The Edinburgh Sectional nets will never have another basketball swish through the cords. The white strands are now trophies.
After its victory over West Washington last Saturday, the Trinity Lutheran girls basketball team attacked the nets mounted on rims at each end of the court with scissors, snipping them away from their supports. Every player got a piece. Except for coach Mike Lang, who walked away with an entire net.
His net was draped around his neck as he beamed about his team’s accomplishment. Along with a game ball he was having every player autograph, the net was headed to his personal memorabilia collection.
“That net goes on top of the ball,” Lang said.
At 1 p.m. today at Springs Valley High School in French Lick, the 20-4 Cougars face 17-4 Loogootee in a grudge match Class A regional showdown that will send one team into the evening’s 8 p.m. championship game and one team home for the season.
Last year, Loogootee defeated Trinity 61-43 and advanced to win the state title. Loogootee returns most key players, and Trinity has only added to its lineup with starter Liza Froedge complementing stars like Sydney Jaynes in the middle and guard Bailey Tabeling.
Lang said Loogootee is “a dangerous team.”
Trinity knocked off Shawe Memorial 86-23 and West Washington 67-31 in Edinburgh. There was a vigorous on-court celebration when the Cougars received the trophy and shared net pieces. Each player had a place in mind to display her rope.
The Schepman sisters, Emma and Katelyn, have a bucket that contains their spoils of the game, and they were going to deposit both of their net pieces in it.
Hanging from bedposts, attaching net pieces to cabinets, were spots mentioned as future homes for the net souvenirs. The Cougars were happy about the triumph, but they do not believe they are finished partying.
They feel they owe Loogootee, and revenge is on their minds. They are determined to play the winner of the other semifinal between Lanesville (21-3) and Tecumseh (14-6).
“This team has no nerves,” Lang said of his Cougars. “They hope to win a regional. This team believes it’s going to regional to win a championship.”
Tabeling, a 5-foot-9 sophomore, averages about 20 points a game. So does Jaynes, the 6-3 senior center who is bound for Butler University next season.
A backdrop to the entire adventure is Jaynes’ quest to break the school’s all-time scoring record. The current owner of the mark is Brittany Tabeling, Bailey’s older sister, with 1,593 points. Jaynes enters this game needing 12 points to tie the record.
“It’s not far away,” Jaynes said. “The weird part is how it snuck up on me. It’s a little symbolic.”
She meant she could obtain the scoring record at the same time Trinity produces its biggest win in her four years with the team.
“I don’t really think about it. I don’t want to say it should be easy, but it should come,” she said.
Trinity will likely need Jaynes to score 12 or more points to top Loogootee, but there is every reason to think she won’t have to press to accumulate that many.
“It will come in the flow of the game, and it will be more special if it comes in a victory,” Lang said.
This is Lang’s 10th season coaching the Cougars, and they have won five sectional titles. Last season, Trinity was 24-4. This season the schedule was weighted with bigger schools from larger classes with the goal of toughening up the squad for playoff time. That time is now.
“They’ve been challenged through the strength of their schedule,” Lang said. “I have had other teams who have gone to regional who hope to win. This team believes they will win. They believe in their teammates.”
Jaynes, Tabeling and Froedge, who made six 3-pointers against West Washington, are joined in the starting lineup by Emma Schepman and point guard Kailene Cockerham, who can also hit from long range.
The sixth player, first off the bench, who adds savvy and strength to the defense, is senior Genesis Munoz, a three-sport athlete who has been collecting basketball net segments.
“Oh yeah,” Munoz said. “I’m always glad to get these.”
The Cougars would like to deliver payback to Loogootee in the same regional where they lost in 2020.
“We’ve been thinking of it since the season started,” Jaynes said.
Trinity was scheduled to spend Friday night before the game in French Lick and have a team dinner before a morning practice today. The Cougars’ eyes are on Loogootee, but their minds sometimes drift ahead to later rounds of the tournament.
“It would be a dream to go all the way,” Jaynes said.