By RICHIE HALL
ZIONSVILLE – The stars aligned to give Sectional 8 an exciting conclusion on Saturday.
Noblesville and Carmel went at it in the championship game of that hotly contested girls basketball sectional at Zionsville. The first half was ruled by offense from both teams, but Noblesville’s defense took over in the fourth quarter and carried the fifth-ranked Millers to a 68-62 victory. It’s Noblesville’s first sectional title since 2015.
Mallory Miller, one of the seniors on the Noblesville team, said that winning the sectional meant “literally everything.”
“We’ve worked all year for this and it feels so good, especially to get it our senior year,” said Miller.
“It was just a crazy game,” said Millers coach Donna Buckley. “Two very good teams. Carmel’s phenomenal. We were just very thankful to win that one.”
Both teams were putting up big numbers in the first half, thanks to their stars: Noblesville’s Ashlynn Shade and the Greyhounds’ Kate Clarke. It seemed like neither player could miss in the first half and they were matching each other basket for basket.
The first quarter ended with the Millers leading 21-20. Shade put Noblesville ahead 13-8 before Clarke was fouled while hitting a 3-pointer. She made the subsequent free throw to complete the four-point play.
Shade responded with her own 3, and later, a floater by Miller gave Noblesville an 18-16 lead. Clarke tied the game with a jumper and Mackenzie Thomas scored on a putback, but Shade threw in a 3 to end the period.
Shade’s triple actually started a 17-5 run that put the Millers ahead 35-25. Shade scored seven points in that run, and Jayla Jones added two 3s for six points. Thomas got the Greyhounds back to 35-27 with a layin, but another Shade basket gave Noblesville a 37-27 lead.
“We just had to have confidence in our teammates, honestly,” said Jones. “I have so much trust in my teammates and that’s all that mattered in this type of game.”
A 6-0 run later in the period got Carmel within 39-36, but the Millers were able to hold firm and go into halftime up 45-39. At that point, Shade had 23 points and Clarke had scored 15.
“It was a fast-paced game the entire game,” said Shade. “That’s our speed we played at, so we could withstand that the entire game, the whole 32 minutes, which is really awesome for us, because we love getting up and down, getting points, getting transition points.”
Both players kept up that high level in the third quarter. A Clarke jumper tied the game at 47-47, Shade made a free throw to get the Millers back up 48-47. The teams then went on a torrid basket-trading run, exchanging the lead seven times. Clarke scored 13 in the quarter, with Shade adding nine for Noblesville.
“They played so well,” said Buckley. “And again, it just came down to a point here or there. We were fortunate to be on the right side of it. It could’ve gone either way. They did a great job of staying with us. I thought in that first half, once we got that lead, we’d be okay. But man, kudos to them. They just stayed with us and stayed in the track meet. We were just fortunate to find a way to get it.”
A 3-pointer by Hannah Lach got the ‘Hounds ahead 58-56, but Reagan Wilson made a putback to tie things up at 58-58 at the end of the third. One free throw each from Clarke and Lach put Carmel up 60-58 with 6:36 left in the fourth.
Noblesville took over after that, finishing the game on a 10-2 run. Wilson made a floater to tie it up again, then Shade hit a jumper to put the Millers up 62-60.
“I thought they defended her well,” said Buckley. “She just made plays. She’s a future All-American, and that’s what you do. She just made some unbelievable plays.”
Clarke made two free throws to knot the score at 62-62 with 2:15 left.
Noblesville needed one more big shot, and Kaitlyn Shoemaker delivered. Her floater put the Millers up 64-62 with under two minutes left, and Noblesville had the lead for good. Buckley called that “the biggest shot of the game.”
The Millers also got one more defensive stop when they got Carmel on a five-second call with 20 seconds remaining. After that, the Greyhounds had to foul, and Shade and Wilson both made two free throws in the final 17.7 seconds.
Shade scored 36 points, including four 3-pointers, pulled five rebounds and dished out four assists. Wilson scored 14 and made two blocked shots.
Clarke led Carmel with 31 points, followed by Lach with seven points and five assists. Emily Roper collected seven rebounds for the ‘Hounds.
Noblesville is 21-4 for the season and will play next Saturday at the Marion regional. The Millers will take on Homestead in the second semi-final, which tips off around noon. McCutcheon plays No. 6 Fort Wayne Carroll in the first semi-final, set for 10 a.m.
Carmel finished its season 15-7.
NOBLESVILLE 68, CARMEL 62
Noblesville FG FT TP PF
Ashlynn Shade 10-17 12-13 36 3
Reagan Wilson 4-9 4-4 14 3
Mallory Miller 1-3 2-2 4 3
Brooklyn Smitherman 0-0 0-0 0 1
Emily Wood 2-5 0-0 4 1
Kaitlyn Shoemaker 1-3 1-2 3 1
Jayla Jones 2-6 1-2 7 1
Brooklyn Ely 0-0 0-0 0 0
Dani Mendez 0-2 0-0 0 3
Totals 20-45 20-23 68 16
Noblesville 3-point shooting (8-22) Shade 4-8, Jones 2-6, Wilson 2-6, Shoemaker 0-1, Miller 0-1.
Noblesville rebounds (23) Shade 5, Wilson 4, Mendez 4, Miller 3, Shoemaker 2, Wood 2, Jones 1, team 2.
Carmel FG FT TP PF
Erin Baker 0-0 2-3 2 2
Riley Pennington 3-6 1-2 7 3
Kate Clarke 9-16 7-8 31 3
Hannah Lach 3-5 1-2 10 2
Emily Roper 0-0 0-0 0 3
Mackenzie Thomas 6-7 0-0 12 2
Tori Tomalia 0-0 0-0 0 0
Totals 21-34 11-15 62 15
Carmel 3-point shooting (9-13) Clarke 6-8, Lach 3-5.
Carmel rebounds (21) Roper 7, Pennington 4, Clarke 4, Baker 2, Lach 2, Thomas 2.
Score by Quarters
Noblesville 21 24 13 10 – 68
Carmel 20 19 19 4 – 62