By RICHIE HALL
CARMEL – No matter what the record is, the Carmel girls basketball team is still fighting.
The Greyhounds probably had their toughest fight of the season Tuesday when they hosted Lawrence Central at the Eric Clark Activity Center. Despite trailing for most of the game, Carmel fought back to take a 47-45 lead with a minute left in the game.
The Bears scored to force the contest to overtime, and then outscored the ‘Hounds 9-2 to win the game 56-49. Carmel dropped to 1-11 for the season, but coach Erin Trimpe preferred to look at the positives.
“You can just see them learning, and you can just see it starting to click and you can see their buy-in,” said Trimpe. “Obviously the win-loss record isn’t something that they’re going to love, but our focus right now is just continuing to be better and be a threat come January and February. Two weeks ago, I’m not sure we could’ve done that, and so I’m just super proud of the way that they’re buying in and continuing to grow.”
The Greyhounds’ Mackenzie Woods scored the first basket of the game, after which LC went on a 6-0 run to take a 6-2 lead. But Carmel jumped back ahead 8-6 when Izzy Shepherd hit back-to-back 3-pointers. That was only the beginning for her.
Lawrence Central took off on a 12-0 run that extended into the second quarter, leading 18-8. Carmel continued to battle, but the Bears led 24-14 at halftime, then a basket by Lola Lampley opened the third quarter and gave LC its biggest lead of the game at 26-14.
Shepherd nailed another 3, and took over in the quarter. She would make a total of four 3-pointers during the third period, scoring 15 points. Shepherd helped bring Carmel back to within 37-33 by the end of the quarter, and Brooke Thoren’s layin to start the fourth made it a two-point game, 37-35.
Later, Woods drained a 3 to tie the game at 39-39. The Bears would regain the lead and go up 45-41, but Hannah Lach’s three-point play cut that advantage to 45-44, then Shepherd put in her seventh 3 of the game to give Carmel a 47-45 lead.
Lampley tied the game on a layin, and it was on to overtime. Lawrence Central’s Jaylah Lampley scored the first five points in the extra period, and that would turn out to be enough. Shepherd made two free throws to keep Carmel within 52-49, but Lola Lampley clinched the win for LC by going 4-of-4 from the line in the final 25.2 seconds.
Shepherd finished the game with 28 points. Woods led the rebounds with six, while Taryn Fisher collected five rebounds.
Carmel is back at home Friday, hosting North Central.
LAWRENCE CENTRAL 56, CARMEL 49
(overtime)
Carmel FG FT TP PF
Izzy Shepherd 9-15 3-4 28 1
Mackenzie Woods 3-9 0-0 7 0
Jamie Elliott 0-2 0-0 0 1
Brooke Thoren 1-1 1-2 3 1
Hannah Lach 2-10 1-1 5 4
Taryn Fisher 1-8 0-0 2 3
Mallory Bourquein 1-7 0-0 2 2
Keaton Gatlin 1-1 0-0 2 2
Totals 18-53 5-7 49 14
Score by Quarters
Lawrence Central 13 11 13 10 9 – 56
Carmel 8 6 19 14 2 – 49
Carmel 3-point shooting (8-20) Shepherd 7-12, Woods 1-2, Lach 0-5, Elliott 0-1.
Carmel rebounds (25) Woods 6, Fisher 5, Thoren 4, Shepherd 3, Gatlin 2, Bourquein 2, Lach 2, Elliott 1.