Noblesville's dream season ends in Elite 8

Following their Regional semifinal win in convincing fashion over McCutcheon, Noblesville had plenty of time to head back to their hotel and let it sink in that they would be playing for a Regional Championship later that night and also get a rematch with Homestead.

Between sessions, the players and coaches planned to just completely relax and get their minds back by taking naps and kicking back before they reconvened for dinner and a walk through session.

The #6 Millers were on a mission to take that next step in their season goals process, but in their way stood a tall test in defeating the highly-touted Homestead Spartans. #3 Homestead had just two losses coming into Regional. Those were at the hands of 4A #2 Columbus North and Elizabethtown, who is currently the #1-ranked team in Kentucky, where there's no class basketball.

This team grew to believe that it was their time. They had the community of Noblesville believing that they can achieve great things. By far, they Millers had the biggest and best crowd of all four schools in the Kokomo Regional.

They arrived at Kokomo's historic Memorial Gym around 7 p.m. for their championship bout. You could see their emotions were held back because they were completely focused on exactly what they were there to do.

The tall order of defeating probably the best shooting team around the state of Indiana completely engulfed the minds of the Millers. It was going to be a daunting task, but it was time to faced the music and get focused.

Homestead 83, Noblesville 66 - (Regional Championship - Memorial Gym, Kokomo)
Millers        18     17     13     18     -     66
Spartans     23     13     23     24     -     83

Homestead won the opening tip and quickly got out to a 2-0 lead, thanks to Josie Fisher jetting to the bucket for the first points of the night. It became a back and forth affair for the majority of the first half.

Making just six 3's all season coming into Regional play, Katelyn O'Reilly (at left) thought she would catch Homestead off guard. Alexis Shannon caught a pass from Becca Bergman as she flashed toward the free throw line. Shannon saw a wide open KO on the right wing and dished. O'Reilly gave the Millers their first lead at 3-2.

Savannah Buck answered right back on the other end with a three for Homestead for a 5-3 lead.

Bergman saw it as her turn to flip the lead next. Kayleigh Herron (at right)
found Bergman open for a three and her senior backcourt mate put NHS back on top 6-5.

Grace German drew a foul at Homestead's end, tying the game at 6-6 with the first and giving the Spartans the lead again at 7-6 on her second free throw make.

Kayleigh gave the Millers the lead once again on a three, as O'Reilly found her for a nice inside-out and a 9-7 Noblesville edge.

Quickly back to Homestead's end, Savannah Buck made the last past in the sequence and sophomore Karissa McLaughlin swished a three at the top for a 10-9 Spartan lead.

The senior Herron took it upon herself the next offensive possession to drive to the basket for a layup and her fifth point of the 1st and the sixth and final lead change at 11-10. Another Noblesville score put them up 13-10, giving them a confidence boost.

McLaughlin got fouled for an and-1 opportunity and she tied it at 13-13.

The Spartans and Millers each converted seven field goals, but the real kicker of the first was that Homestead shot 6-for-11 from 3-point land and only 1-of-5 on 2's. Through one period the two had battled it out for a 23-18 Homestead lead.

Something had to give for Noblesville defensively in the second quarter to fend off the stellar outside shooting of Homestead. The Millers tightened up their D and kept themselves in the game by penetrating the paint in the 2nd period with 7 of their 8 made field goals coming of the high-percentage variety. Despite going 0-for-4 from outside the arc in the second, Noblesville was 4-for-10 in the first half and went to the locker room at halftime trailing by just one, 36-35.

Noblesville tried slowing the game down, defensively, to a tempo that would ultimately give them an edge. Cori Cain, Kayleigh Herron and Becca Bergman each drained a trey in the 3rd, along with KO and Erin Wood each adding two, but that only fueled Homestead at both ends of the floor.

Homestead would have nothing to do with that. Junior forward Lindley Kistler put up 10 of her 20 points in the third to help spark the Spartans. They were able to make 7-of-13 shots in the 3rd, including 4-for-8 on 3-pointers to climb back out in front by double-digits, 59-48.

The Millers shot 3-of-5 on three-point attempts in the third, but when they were out-rebounded 10-5, they were distanced by the made 3's by Homestead.


Keck and her staff were able to regroup the troops at the break before the 4th. The discrepancy of 8-3 in fouls called against was a big factor in the final period that helped Homestead control the tempo tremendously. It seemed like Homestead's offense gave the Millers a lot of frustration, but they weren't going to go away quietly.

Thanks to the combined speedy scoring attack of Bergman and Shannon, Noblesville went on a 10-5 run to start the 4th, cutting the 11-point deficit to six at 64-58 with 4:40 remaining in the game, forcing Rod Parker to burn a timeout.

The two were responsible for 14 of the Millers' 18 in the final frame, but that wasn't enough to stave off everything that Parker's high-powered offense brought at them.

Josie Fisher is Homestead's lone senior that starts and sees a significant amount of playing time and she wanted to make sure the Millers weren't able to get any closer than the six points they were when Bergman's pair of 3's narrowed it to that 64-58 score. Fishers scored 10 of her 17 points in the latter part of the 4th to help put away the Millers, ending Noblesville's dream season in the Elite 8 with an 83-66 final score.

The Spartans were led in scoring by their leading scorer Karissa McLaughlin with 23 points and six rebounds on 6-14 shooting and 8-of-9 at the free throw line. Lindley Kistler had 20 points and 10 boards, including six made field goals and 4-of-6 from downtown. Fishers netted 17 points on four shots made and 9-for-11 at the charity stripe.

Also scoring for Homestead were Savannah Buck with 11, while Madisen Parker and Grace German each pitched in with 6 apiece.

Homestead (25-2) plays in the 4A North Semi-State Saturday (today) against the Merrillville Pirates (21-7) at 3:30 at Crown Point. The 4A South Semi-State will be played at Richmond and pits two one-loss teams together. Columbus North (26-1) meets up with Lawrence North (27-1) at 3:00.

Noblesville (23-4) saw its dream season come to and end and not in a fashion they thought it would by any means. The Millers put three into double-figures with Becca Bergman leading the way with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and a pair of steals. Becca was named Hamilton County TV's Player of the Game in this Regional Championship game.

The junior tandem of Katelyn O'Reilly (six boards, 4 assists, 2 steals) and Alexis Shannon (3 assists, 2 steals) scored 15 and 10, respectively.

Kayleigh Herron scored 9 points on four field goals, including a pair of 3's. Emily Kiser had 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Erin Wood had 4 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Cori Cain had 3 points and 3 assists and Brooke Herron also had 2.

All-Regional 1st Team

Karissa McLaughlin (Homestead): 36 pts, 11 reb, 3 ast and 4 stl. 11-27 FG, 4-12 3's, 10-11 FT

Lindley Kistler (Homestead): 35 pts, 17 reb, 3 blks. 10-19 FG, 5-8 3's, 10-15 FT

Josie Fisher (Homestead): 31 pts, 6 reb, 11 ast, 3 stl. 11-16 FG, 9-11 FT

Becca Bergman (Noblesville): 26 pts, 7 reb, 8 ast, 4 stl. 9-19 FG, 8-14 3's

Deja Wimby (Fort Wayne Snider): 26 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast, 4 stl. 8-29 FG, 2-6 3's, 8-10 FT

Alexis Shannon (Noblesville): 24 pts, 7 reb, 7 ast, 2 stl. 12-26 FG

Katelyn O'Reilly (Noblesville): 23 pts, 12 reb, 6 ast, 4 stl. 9-15 FG, 4-4 FT

All-Regional 2nd Team

Emily Kiser (Noblesville): 15 pts, 10 reb, 2 ast, 2 blks. 6-11 FG

Kayleigh Herron (Noblesville): 14 pts, 2 reb , 2 ast, 2 stl. 5-10 FG, 3-7 3's

Kyla Covington (Fort Wayne Snider): 10 pts, 14 reb. 4-8 FG

Kerstyn Lowery (McCutcheon): 12 pts, 2 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl. 9-12 FT

Erin Wood (Noblesville): 7 pts, 9 reb, 3 ast, 2 blks. 

Check out the blog again soon, as I'll recap the 4-year careers of seniors Becca Bergman, Erin Wood, Cori Cain, Kayleigh Herron and Audrey DeFoe. 

Also, I'll give my insight to what Donna Keck and her staff will have coming back for next season. 

Until then...

GO MILLERS!

(*all photos are credited to Kent Graham. You can view his complete gallery at kentgraham.photoshelter.com)