, Carnes)

Rebounds: TL 26 (Tabeling 7, Keith 6), SV 23 (Carnes 6, Eckerty 5)

Turnovers: TL 9, SV 11