Phone: 317-846-6601 Fax: 317-575-4244 Website: www.ihsaa.org
Blake Ress, Commissioner
_________________________________________________________________________
March 7, 2009
ELMHURST WINS ITS FIRST
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
The Fort
Wayne Elmhurst Trojans defeated the Owen Valley Patriots, 62-59, in the Class
3A championship game to claim the school’s first state title in any sport.
It came in the school’s first ever appearance in the girl’s
basketball state finals. Elmhurst’s
boys basketball team finished as state runner-up in
2003.
Elmhurst
came out strong in the first quarter taking a quick 7-0 lead over the Patriots
and ended the first quarter with a 20-11 lead.
The Trojans built their largest lead of the game at 22-11 with 7:40 left
before haltime. Owen Valley rallied from that point
pulling to within 28-24 heading to the halftime lockerroom.
Owen Valley
grabbed its first lead of the game with 6:20 left to go on Nickole
Gonser’s layup to make it
47-45. Twice the Patriots held three point leads before Elmhurst’s
Lecretia Smith hit a layup with 3:15 remaining and
Rosie Lewis’ jumper at 2:41 gave them the lead for good at 56-54.
Smith, who
hit 11-of-15 from the field, led all scorers with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Liza Clemons and Lewis both added 10 for Elmhurst. Heather Gonser
led Owen Valley with 21 points and eight rebounds. Cooper chipped in 10 and Nikole Gonser pulled down nine rebounds.
No. 4 Elmhurst,
led by head coach Mark Redding, finished the season 25-2, winning their last 11
games of the season. No. 10 Owen Valley, making its first trip to the girls basketball state finals, finished 24-3, under coach
Tom Anderson.
ELMHURST’S
LECRETIA SMITH NAMED MENTAL ATTITUDE AWARD WINNER
Following the
game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee named Lecretia
Smith of Elmhurst High School as the winner of the Patricia L. Roy Mental
Attitude Award.
The award
is presented annually to a senior participant in each classification who was
nominated by her principal and coach and has demonstrated excellence in mental
attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability.
Smith is
the Trojans’ career leader in rebounding and ranks second in school
history in points scored. She has been an all-conference first team selection
the last three years. Additionally, Smith has played volleyball for Elmhurst
and was named all-conference in 2007.
She has
served the Elmhurst Career Association and the Freshmen Advisory Board, worked
on the school’s food drive, helped make Christmas cards for injured
military service members, was a flag carrier in the Veteran’s Day Parade
and was a greeter for the school’s Back to School night.
“Lecretia has consistently demonstrated her
conscientiousness and genuine commitment to being the absolute best student
athlete that she can be,” says Elmhurst Principal Chad Hissong. “As a result, she has established herself as
a leader on the court, in the hallway, and in the classroom.”
The daughter
of Hattie Dunbar of Fort Wayne, she plans to attend the University of Toledo
beginning next fall.
Indiana
Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate
partner, will present a $1,000 scholarship to Elmhurst High School in the name
of Lecretia Smith.
The award
is named in honor of the former IHSAA assistant commissioner Patricia L. Roy,
who oversaw the girls basketball state tournament from
its inception in 1976 until her retirement in 1999.
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CLASS
3A POST-GAME QUOTES
Elmhurst
Head Coach Mark Redding
(General comments)
“What really helped us was that we were finally patient, getting the ball
inside and getting Liza (Clemons) and Cre (Smith)
involved. Rosie Lewis and TeSharra Thomas did a nice
job, particularly as freshman, of stepping up in the late part of the game of
making key baskets to put us ahead and keep us ahead.”
(Second-half
free throws). “They were big, real big. We thought by missing the free
throws in the first half we kept them in the game. The girls stepped up in the
second half and knocked down those free throws.”
(On Lecretia Smith winning Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude
Award)” I can’t ask for a more deserving person. She represents a
lot. Her leadership on the court, you can’t really put it into words.
What she does off the court is help these young kids. The way you see her play
on the court is the way she plays in practice. Her work ethic has helped the
younger kids understand what it takes.”
(On the
edge in points in the paint) “It’s about moving the ball around.
… These girls have been playing together a long time. It’s nothing
we coach. It’s just their recognition.”
Lecretia Smith on winning the Mental Attitude Award: “I didn’t know I was
going to win it. It’s a big surprise, but I’m really thankful to
have won it.”
Owen
Valley Head Coach Tom Anderson
(General
comments) “We knew (Elmhurst’s) pressure would be better than any
we faced all year. For some reason, we didn’t get people consistently in
the middle of that press. When we did get in the middle, we broke it and did a
good job. …Our point guard, Sam Cooper, did a magnificent job of handling
that pressure. She’s one of the best point guards around. But you
can’t leave her and just have two or three girls constantly badgering
her. If we had just come back to the ball better, I feel like we could have
attacked. But those are things that just sometimes happen when you’re
just a little shaky in terms of your nerves. The worst thing about a game like
this is that there has to be a loser by score. There really isn’t a loser
by team, because you have to be pretty good to get here. I think we have a
pretty good basketball team. Even though we didn’t play our best
basketball game, we still only get beat by three, which shows what we could have
done if we had just settled down a little earlier.”
(On
Elmhurst’s pressure) “We knew they were never going to let up. No
matter what the situation, they were going to press you. We really worked hard
on it. I don’t know. We were so used to Sam just bringing the ball down
the court, for some reason we just kept running away from her. … The
thing we stressed all week is you have to take care of the basketball. But it
wasn’t from a lack of effort. These girls practiced hard all week.
… We fought very, very hard.”
Sam Cooper on what she will take
from the tournament run and into next year: “I learned so much. The further we got in the
tournament, the more intense it got. For me it was a great experience.”