It's girls sectional week

By Stu Swartz

High school girls basketball takes center stage this week with sectionals to be played at 64 locations this week.

Area hosts are Concord in Class 4A, West Noble in 3A, Jimtown in 2A and Hamilton in 1A.

Sectional championship games are Saturday night with four-team regionals Feb. 20 and one-game semistates Feb. 27 at Warsaw or Elkhart.

Class 4A

The tourney tips off tonight at McCuen Gym with 15-5 Northridge meeting 20-2 Memorial at 6, followed by 9-11 Concord and 3-16 Central at about 7:45.

Friday it’s 5-15 Goshen against the Northridge-Memorial winner, followed by 15-5 Warsaw and the Concord-Central winner.

Goshen’s top scorers are 5-8 junior Natalie Newell, 5-5 freshman Aimee Swihart, 5-6 senior Lauren Shaffer, 5-7 junior Lauren Riegsecker, 5-10 senior Olivia Zepeda and 5-5 sophomore Liana Yoder.

Northridge is paced by juniors Emily Peppers-VanNamee, Tori Roberts and Sydney Sample, sophomore Cedes Clifford, freshman twins Madison and Haley Schrock.

Sophomore Trenee Brownlee and senior Lindsay Ogle lead Concord along with seniors Brianna Bleiler and Lexi Riester and sophomore Sammy Swain.

The top two Central scorers are 5-7 senior Alexis Warner and 6-0 sophomore Shane Brown.

Memorial is led by the high-scoring trio of senior Jada Buggs, junior Akyah Taylor and sophomore Brionna Barnett to go with freshman Monica Jones and junior Haley King.

Senior Kelci Freds is the top Warsaw scorer and she has connected 56 times from 3-point range. Seniors Kaelee Sands and Sarah Shilling and junior Kayla Stout are other Tiger regulars.

Northridge defeated Memorial 45-41 and lost to Warsaw 50-31 during the regular season while Memorial topped Warsaw 57-52.

The 4A regional is Feb. 20 at Valparaiso with Valpo and Munster sectional winners in the first game, followed by South Bend and Concord.

Class 3A

NorthWood, 17-3, is the favorite and the Panthers play 11-9 Wawasee at 7:45 Wednesday, following an opener at 6 between 8-11 Lakeland and 14-6 Columbia City.

Tonight at 7, it’s 7-13 Whitko and 9-11 Tippecanoe Valley with the winner drawing 6-14 West Noble in Friday’s semifinal opener.

NorthWood has a well-balanced five of 5-7 junior Kaci Heeter, 5-9 senior Lindsey Steffen, 5-6 senior Kelcie Lehman, 5-4 sophomore DeYahnna Styles and 5-11 senior Courtney Frantz with 6-0 junior Taylor Olson also a strong contributor.

KiLee Knafel, a 5-7 freshman, is Wawasee’s scoring leader with 5-8 junior Jonna Wiggs, 6-0 junior Amy Walker, 5-8 senior Kaytie Woodard and 5-7 senior Lauren Tait supporting.

Kassie Cox, 6-2 senior, is the West Noble standout with 5-8 senior Cassie Allen, 6-1 freshman Haley Richardson, 5-5 junior Brandy Bechtold and 5-7 junior Jami Alexander also near the top of the chart.

Lakeland leaders are 5-6 junior Jamie Coffman, 5-10 senior Shelby Heller, 5-5 senior Alicia Cleveland, 5-2 sophomore Lauren McKibben and 5-3 senior Sami Jacobs.

NorthWood defeated Wawasee 54-30, T. Valley 69-37 and Lakeland 66-37 during the regular season.

Peru is the 3A regional site with West Noble and Fort Wayne winners in Game 1, followed by Eastbrook and Leo champions.

Class 2A

The dynamics of this sectional changed dramatically when Jimtown senior star Sarah DeShone sustained a season-ending knee injury last week at Westview.

She was averaging just under 20 points per game for the 19-1 Jimmies, ranked No. 2 in the state for Class 2A.

In the only game tonight at 7 it’s 14-7 LaVille meeting 7-13 Bremen. The winner gets Jimtown in the second semifinal at 7:45 Friday.

Fairfield, 17-5, battles rival Westview, 11-9, in the first semifinal at 6 p.m. Friday.

The Fairfield Falcons rely on most of their scoring from 5-10 sophomore Haley Bechtel, 5-10 senior Emily Waits, 5-6 junior Jaime Stack5-8 senior Brooke Schwartz and 5-3 senior Diamond Setterberg.

Westview leaders are 5-8 sophomore Skyler Carpenter, 5-11 junior Jade Oakley, 5-9 senior Malarie Feller, 5-9 junior Richelle Sharick and 5-6 sophomore Jeslyn Zimmerly.

Trying to pick up the slack for Jimtown are senior Traci Adams, juniors Emma Stahl, Katie Goward, Samantha Lesure, Alexis Cook and Nikki Ward.

The Jimmies handled LaVille 57-26, Fairfield 45-25, Westview 47-30 and Bremen 48-27 during the regular season. The only loss was to 3A powerhouse NorthWood, 63-57, in Week 2.

The 2A regional is at Culver with Hebron and Eastside champions in the opener, followed by Hanover and Jimtown.

Class 1A

Bethany Christian and Elkhart Christian are part of this field.

The 4-16 Bethany Bruins met Hamilton on Monday night while the 10-10 ECA Eagles drew favored Canterbury, 18-2, in tonight’s 6 o’clock game.

Bethany is led by junior Marla zumFelde with senior Caitlin Fecher, juniors Ali Hochstetler, Mattie Lehman, Chris Minter, Mandy Schlabach and Twila Albrecht, sophomores Malaina Weldy and Gina Gautsche also in the rotation.

ECA has the area’s top scorer in 5-7 junior Kayley Baughman. Teammates include 5-7 junior Lexi Rambadt, 5-10 junior Natalie Allen, 5-9 sophomore Alexis Lyon and 5-9 junior Emily Peterson.

Caston is the 1A regional host with winners from Gary and Hamilton in Game 1, followed by Caston and Oregon-Davis champions.

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