CAMPBELLSBURG — The Borden girls’ basketball team was on a challenging mission on Saturday at the Class A West Washington Regional.

The Braves attempted to win their first-ever regional title by defeating two top-five teams at Tower Gymnasium.

Borden accomplished the first half of its mission in the semifinal, handing Class A No. 2 Barr-Reeve its first loss of the season 29-28.

But the Braves were not so lucky in the championship. Despite making a fourth-quarter rally, their season ended with a 35-31 setback to Class A No. 5 Northeast Dubois.

The Jeeps (21-4) won their first regional title since 2008 and will face Southwestern (Shelbyville) in the Class A semistate next Saturday at either Southport or Bedford North Lawrence.

“We just fell a hair short,” Borden head coach Terry Rademacher said. “We had our opportunities, but we just couldn’t make shots.”

The Braves (18-7) got off to a rough start in the championship game. Northeast Dubois scored the first eight points of the contest and was up 18-8 at the end of the first quarter.

With the Jeeps leading 20-14 at halftime, they took their biggest lead of the game at 29-16 at the 3:33 mark of the third quarter thanks to a 9-2 run.

Northeast Dubois led 31-21 at the start of the fourth when the Braves started their final rally.

Borden senior Erin Mikel sliced her team’s deficit to 31-25 by making a layup and then hitting a 15-foot jumper.

Following an 8-foot shot in the lane by the Jeeps’ Mariah Seng, the Braves reeled off six unanswered points to pull within two points at 33-31.

Borden reserve guard Abby Ellis began the spurt with a 19-footer, followed by a Mikel layup. Then with 55 seconds left in regulation, Ellis hit a shot from the right elbow to cut the Braves’ deficit to two.

“When she fundamentally does things correctly, she can hit,” Rademacher said about Ellis. “She hit two big buckets, but we expect our players to do that.”

Borden came up short of tying the game with 15.6 seconds left when senior forward Allison Rademacher misfired on a short baseline jumper. The officials whistled a jump ball on the rebound, with the possession arrow pointing toward Northeast Dubois.

The Braves used their final two fouls to give before putting the Jeeps in the bonus. But they let Northeast Dubois burn 9.5 seconds off the clock before committing their fifth team foul with 6.1 ticks left.

After the Jeeps drew Borden’s seventh team foul with 2.9 seconds left, Seng sealed the victory by hitting both ends of a one-and-one to put Northeast Dubois up 35-31.

Jeeps’ head coach Alan Matheis said his players tried to spread the court and work the clock during the fourth quarter. But Borden disrupted Northeast Dubois’ delay game by extending its zone defense and forcing four Jeep turnovers in the quarter.

“We got a little too cautious. Sometimes you get too complacent,” Matheis said. “Borden is an extremely good team and worked their way back into the game. With Borden beating Barr-Reeve earlier in the day, they might have worked off some energy. But Borden played extremely hard.”

Mikel scored a game-high 15 points, shooting 7-of-15 from the floor. Allison Rademacher had eight points, while Ellis chipped in six.

The Braves shot 14-of-36 from the field (38.9 percent). They only went to the free-throw line five times, converting three of those foul shots.

The Braves did a great job of saving their fouls until the end. They did not commit their first foul of the contest until the 3:33 mark of the third.

“We don’t commit fouls,” Coach Rademacher said. “It’s beneficial to us because we don’t want to get into foul trouble.”

Seng and Jeeps’ center Rachel Breitwieser each scored a team-high 10 points, while teammate Nicole Dodd poured in nine. Dodd snagged a game-high six rebounds. Northeast Dubois was 14-of-37 from the field (37.8 percent) and hit all four of its free-throw attempts.

Borden says goodbye to three seniors in Mikel, Allison Rademacher and Allison Bishop.



SEMIFINAL

BORDEN 29, BARR-REEVE 28

Borden’s defense has been the main key in its successful season, and it came to the forefront in its semifinal victory over Barr-Reeve.

The Vikings (22-1) shot a porous 24 percent from the floor (12-of-50) against the Braves’ box-and-one defense, including 1-of-14 from 3-point range. Barr-Reeve’s 28 points were a season-low.

Barr-Reeve’s leading scorer, Tya Harmon, who was guarded throughout the contest by Allison Rademacher, scored only six points. Entering the game, Harmon averaged 16.3 points a game.

“She did a good job overall on Harmon,” Terry Rademacher said about his daughter’s defense. “We thought Harmon was the key. They can hit some 3s, but their 3-point percentage was not outstanding throughout the season.”

Borden led the game from start to finish.

The Braves scored the first eight points of the contest and were up 13-3 early in the second quarter after a Mikel three-point play.

A putback basket by sophomore Carson Casey gave Borden its largest advantage of the contest at 21-10 in the opening minutes of the third.

The Vikings sliced their deficit down to 23-22 with less than five minutes left in the fourth on a bucket by sophomore guard Jenna Knepp.

But Allison Rademacher provided the Braves a five-point cushion at 27-22 after hitting back-to-back buckets.

Following two free throws by Casey to maintain the Borden advantage at 29-24 with 2:24 remaining, Harmon collected a basket off an inbounds pass and Knepp knocked in a bank shot to pull Barr-Reeve to within one with about 1:30 left.

With 9.4 seconds remaining, Knepp turned the ball over thanks to some stiff defensive pressure by Braves’ sophomore Shelby Kirchgessner. After Kirchgessner missed the front end of a one-and-one, Knepp attempted a 3 at the buzzer. But the shot was an air ball, igniting an on-court celebration by the Borden players.

The Braves won despite committing 22 turnovers.

“We’re not going to play a flawless game all the time, especially against a team like Barr-Reeve,” Terry Rademacher said. “But I tell (the Braves) that you’ve got to be mentally tough and hang in there.”

Mikel wound up with 15 points, scoring 13 of them in the first half. She shot 5-of-10 from the floor and 5-of-7 from the line along with grabbing a game-high eight rebounds. Knepp wound up with 15 points, scoring eight in the final quarter, and eight boards.

In the first semifinal, Northeast Dubois defeated Tecumseh, 50-42.



CHAMPIONSHIP

NE DUBOIS    18 2 11  4—35

BORDEN     8 6  7 10—31

Northeast Dubois (21-4) — Breitwieser 10, Seng 10, Dodd 9, Lueken 6, Borden 0, A. Rasche 0.

Borden (18-7) — Mikel 15, Rademacher 8, Ellis 6, Casey 2, Beatty 0, Bishop 0, Kirchgessner 0.

3-point field goals — Northeast Dubois 3 (Lueken 2, Dodd); Borden 0.

Rebounds — Northeast Dubois 27 (Dodd 6); Borden 18 (Rademacher 4).

Turnovers — Northeast Dubois 11, Borden 7.

Free throws — Northeast Dubois 4-4, Borden 3-5.



SEMIFINAL

BORDEN    10 9 4  6—29

BARR-REEVE     3 7 8 10—28

Borden (18-6) — Mikel 15, Rademacher 6, Bishop 4, Casey 4, Ellis 0, Kirchgessner 0.

Barr-Reeve (22-1) — Knepp 15, Harmon 6, T. Graber 4, L. Graber 3, Cummings 0, H. Taylor 0, K. Taylor 0.

3-point field goals — Borden 0; Barr-Reeve 1 (L. Graber).

Rebounds — Borden 28 (Mikel 8); Barr-Reeve 25 (Knepp 8).

Turnovers — Borden 22, Barr-Reeve 8.

Free throws — Borden 7-9, Barr-Reeve 3-3.