By Mike McGraw
Executive Director
INDIANAPOLIS ââ?¬â?? Last weekââ?¬â?¢s girls loss to Kentucky in the Bluegrass state showed that the Indiana All-Star Team was flawed in a number of ways. Most notable among them was the limited number of Hoosier players that were legitimate threats to score at this level of competition. With that knowledge firmly in mind, coach Jack Campbell and Co. went back to the drawing board and figured out a different way to skin a Kentucky cat.
They unveiled it in grand fashion June 25 at Conseco Fieldhouse, utilizing a suffocating transition defense to render Kentucky harmless in an impressive 65-49 victory.
Because they do not play together long enough to develop a true rhythm as a team, scoring in the half court is often difficult for all-star teams. Generally speaking, all-star teams like to run, gun, and score easy points. But Indiana made sure that wasn�t going to happen at the Kentucky end Saturday. In fact, one is hard pressed to remember a single easy bucket for the Bluegrass girls.
The contest was close early, with Kentucky holding a 16-15 lead slightly more than seven minutes into the first half. Five straight points from Indiana Miss Basketball Jodi Howell took care of that little problem, though, and the Hoosiers never looked back. Kentucky managed to close the gap to 23-22, but an 11-2 run to close the half (capped by a Kahla Roudebush 3-pointer) gave Indiana a 34-24 lead at intermission. Roudebush led the way with 17 points in the first half, and Howell added eight.
While it still could have been a problem that Indiana was limited in its sources of scoring, it doesn�t matter much when you hold the opponent to 24 points on 28 percent (7 of 25) shooting.
Indiana continued to stretch the margin early in the second half, and the Hoosier contingent would be challenged only once. Kentucky called a timeout with slightly more than 12 minutes to play. Coming out of the stoppage, the visitors upped their own defensive pressure and went on a 12-3 run, cutting the lead to 13 over the next five minutes (a Howell 3-pointer accounted for the only Indiana score). Roudebush finally ended the drought, however, with four straight points at roughly the 7:00 mark; after that, the only question was the amount of the final margin.
Roudebush earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the evening, ending the night with 25 points. Howell (11 points) was the only other Hoosier girl in double figures.
We at HoosierAuthority.com would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Howell for the Miss Basketball Diary she supplied during the All-Star camp. We hope it gave our growing number of readers an inside glimpse on the experience of being an Indiana All-Star.
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