Lasting impressions from girls basketball regional

No, it wasn't quite the ending the White River Valley Lady Wolverines hoped for but it was still a great ride.

For the second straight year, the Lady Wolverines came up just short in their quest for the Class A girls basketball Regional 15 championship, this time losing by four points, 43-39, to Class A second-ranked Jac-Cen-Del.

But as WRV girls coach Mark Graves said afterwards, "I'm proud of these girls and what they've done. They had an 11-game winning streak. These girls hadn't lost since Jan. 5. That's an outstanding feat."

Allison Wininger finished her stellar prep career with a total of 1,111 points, good for second place on the all-time White River Valley career scoring list behind Stephanie Fougerousse, who scored 1,237 points from 2007-09. Wininger scored 26 in the first-round win over Indianapolis Tindley and closed out her career with 15 against Jac-Cen-Del.

I've never seen Shannon Pittman play harder than she did in the regional tournament.

Shannon Pittman has always played hard, but she turned it up a notch in the two regional games. Pittman attacked the basket for 28 points in the shootout with Tindley to go with 13 rebounds. She basically took over the second quarter of the Jac-Cen-Del game, having a hand in all 13 of WRV's points hitting 7 of 8 free throws and assisting on 3-pointers by Wininger and Madison Hockman. She also picked off three passes down near the baseline, thwarting Jac-Cen-Del possessions.

The challenge got a little tougher for the Lady Wolverines when defensive stalwart Lexi Graves was whistled for her fifth personal foul late in the third quarter, with nine and a half minutes still to play.

Senior Jasmine Padgett filled in admirably in her "next girl up" role, playing aggressively and grabbing four rebounds in a short stretch.

Padgett is "an aggressive player," as coach Graves had said the previous week. "For the minutes she gets and she's third on our team in rebounds? That just says a lot," said coach Graves.

Still, the task becomes more daunting when one of the bullets is missing from the holster.

Jac-Cen-Del's media crew were overheard to say afterward, "Barr-Reeve only beat this team (WRV) by four points. We've got a chance."

This past Saturday at the Jeffersonville semistate, Jac-Cen-Del led Class A top-ranked Barr-Reeve 40-20 before ultimately falling 61-55 to the Lady Vikings, who will play Lafayette Central Catholic for the Class A state championship this Saturday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

White River Valley wasn't the only team at the Southwestern (Shelbyville) regional to leave me with lasting impressions.

I have never witnessed a girls basketball game like the 84-75 shootout the Lady Wolverines won over Indianapolis Tindley.

Graves and his staff had seen video of the Tindley Lady Tigers, and he said, "We talked about this. We told the girls we couldn't trade baskets with Tindley, that we would lose.

"We were playing defense, but give them credit - they were shooting from 30 feet and hitting nothing but nylon. So we ended up trading baskets."

Tindley had a 5-1 freshman point guard named Kendall Fisher who is going to be a special player. Fisher was matched up against Hockman, WRV's own 5-1 dynamo. It was fun to watch those two go after each other with all they had.

Tindley has nine freshman and four juniors on the roster. With players like junior Ariyan Hines and freshmen Skye Williams and Trinae Love, we'll be hearing more from the Tindley Lady Tigers in years to come since whoever emerges victorious from our area Class A Sectional 57 would likely face Tindley in the regional.

The basketball court isn't the only place where the girls from Tindley impress. The team has a cumulative 3.6 grade point average. That's the average. For the entire team.

A lot of teams have one or two players with GPA's of 3.6 or higher, but we're talking about an entire team here.

Academic rigor is emphasized at Charles A. Tindley Accelerated Academy. Student achievement and post-secondary education for every student is the school's mission and stated objective.

For many urban youth, failure is not only an option, it's become a way of life. Tindley Academy aims to change that mindset, that self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you ever have a chance to visit Tindley, the first thing you'll notice is that the students dress in burgundy blazers. Shirts and ties and black dress pants for the guys, coordinating skirts for the girls. The students are unfailingly polite, addressing everyone as "Sir" or "Ma'am." Just as a United States Marine is a Marine 24 hours a day, so is a Tindley student always a Tindley student.

The message is clear - "Respect yourself and respect others."

The future indeed looks bright for Tindley.

The hard reality of postseason basketball is that someone has to lose. There can be only one state champion in each of the four classes.

And for the four seniors - Madison Hackman, Jasmine Padgett, Miranda Pierce and Allison Wininger - the loss meant that they'd lost the last game they'll play for White River Valley.

"I feel bad for the seniors," coach Graves said. "I wish we could have gotten over that hump this year but that's something for the underclassmen to look forward to and strive for."

Terry Schwinghammer is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 27. He can also be reached via email at tschwing32@yahoo.com.