Big second half pushes 4A #9 Noblesville past Warsaw

After a pre-game chat with Noblesville 5'11 junior forward Katelyn O'Reilly, it was pretty evident that she planned on having a big game to help the Millers take down the visiting Warsaw Tigers at The Mill on Saturday night. That's exactly what happened with Noblesville defending their home court as they beat Warsaw down the stretch, 64-39.

On Friday night, it was her junior teammate Alexis Shannon helping rout Brownsburg with 34 points in a 78-51 win. Saturday night, she joined O'Reilly in a game of speed with the visiting Tigers and Warsaw just honestly couldn't handle what the Millers brought to the table.

It's awfully tough to make about an hour and a half road trip south on a Saturday and be up to the tough task of upsetting the home team on their floor.

4A #9 Noblesville 64, Warsaw 39 - (Saturday at The Mill, Noblesville)
Tigers      6     20     4     9     -     39
Millers   16    11    16   21    -     64

O'Reilly showed that it was her turn to have a big night on the stat sheet, as she scored 8 of Noblesville's 16 first quarter points.

KO got the game started off on the right foot with a bucket inside the paint for 2-0. After a few turnovers by the Tigers that turned into three of layups from Kayleigh Herron, Alexis Shannon and O'Reilly, Warsaw head coach Michelle Harter called her first timeout at 4:46 left in the first and down 8-0.

The Millers' D just wouldn't quit (at right). Right out of the timeout, steals by O'Reilly and Emily Kiser got Noblesville two more field goals and the Millers were now up 12-0.

Warsaw got on the board when Jodie Carlson made the first of her two free throw attempts.

Next trip of the court, KO was back at it and got a pass on the left wing and drove the left baseline for her fourth basket of the quarter. The score was now 14-1, forcing Harter to burn another timeout.

A Dayton Groninger three and two free throws from Madi Graham made it 14-5 before Brooke Herron came off the bench to sink a pair of free throws and Noblesville led 16-6 after one.

Harter made her presence known to her Tiger players and they showed results in the second quarter.

Warsaw outscored the Millers 20-11 in the second and looked like they were playing some inspired and motivated basketball like their coach was looking to get from the outset.

Their offense was starting to click as they kept cutting into Noblesville's lead, a little bit at a time. Carlson (7) and Groninger (5) played big roles in Warsaw's period two comeback.

With 48.8 ticks left in the first half, Warsaw grabbed its first lead of 24-23 on a couple Dayton Groninger free throws.

On the other end of the court, O'Reilly made her third basket of the quarter to give her 16 at the half and Noblesville was back on top 25-24. A steal by O'Reilly and a pass up the court to Alexis Shannon for an easy layup gave the Millers a 27-24 edge late in the half. Page Desenberg drove to the hoop in the final seconds for two and Warsaw brought Noblesville's lead down to one halftime, 27-26.

We can only imagine what was being said to each team in their respective locker rooms during the halftime break. Needless to say, Noblesville was back on the floor to warm up with around four minutes left on the halftime clock.

Obviously that sparked something out of head coach Donna Keck's squad.

Alexis Shannon broke out in the third to score 10 points in helping Noblesville storm out to a 12-0 run to start the first few minutes of the second half, thus forcing Harter to use another :30 timeout.

Noblesville's defense flipped a switch and amped it up a couple notches in the third. Their defense had been in Warsaw's face all evening. Keck's defense forced Warsaw into 26 turnovers, 18 of those were steals (6 by Becca Bergman).

Allowing just 4 third quarter points from Warsaw and leading 43-30 through three, Noblesville really wasn't willing to let to many more onto the scoreboard in the fourth either.

O'Reilly and Shannon took it upon themselves as a duo to put Tigers away and put the game completely out of reach. They combined for 16 of Noblesville's 21 fourth quarter points to confidently pull away from Warsaw, 64-39.

The uncanny thing was that the Tigers had no answer for O'Reilly and Shannon, as the two outscored Warsaw as a whole, scoring 24 each to the Tigers' 39 total.

Whether is was Becca Bergman's 10 assists and 6 steals to go along with her two 3-pointers, Erin Wood's 8 rebounds while being hounded by Warsaw in the paint all night or if it was Cori Cain having the most in-your-face, suffocating defense I've seen in quite a while, Noblesville responded to the adversity that Warsaw faced them with and they didn't fold.

This is a team that goes 10-deep and has confidence is whoever has the ball and is on the court.

Warsaw (1-3) was able to get two into double-digits with Dayton Groninger leading with a team-high 14 points on 4 field goals and swishing 5-for-5 at the free throw stripe. Madi Graham nailed 3 three-pointers and had a couple free throws for her 11. Jodie Carlson pitched in 9 on four shots made to help make up the majority of the Tigers' scoring.

Noblesville (5-0) had two 24-point scorers in Katelyn O'Reilly and Alexis Shannon that completely threw the visiting Tigers out of sync. O'Reilly notched her 2nd double-double of the young season with 11 rebounds (7 offensive) and grabbed a few steals to her credit.

Shannon put together a pretty good weekend on the court. Friday night she dropped a career-high 34 at Brownsburg and Saturday night scored another 24 for a weekend of 58 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals.

Becca "Stats" Bergman had herself a good two-game weekend as well. The 5'4 senior guard had 11 points (three treys), 8 rebounds, 17 assists and 9 steals.

Kayleigh Herron (4), Brooke Herron (4) and Emily Kiser (2) and 6 rebounds helped finish out the Noblesville scoring.

It's a quick turnaround on a short, odd Thanksgiving week of basketball for Keck and her crew. Tuesday night, she takes her Millers on the road to Carmel (2-1) for a heated Hamilton county rivalry game.

The Carmel Greyhounds have rattled off two consecutive wins at Cathedral (65-55) and at Hamilton Heights (91-30) since dropping their season-opener at 4A #11 Roncalli (97-75). This will be Carmel's home-opener vs. Noblesville on Tuesday. It will also be another big test for the Millers, as it always is a tough task playing on the road at Carmel.



The Millers come back home to The Mill for a midday Hoosier Crossroads Conference clash with the Avon Orioles (1-2, 1-0 HCC) next Saturday, November 29. JV will tip at 11 a.m., with the varsity to follow.

GO MILLERS!


(*all photos courtesy of Kent Graham at kentgraham.photoshelter.com)