By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – Even if the Noblesville girls basketball team has quite a few young players, no one can say the Millers play like a young team.
Not anyone who watched Noblesville’s season-opening game Thursday night at The Mill. The Millers took on defending Class 4A state champion Lawrence North, and won by the score of 48-40. It was Noblesville’s first victory over the Wildkats since Feb. 4, 2010.
The Millers used tough, aggressive defense to get the win, setting the tone in the first quarter. Noblesville allowed LN only four points in the entire period.
“I thought our kids did a nice job, just being really aggressive, flying around,” said Millers coach Donna Buckley. “Our defense carried us. We turned the ball over too many times, obviously. We just counted on our defense. They did a great job, whether it was our 1-3-1 or just being up pressing. Our kids were just so active and did a great job of not letting them get into any kind of rhythm on offense.”
Noblesville led 7-4 after that first quarter. Senior Emily Wood scored the Millers’ first basket of the season on a layin, then sophomore Ashlynn Shade, back after a spectacular freshman season, made a basket off a steal.
Freshman Reagan Wilson scored her first-ever varsity points – the first of what will be many – with a floater, and Noblesville held a 7-2 lead.
“Reagan’s a pretty special kid,” said Buckley. “She did a great job. I can’t say enough about her ability to, as a freshman, step up against Lawrence North and just take care of the basketball and be that kid that you can put the ball in her hands and get everybody where they’re supposed to be, get your offense going. She did not play like a freshman by any means. She looked like a senior, playing in a big-time game. She was really good.”
The Wildcats took their only lead of the game in the second quarter, after Jayla Smith opened the period by making back-to-back 3-pointers. That put Lawrence North up 10-7. But the Millers took over after that, going on an 11-0 run. Shade powered most of the run, making consecutive baskets and finishing things up with a triple. That put Noblesville ahead 18-10, and it would never trail again.
A pair of free throws from Sydnee Hughes got the Wildcats within 18-17 with 1:23 left in the first half. Noblesville held firm, and pushed the lead back up to four with 13.3 seconds left when sophomore Dani Mendez made a three-point play. Buckley called Mendez’s and-1 the play of the game, as it took away LN’s chance to hold a halftime lead.
“That play was huge,” said Buckley, who called it a “huge, huge, huge reason why we won the basketball game.”
The Millers kept things rolling in the third quarter, which ended with them leading 35-28. Noblesville answered each shot from the Wildcats, with Shade hitting two 3-pointers and Wilson making one. Senior Mallory Miller opened the half with a jumper.
Two sophomores scored to open the fourth period. Brooklyn Smitherman, a 6-5 forward, started the quarter with a layin, then Kaitlyn Shoemaker’s 3-pointer got Noblesville ahead 40-28. Smitherman made another basket to answer two LN free throws, giving the Millers a 42-30 lead.
Lawrence North made a furious comeback that took up most of the fourth, going on a 10-2 run to get within 44-40 with a little over three minutes remaining. But Noblesville stepped up its defense again, not permitting the Wildcats another point. Shade got the Millers back up six with a layin, then sealed the deal by making a pair of free throws with 15.5 seconds left.
“You know they’re going to make a run at some point and we just fell apart,” said Buckley. But she credited her players with regrouping and doing “a great job of just settling in. And again, that comes down to just great leadership from our seniors and from those kids on the floor, and Reagan just getting the ball under control.”
Buckley gave extra credit to Smitherman for her basket in the midst of LN’s run, and said she also “rebounded the heck out of the basketball.” Smitherman led the Noblesville rebounding with seven.
“Things that nobody will talk about at the end of the day because it’s not the flashy stuff,” said Buckley. But man, those kids just made huge, huge plays down the stretch.”
Shade finished the game with 21 points, six rebounds, six steals and five assists, draining three 3-pointers along the way. Miller dished out five assists, Wood had four steals and Mendez collected four rebounds.
Noblesville will play at Mount Vernon next Thursday, Nov. 12. This game will be a varsity-only contest and tip off at 6:30 p.m. The Millers and Marauders were originally scheduled to play in January, but decided to move the game up to next week.
NOBLESVILLE 48, LAWRENCE NORTH 40
Noblesville FG FT TP PF
Ashlynn Shade 8-17 2-2 21 3
Reagan Wilson 2-8 0-0 5 0
Mallory Miller 3-6 0-1 6 3
Brooklyn Smitherman 2-4 1-3 5 1
Emily Wood 1-3 1-2 3 4
Kaitlyn Shoemaker 1-3 0-0 3 1
Dani Mendez 1-1 3-3 5 3
Brooklyn Ely 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 18-42 7-11 48 15
Score by Quarters
Lawrence North 4 13 11 12 – 40
Noblesville 7 14 14 13 – 48
Noblesville 3-point shooting (5-13) Shade 3-8, Wilson 1-3, Shoemaker 1-2.
Noblesville rebounds (29) Smitherman 7, Shade 6, Mendez 4, Wilson 2, Shoemaker 1, Miller 1, Wood 1, team 7.