By RICHIE HALL
The Noblesville girls basketball team’s summer schedule isn’t as busy as some of the other schools, but the Millers still got quite a bit accomplished during the month of June.
Noblesville played in two tournaments, first going to Indiana University for an event there, then taking part in the Charlie Hughes IBCA/IHSAA Team Showcase. When they weren’t playing, the Millers were practicing.
“I thought we had a really good summer,” said Noblesville coach Donna Buckley. “Our kids worked hard in practice. Some of our kids that just graduated came back and helped us out a little bit.”
Buckley said that practices focused on fundamentals.
“We try to work on developing those and implementing what we want to do on offense and defense,” said Buckley.
As for tournament play, the Millers were 4-1 over the five games they played. Their only loss came at the IU tournament, where they fell to Indian Creek in overtime. Noblesville rebounded to beat Evansville Memorial and Columbia City.
The Millers played two games at the Charlie Hughes Showcase and won them both easily, cruising past Bloomington South 60-21 and Chesterton 83-35. Buckley said those five games helped the team to gauge where it’s at over the summer. “We’ll adjust from there as we head into the fall,” she said.
Noblesville waited until school was out to begin its summer season, not starting until June 5.
“I’m not really big on playing a bunch of summer games, especially for our kids who play so much in the spring,” said Buckley. Two of the Millers’ top players, incoming senior Reagan Wilson and incoming junior Meredith Tippner, both played in Indiana All-Star games: Wilson was one of the Junior All-Stars, and both participated in the All-Star Futures Games.
Wilson, who is committed to play at Iowa State University, averaged 16.9 points per game and led the team in assists (4.0) and steals 3.4. Tippner, who has several Division I college offers, was Noblesville’s leading scorer at 17.6 points per game and by far the top rebounder with 9.2 per contest.
Senior-to-be Ava Shoemaker will also return; she scored 8.7 points and led the team in blocks with 0.7 per game. Sophmore CC Quigley will have an expanded role; Buckley said Quigley has been “awesome” in summer play. Meanwhile, Players moving up from junior varsity include junior Bri Gray and sophomores Ally Hutchinson and Devyn Johnson. A new freshman will be Ellie Motz.
The Millers wrapped up their season after the Charlie Hughes Showcase with light practices and their own version of the Summer Olympics, which Buckley said was “just a big, fun way to end the summer with goofy games and competition.” After that, Noblesville had some time off before heading into AAU play.