By RICHIE HALL
CARMEL – After dropping last year’s Pioneer Academic Athletic Conference championship game to Greenwood Christian Academy, the University girls basketball team was looking for redemption this season.
The Class 2A No. 8 Trailblazers got exactly what they wanted, including the championship trophy. University blitzed the Cougars in the opening quarter and cruised to a 74-30 victory Saturday at the U Center to claim the PAAC title.
“After last year, we came in wanting to beat them,” said ‘Blazers junior Payton Seay. “We just came in off the jump and from there, we got business done.”
Seay was all business during the first minute of the game, playing with the sharpness of a Fortune 500 CEO. She scored six points in 57 seconds, making a layin for the first basket, then scoring off steals from senior Patty Chikamba and junior Kamryn Washington.
“Our defense drives our offense, so when Payton starts getting her steals and getting her layups, that’s when we all started stepping up and that’s when our offense started to hit, and that’s when Patty started getting her steals,” said DuBois. “So everything just revolves around our defense, especially the press, and that’s what drives our offense.”
The quick start led GCA to take a timeout at the 7:03 mark of the first quarter. But University kept rolling, eventually taking a 22-2 lead with 1:20 left in the period. Seay scored 10 points in the quarter, with junior Kelsey DuBois and Chikamba both adding four points.
The Cougars made a jump shot and a pair of free throws at the end of the period, making the score 22-6 going into the second quarter. The Trailblazers stayed hot, pouring in another 26 points to take a 48-12 halftime lead. Seven different University players scored in the second quarter, which included 3-pointers from Seay and junior Jordan Patterson, a pair of putbacks by DuBois, and layins from sophomore Alex Feeney and senior Abby Hannon.
“I thought they played well,” said Trailblazers coach Justin Blanding. “This is probably the first game we’ve started out strong and finished strong.”
The second half began just like the first half did, with Seay scoring the first six points. Patterson added a layin, and that gave University a 56-12 lead.
Later in the quarter, an 8-0 run led the ‘Blazers to their biggest advantage of the game at 68-20. Freshman Taylor Seay scored six points of that run, making a traditional three-point play to start. DuBois also had a layin.
“We obviously have a lot of talent going down the bench, so we have a lot of energetic and aggressive practices, so everything you see out on the court has been practiced many, many times, so it just comes naturally to all of them,” said DuBois.
The bench players took over in the fourth quarter, and played well. Freshman Anyah Jordan scored four points during that period. Blanding was pleased with how the bench players contributed to the game.
“We try to prep them from the beginning that they could be in these situations and you never know what’s going to happen,” said Blanding. “Taylor coming in, even Anyah a little bit. It’s good for them to get that experience.”
Payton Seay led the scoring with 21 points, and also had four steals. DuBois reached double-double status with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Chikamba was all over the place, with 10 points, eight assists, eight steals and seven rebounds. Hannon collected six rebounds as well.
Fourteen players took to the floor for University, and 10 of them scored. Patyon Seay said that “having those players that can come off the bench and really make a difference really helps our team get going. We never lose intensity throughout the game because they’re able to come up and keep the intensity levels up.”
University is 15-2, having won its last 13 games. The Trailblazers are back at the U Center on Tuesday for a big game: Undefeated Benton Central is coming to town. The Bison are 21-0 and ranked No. 3 in 3A this week. (New rankings are due out early next week.)
“We know how good they are, the type of program they have, the prestige, all that stuff that they have,” said Blanding. “We know that, we understand that and that’s what we’re trying to be.”
UNIVERSITY 74, GREENWOOD CHRISTIAN 30
University FG FT TP PF
Kelsey DuBois 7-16 2-3 16 3
Patty Chikamba 3-8 4-4 10 2
Kamryn Washington 0-2 0-0 0 1
Payton Seay 9-13 2-2 21 0
Jordan Patterson 3-6 0-0 7 0
Emily Adamowicz 1-4 1-2 3 3
Abby Hannon 1-3 1-2 3 1
Taylor Seay 2-4 2-3 6 2
Arrion Sherrod 1-4 0-0 2 1
Alex Feeney 1-4 0-0 2 0
Anne Gibboney 0-0 0-0 0 2
Anyah Jordan 2-3 0-0 4 4
Reva Allam 0-0 0-0 0 1
Lindsey Blocksom 0-0 0-0 0 1
Totals 30-67 12-16 74 21
Score by Quarters
GCA 6 6 10 8 – 30
University 22 26 20 6 – 74
University 3-point shooting (2-11) P. Seay 1-3, Patterson 1-2, DuBois 0-2, Sherrod 0-2, Chikamba 0-1, Adamowicz 0-1.
University rebounds (40) DuBois 11, Chikamba 7, Hannon 6, Washington 4, Adamowicz 3, Sherrod 3, Patterson 2, P. Seay 1, Jordan 1, T. Seay 1, Feeney 1.
Click here to see more game images from Kirk Green.