Millers muscle out physical Senior Day win over Lawrence North

By CRAIG ADKINS

For The Reporter

NOBLESVILLE – The Senior Day game is meant to be memorable and last Saturday’s game was one the quartet of Miller girls basketball seniors will not forget. Noblesville fought off a physical comeback by feisty Lawrence North, holding on for the win, 55-52.

It took exactly one minute, but Noblesville struck first on a basket by Meredith Tippner. The Wildcats tied it 2-2 on a Jamaya Thomas layup. That was the first of five ties in the quarter, along with one lead change.

C.C. Quigley scored eight straight points, including 4-for-4 at the foul line, cutting LN’s lead to 12-10. The visitors went on a 7-0 run for a 12-8 lead. Tippner scored five in a row, knotting it 15-15 after one.

It took until the 5:29 mark to get the first points of the second quarter. Ally Hutchinson had an offensive rebound putback for a 17-15 edge. LN took its second and final lead of the contest on a Ke’Adriah Butler three to go in from 18-17, but that was short-lived.

Kate Rollins drilled a three from the right for a 20-18 score, a lead the Millers would not relinquish.

“We rebounded really well in the first half, got second and third opportunities,” said Noblesville head coach Donna Buckley. “We were limiting them to one-and-done and that definitely allowed us to build a lead in the first half.”

In the latter part of the first half, Noblesville stretched it to a seven-point advantage on a Quigley free throw, Maia Blower three and Hutchinson’s second putback on the offensive end for a 26-19 score. LN made a free throw late in the second for the halftime score of 26-20.

The Millers bolted out on an 11-0 run to begin the third, with six from Tippner and five from Rollins. Noblesville’s largest lead of 39-21 with 4:05 in the period came from a pair of Rollins free throws.

“Like I said, 18 points with them is nothing. They can go on a 20-0 run real fast,” Buckley said.

Thomas picked up LN for six in a row, while Rollins would net seven in that span.

“I think Thomas is that x-factor that teams don’t have. We see really good guards and that had a lot of good guards. We see that on a pretty regular basis. You don’t see somebody like Gordon (Brownsburg) or Thomas on a regular basis. Those are kind of that unicorn in girls basketball, so we really wanted to try to see if we could attack her a little bit on both ends of the floor, because I felt that we would have an advantage if we could pick up a couple of early ones on her,” Buckley said.

Thomas helped the Wildcats cut the 18-point deficit down to 42-32, but Rollins scored the final points of the third for a 44-32 score.

“She’s just so good and so strong,” said Buckley of Thomas. “She’s a difference maker. Anytime we can attack her and try to keep her from being on the floor or make her have to really work. That’s something we talked a lot about. Those guards are good, but she is a very special, very strong, gifted player.”

LN started the fourth on a mission to get back into the game. Five points on two field goals by Naja Winston got it within 44-37. Butler scored four in a row, but Tippner scored two and Blower made a three for 48-39.

“The difference in the game and how they got back into it was the game got really sped up and our kids fell into that. We like to play fast, but not against them,” said Buckley.

Five in a row, Butler and Ka’Nyriah Ridley and it was 48-44.

“They’re awesome in transition. When they get out and run, they’re as good as anybody in the state, absolutely phenomenal in the open court,” Buckley said.

Four free throws total from Tippner and Rollins kept it at a four-point lead (52-48). But during that short span, Butler scored another four.

“That was the one thing that we normally do is we love to play fast. That’s just not a team you want to play fast with. In that fourth quarter, they got excited for a hot minute and realized we can’t do that. We had to bring it out and slow it down a little bit,” stated Buckley.

Kya Hurt pulled it to 52-50 with 1:10 remaining. Tippner sank a pair of key free throws at the 1:03 mark for a 54-50 lead.

On the defensive end, Quigley blocked a left corner three attempt from Ridley. Tippner grabbed a rebound, allowing Buckley to call a timeout.

Tippner fouled out at midcourt with 35.6 seconds left.

“We spent a lot of time in the summer not having her. She’s doing some pretty big events. She’s in the all-stars. For us, we can lean on that. A lot of times in practice, we do a lot of 5-on-5 and we don’t let Tipp score. We make other kids, so everybody else has to score. They’ve found their way and confidence,” Buckley said.

Winston scored with 20.9 left, but it was Rollins’ charity-striper with 11.8 to go that iced the three-point win.

Tippner led with 20 and 10 rebounds. Rollins had another solid outing with 17 points, 12 in the third, to go along with eight boards.

The Millers also beat Cathedral last Wednesday, 64-40. Tippner poured in 22 points and pulled 13 rebounds, while Quigley had 18 points and collected 10 rebounds. Quigley also blocked three shots. Rollins scored 11 points and dished out four assists.

Noblesville (14-3) has won 10 in a row and 12 of its last 13. The Millers are off until Friday when they host Zionsville at 6 p.m. in the first game of a girls-boys Hoosier Crossroads Conference doubleheader.