By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – The first all-county girls basketball game of the season took place Saturday night at Guerin Catholic’s Eagles Nest.
Playing in their season-opener, the Golden Eagles hosted University, which is ranked No. 4 in the Class 2A pre-season polls and a defending regional champion. Despite battling a couple injuries, the Trailblazers never trailed, and beat Guerin Catholic 52-39.
University scored the first seven points of the game: Junior Kelsey DuBois opened things up with a putback, senior Patty Chikamba (a transfer from Covenant Christian) made a 3-pointer and Payton Seay scored on her own putback.
Both DuBois and Seay were dealing with injuries. Seay had missed University’s Tuesday opener against Shortridge, while DuBois was questionable for Saturday’s contest.
“I think they were great, considering they’ve been hurt,” said Trailblazers coach Justin Blanding. “We didn’t know if we’d even get them back, so they were able to get back. We’ve been injury-prone the whole time. We haven’t been able to condition anything, so to come out here and get a win and those two play well is huge for us.”
The Golden Eagles stayed close with the ‘Blazers, as baskets from Kathryn Loso and Katie Koger cut the lead to 7-4. Jordan Patterson’s 3 got University ahead 14-6, but a layin by Loso and two Koger free throws got GC within 14-10 by the end of the period.
The second quarter was a low-scoring one, and it finished with the Trailblazers holding a 21-14 lead. Guerin Catholic was held scoreless until the 1:40 mark when Ava Bills made a layin.
The third quarter began with GC getting within 21-16 after Natalie Fernandez hit two foul shots. DuBois began to get going in the third, scoring six points, but Seay was the one who took over, pouring in 10 points. Seay gave University its largest leads of the game, as her three-point play put the ‘Blazers up 34-22. Koger cut the lead to 10 with a jumper, but Seay then drained a 3 and made a layin to push University up 39-24.
“We didn’t shoot it particularly well in the first half,” said Blanding. “We missed a lot of shots. A lot of it is being on the road and honestly, not playing a lot. But in the second half, we settled down and our juniors and seniors really stepped up. So happy to see that.”
In the fourth quarter, DuBois added six more points, finishing with a putback to get the Trailblazers ahead 45-30. University’s lead stayed between 12 and 15 points from that point forward. Loso scored six points during the latter stages of the period.
Seay led all scorers with 21 points, followed by DuBois with 14. Both players collected nine rebounds. Kamryn Washington and Patterson each had five rebounds, with Washington making four steals. Chikamba had five steals.
Loso led the Golden Eagles with 17 points, while Koger added 12 points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
“I think we actually played pretty well,” said GC coach Marc Quaranta. “I told the girls after the game that we got 21 games left and I don’t know if there will honestly be another physical game like this. They play so tough, so physical, they pressure in your face. Our girls took it pretty well and they were able to play the physical game right back. I was very happy on the defensive end that they worked as hard as they did. University has great players. They’re well-coached and so they were able to claw and scratch a little bit longer than we were and I think they out-toughed us for a while.”
University is 2-0 and plays Wednesday at Danville. Guerin Catholic is back in action Friday when it hosts Greenfield-Central.
UNIVERSITY 52, GUERIN CATHOLIC 39
University FG FT TP PF
Kelsey DuBois 7-8 0-0 14 2
Patty Chikamba 3-14 0-0 7 4
Kamryn Washington 1-2 0-0 2 4
Payton Seay 9-18 2-4 21 1
Jordan Patterson 1-6 3-4 6 4
Abby Hannon 0-1 0-0 0 1
Arrion Sherrod 1-4 0-0 2 0
Taylor Seay 0-1 0-0 0 0
Totals 22-54 5-8 52 16
University 3-point shooting (3-21) Chikamba 1-7, Patterson 1-6, P. Seay 1-4, Sherrod 0-3, Washington 0-1.
University rebounds (35) DuBois 9, P. Seay 9. Washington 5, Patterson 5, Chikamba 4, Hannon 3.
Guerin Catholic FG FT TP PF
Katie Koger 4 2-2 12 2
Hannah Weitzel 0 0-0 0 1
Natalie Fernandez 2 2-2 6 1
Megan Cobb 0 0-0 0 0
Kathryn Loso 6 5-8 17 2
Caitlyn Sharpe 0 0-1 0 1
Ava Bills 1 0-0 2 1
Reagan Haines 1 0-0 2 0
Totals 14 9-13 39 8
Guerin Catholic 3-pointers (2) Koger 2.
NOTE: Guerin Catholic shooting stats were unavailable at press time.
Score by Quarters
University 14 7 18 13 – 52
Guerin Catholic 10 4 12 13 – 39