By RICHIE HALL
CARMEL – It’s likely that no Indiana girls basketball team has challenged itself during the early season like University has.
The Class 2A Trailblazers began their season last Saturday with a close loss to 4A Lafayette Jefferson, then returned to the U Center on Wednesday for their home opener against Danville, the No. 4-ranked team in 3A. University battled the Warriors throughout the entire game before being edged out by Danville 52-51.
“Oh my gosh, I was proud of the effort our kids gave,” said second-year Blazers coach Lisa Pryor. The coach said she challenged her team, “and they accepted it. “They gave 100 percent,” she said.
University led the Warriors 11-9 after one quarter. Taylor Seay, back for her senior season after missing her junior year due to injury, scored five points, including a 3-pointer. Seay would go on to score in each quarter of the game.
“I’m just so happy for her,” said Pryor. “Outside of our team, this is a kid who has endured a lot of injuries and the emotional toll that it can take, especially leaving something that you’ve done for a long time.”
Pryor said Seay “asked to come back to the team,” and the Trailblazers were “happy to welcome her back. And she’s just been really working hard and has done everything that we’ve asked her to do and has had a really great attitude while she’s done it.”
Danville worked its way to a 23-21 lead by halftime, with Madison Wethington making two 3-pointers for six points. Seay answered that with six points of her own.
University began the second half with an 8-0 run to lead 29-23. Leah Norvell and Seay both nailed 3s, then Anyah Turley finished the spurt with a layin. The Warriors came back again, beginning a back-and-forth between the teams. Norvell went on to score seven points in the third, including a layin to give the Blazers a 37-36 lead, but a Danville basket ended the quarter and put the Warriors up 38-37.
Consecutive baskets from Addison Davis gave Danville a 49-41 lead in the fourth quarter, but University refused to go away. Norvell threw in another 3 to cut the lead to 50-46, then a Seay layin with under 30 seconds to go put the Trailblazers within 51-48. Wethington hit a free throw with 6.3 seconds left, but Sydney Culp gave University the last word with a triple at the buzzer.
“I haven’t looked at the final count for our turnovers, but I know for a fact that they’re much lower than what they were Saturday,” said Pryor.
The coach said she challenged her team to take care of the basketball, “and I’ll do that every single game,” said Pryor. “And I felt like they really put more thought into it. They were settling, not as frantic, and it looked like that’s what Danville really wanted was to make people frantic, and just make a bad pass and they pick off those passes, right? So, I figured if we could eliminate that, then that would put us in a good position.”
Seay finished the game with 20 points and Norvell totaled 12; both made two 3-pointers. Mack Feeney collected seven rebounds, dished out four assists and blocked two shots. Norvell and Gabby Culp each grabbed six rebounds.
University is 0-2 and begins a six-game road swing on Tuesday with a trip to Roncalli.
Be the first to comment on "University falls to Danville in nail-biter"