CHARLESTOWN—Wednesday night’s championship game of the 34th Girls Basketball Holiday Tournament — played at the Bill Dunn Sports Arena — will find Charlestown squaring off against Silver Creek.

The Dragons opened play on Tuesday, having little trouble with Clarksville in a 62-30 victory. The nightcap was much closer as the Pirates held on by holding off a strong defensive effort from the Pioneers to win, 42-32.



Charlestown-Providence

Charlestown led 30-21 at halftime and had increased the lead to 38-24 before they started turning the ball over against the Providence defense. That allowed the Pioneers to score the final six points of the third quarter, four of those coming from Megan Eve. When Leah White scored the first basket of the final period, Providence had pulled to within 38-32.

But despite the seven fourth quarter turnovers forced by the Pioneers defense, the basket by White turned out to be their only points of the period as they shot 1-of-7 from the floor and did not attempt a free throw. After turning the ball over just six times in the first half, the Pirates finished with 23.

Charlestown only attempted one fourth quarter field goal, and missed. Amanda Miller, the games high scorer with 16 points, hit 4of 5 free throws, the last two with 1:22 left for the final margin.

“This was a tough game,” said Charlestown coach Tony Hall. “Providence played their tails off on defense, but I think that they may have played so hard that they may have been tired at the offensive end. If they could’ve knocked down some shots it would have been a different story because they had us on the ropes.”

“We squandered some opportunites tonight,” said Providence coach Brad Burden. “We had some opportunites forced by our defense. I believe we had it cut to six at one point and then we missed a layup and turned it over twice during that stretch.”

“We rebounded well tonight,” Hall said. “Alicia (Zollman), Laci (Williams) and Brittany (Bennison) did a great job on the boards. There were a lot of one and outs tonight. And we hit some free throws. That was a key to our success — we’re a good free throw shooting team.”

Zollman also had double figures for Charlestown with 15 points, making it a double-double with 10 rebounds.

“Zollman got us going early tonight,” Hall said. “She came out ready to play. And Laci Williams, she played tonight like a senior post player should.”

“We have to learn to finish at the offensive end,” Burden said. “We get into people with our defense, and then make poor decisions on the offensive end. And we have to rebound. We got killed on the boards.”

Katy Flanagan led Providence with 13 points. Eve finished with 12 points.

“In the first half, things were not going well for us at the offensive end,” Hall said. “We wanted in the second half to put the ball in the hands of our best free throw shooters.”

The Pirates were also victorious despite not making a three-pointer on the night, misfiring on two attempts.

Charlestown must now get ready to face Silver Creek, a team it defeated in Sellersburg 62-45 on Nov. 28. Providence will face Clarksville in the consolation game — the Pioneers and Generals have not yet met this season.

“Silver Creek’s girls’ were probably in bed by halftime of our game,” Hall said. “They’ll be well rested and their coaches will have a good scoutng report on us. We better be ready to play.”



Clarksville-Silver Creek

It was closer than the 81-29 victory on Dec. 3, but the Dragons still had liitle trouble with the Generals as they built a 19-2 lead in the first quarter before cooling off somewhat.

“We didn’t play particuarly well tonight,” said Silver Creek coach Ryan Apple.”We came out and got off to a good start, but I don’t know what happened in the second quarter. We didn’t execute well offensively.”

Mandi Martin led the Dragons with 21 points, including four three pointers. Kim Jamros added 11 points. Martin, just a sophomore, drew praise from her coach.

“She’s only going to get better,” Apple said.

Clarksville was led by Cassandra Mulford and Kierstin Hall, who each had seven points.



CHARLESTOWN 14 16 8 4—42

PROVIDENCE 6 15 9 2—32

Charlestown (6-3) — Zollman 15, Bennison 6, Williams 4, Miller 16, Watson 1.

Providence (3-8) — Flanagan 13, Eve 12, White 4, Ash 3.

3-point Goals — Charlestown 0; Providence 6 (Flanagan 3, Eve 2, Ash)

Rebounds — Charlestown 29 (Zollman 10); Providence 14 (Flanagan 6).

Turnovers — Charlestown 23, Providence 20.



CLARKSVILLE 2 11 6 11—30

SILVER CREEK 19 9 22 12—62

Clarksville (3-6) — Mulford 7, Parrish 5, O’Neal 4, Evans 5, Ki. Hall 7, Windell 2.

Silver Creek (6-5) — Harper 0, Kir.Jamros 4, Clayton 7, McFarland 4, Kim Jamros 11, Voyles 7, Martin 21, Barnett 4, Christman 4.

3-Point Goals — Clarksville 2 (Mulford, Parrish); Silver Creek 5 (Martin 4, Clayton).