By GREG MENGELT
Braden.Lammers@newsandtribune.com
>>SOUTHERN INDIANA — INDIANAPOLIS — The greatest season in Floyd Central girls’ basketball history came to an end with a 65-28 loss to defending state champion Ben Davis in the Class 4A Southport Semistate on Saturday.
The No. 1-ranked Giants hit 14-of-23 shots and forced 12 Floyd Central turnovers to dominate the first half and lead 41-11 at the break.
The fourth-ranked Highlanders (25-2) faced the state’s best team on its best day.
“I thought we were very, very good,” Ben Davis coach Stan Benge said. “I don’t think we could have played much better than we did.”
“We knew they were a very good team,” Floyd coach Joe Voelker added. “We knew we would have to be at our best (to have a chance). We said all year that we wanted to get to Ben Davis to see where we are (in comparison to the state’s best). We see where we are.”
Floyd will lose five players to graduation from a class that won 74 games, including a school-record 25 this season.
“It’s a very special senior group,” Voelker said of Brigid Morrissey, Erica Smith, Mercades Bierman, Camry Hinton and Sarah Schraffenberger. “It was a heck of a run to get to the Final Four. We were a legitimate top-four team in the state. (The seniors are) going to be missed.”
Like it did in three of its first five tournament games, Floyd fell behind early.
Ben Davis (27-0) led 7-2 right from the outset when Jennifer Smith scored after an offensive rebound to cut the lead to 7-4.
Giant senior Jordan Huber — a Ball State recruit — ignited a 12-2 run, hitting her first four 3-pointers in the period to give Ben Davis a 19-6 lead after the first period.
“We didn’t do a very good job of finding her,” Voelker said of Huber, who finished with 18 points on 5-of-8 3-point shooting and 3-of-4 from the foul line.
“When Jordan is hitting those shots, it makes us awfully tough (for opponents),” Benge said. “She played a great game.”
Unlike the other games in the tournament, the Highlanders could never close the gap.
Ben Davis outscored Floyd 22-5 in the second quarter — on runs of 11-1 and 11-2 — behind seven points and three steals from Miss Basketball candidate Dede Williams. The Purdue recruit finished with 11 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots.
The Giants only outscored Floyd 24-17 in the second half.
“We played better in the second half,” Voelker said. “Of course, it was a little different (than the first).”
Jennifer Smith, Morgan Rookstool and Kelsey Mayfield, who entered the game with 1:33 to play in the fourth quarter, led the Highlanders with six points apiece. Smith and Rookstool — both juniors — tied for a team-best seven rebounds.
“I don’t think people (who watched the game) will realize how good of a team Floyd Central has,” Benge said. “They’re awfully good.”
Benge said the key was taking Morrissey out of the game. Morrissey scored Floyd’s first two points and went scoreless the rest of the way.
“We wanted to run two or three or four defenders at her and wear her down,” Benge said. “She’s a great player.”
Ben Davis shot 50 percent from the field for the game (21-of-42), had just seven turnovers to Floyd’s 17 and outrebounded the Highlanders 37-25. Through three quarters, Ben Davis had 15 offensive rebounds to the Highlanders’ 14 total.
“We’re played some solid teams, but never one with five Division I player,” Voelker said of the Giants, who have now won a state-record 57 consecutive contests.
The Giants will face 25-1 and No. 5 Merrillville — a 66-53 winner over Fort Wayne Snider in the Elkhart Central Semistate — in next Saturday’s state finals at Fort Wayne’s Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
AUSTIN GOING TO STATE
No. 2 Austin beat No. 1 Winchester, 72-48, to advance to the Class 2A championship game, where it will face No. 12 Fort Wayne Luers.
It’s the Eagles’ first semistate championship and trip to the state finals since 1999.
Katy McIntosh led the Eagles (25-2) with 18 points, and Ashley Dowling scored 10 of her 12 points in the fourth quarter, in which Austin outscored the Golden Falcons 25-9. Winchester ended the season with a 25-1 record.
CLASS 4A SOUTHPORT SEMISTATE
BEN DAVIS 19 22 15 9—65
FLOYD CENTRAL 6 5 8 9—28
Ben Davis (27-0) — Holcomb 4, Williams 11, Huber 18, Windham 2, Kimball 2, Goss 12, Nunley-Lash 7, Mills-Harris 3, Jones 4, Nicholson 2.
Floyd Central (25-2) — Morrissey 2, Hinton 4, Rookstool 6, E. Smith 4, Mayfield 6, J. Smith 6.
3-point field goals — Ben Davis 7 (Huber 5, Williams, Goss); Floyd Central 0.
Rebounds — Ben Davis 37 (Holcomb, Goss 8); Floyd Central 25 (Rookstool, J. Smith 8).
Turnovers — Ben Davis 17, Floyd Central 7.
