Phone: 317-846-6601 Fax: 317-575-4244 Website: www.ihsaa.org
Blake Ress, Commissioner
_________________________________________________________________________
March 7, 2009
HERITAGE CHRISTIAN WINS
FOURTH CONSECUTIVE CHAMPIONSHIP
Claire
Freeman’s shot with :03 seconds remaining in
overtime gave top-ranked Heritage Christian a 60-58 win over second-ranked Oak
Hill for its fourth consecutive 2A state title. The Eagles join Fort Wayne
Bishop Luers (1999-02) as the only teams in tournament
history to win four straight championships.
Heritage
Christian head coach Rick Risinger also became the
first coach in state history to win four state titles – in just his
fourth year in charge of the program.
With the
score tied at 58-58 with 1:36 to go, Heritage Christian ran the clock down to :07 left before calling timeout to set up the final play
which ended up in Freeman’s hands. Her running jumper that banked in
proved the game-winner and Oak Hill’s final heave fell short.
Kelly Faris and Freeman each converted layups in the overtime,
while Oak Hill’s Ashley Pickering converted a miss by Marissa Coolman. Coolman added two free
throws with 1:36 to go to tie the game.
Trailing
50-47 near the end of regulation, Oak Hill’s Ashley Pickering’s
layup with 2:59 left made it 50-49. Teammate Courtney Moses added another layup
for a 51-50 advantage with 2:13 remaining. Faris
added a pair of free throws to give Heritage Christian a one-point lead at 2:13
before Coolman connected and was fouled at the 1:28
mark. Her free throw gave Oak Hill a 54-52 lead before Faris
made a pair of freebies with :46 seconds left. Oak
Hill set up for a final shot but wasn’t able to get a good look at the
basket for a game-winner.
Moses led
all scorers with 21 points and Pickering added 20. Both finished with seven
rebounds.
Emily
Anderson led Heritage Christian with 14 points. Kelly Faris
finished with 13, Liz Stratman with 12 and Freeman
11.
Heritage
Christian (26-1) was making its fifth trip to the state finals in six years and
it was the second year in a row it defeated Oak Hill (27-2) for the title. Oak
Hill was coached by Todd Law.
OAK
HILL’S LAUREN MEESE NAMED MENTAL ATTITUDE AWARD WINNER
Following
the game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee named Oak Hill’s
Lauren Meese 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.
Meese is a
four-year starter on the varsity squad having earned all-conference honors
three straight years and is one of four players on the team to have scored over
1,000 points for her career. She has also participated four years in soccer and
three in track and field.
She serves
as an officer with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the
Lettermen’s Club and also is a member of the National Honor Society,
Students Against Drunk Driving and the Spanish Club.
Academically,
Meese ranks eighth in her class of 126 students. She intends to study
elementary education at either Bethel College or Huntington University.
She is the
daughter of Ward and Carol Meese of Marion.
Indiana
Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate
partner, will present a $1,000 scholarship to Oak Hill High School in the name
of Meese.
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.
VSN MEANS ACTION PHOTOGRAPHY
Visit our
friends at Visual Sports Network, the IHSAA’s official photographer for all state
championship events and one of the leading action photographers in the
CLASS
2A POST-GAME QUOTES
Heritage
Christian Head Coach Rick Risinger:
(General
comments) “That was a very special game for
(On setting
up the game-winning play by Freeman) “Once you get the tie score and you
have the ball, you’re in control. We were running certain offensive sets,
and they were doing a good job defensively against those sets. …When we
got to the very end, we were kind of slowing it down, but we were still in
attack mode. Once it got down to 30, 20 seconds, my mindset is, we’re
going to take the last shot. It got down to 7.8 seconds and we designed a play
that interestingly was not a play that we worked on during the season. But with
the defense they were running, the normal plays we had, I didn’t think
they’d be effective. We had about four different options. … Miss
Freeman just took an outstanding shot.”
(On the
closeness of the game) “I give a lot of credit to Oak Hill. I thought
they did exceptionally well today. They didn’t necessarily run different
things than we anticipated, but I thought they ran things better than what we anticipated.
… Oak Hill, I thought, played a fantastic game.”
Kelly Faris
on her team’s run of winning four straight state titles: “This is probably the
toughest one we’ve played in. They pushed us to the end. … To have had the
experience I’ve had in high school, few have had that. It’s going
to be hard leaving everybody.”
Emily Anderson on four straight
titles: “The
last four years have been unbelievable. … We bonded from the beginning. I
wouldn’t change anything about my high school experience. It’s been
awesome.”
Claire Freeman on her winning shot:
“Things kind of broke down. I just took the ball to the basket and
got the shot. … The opportunity just presented itself. I wasn’t
thinking about the shots I had missed (earlier in the game); I was thinking
about the one I was going to take.”
Oak Hill Head Coach Todd Law
(General
comments) “I can’t be prouder of my team. We played in this game a
year ago and I thought the enormity of the game affected our play. … We
worked all offseason to try to get ourselves back here and show the state what
kind of team we have. I think they did a phenomenal job of that today. Words
can’t say how disappointed we are right now, but when the sting goes away
a little, they know they can walk out of here with their heads held high. Not
only did they give their best effort, but they played extremely well. … I
thought we did a tremendous job of executing our game plan. We wanted to try to
get the ball inside and drive to the basket. … Defensively, we were playing
a great team and I thought we took some things away from them. It came down to
a last-second play, kind of on a freaky shot. Tough way to
lose the state championship.”
(On holding
Kelly Faris to 13 points) “I thought we did a
great job with her. Thing is, Kelly’s a phenomenal player, but our game
plan was not focused totally on her.
They have too many weapons to just lock in on Kelly. … It was a
team effort. We had three different girls guard her throughout the game; all
three did a nice job.”
(On the
pressure his team faced coming in) “For us, it’s sort of been a
stair-step thing. … The pressure that’s been on this team from the
second the (state title) game ended last year is enormous. And you’re
dealing with 15-, 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids. They’ve handled that so
well. I’m so proud of the way they’ve handled that. …
There’s no doubt we all felt that pressure the entire year. To come
through the season with one loss and then play the No. 1 team in the
nation, and … take them to overtime and get beat on that shot, I’m
pretty proud of our kids.”
(On Claire Freeman’s winning shot)
“Courtney (Moses) was on her, kept her in front, had
her going horizontally instead of vertically to the basket, that’s all I
can say. I thought we had her well defended. She just
put it in.”
Courtney Moses on defending
Freeman’s shot:
I just tried to stay in front of her. I had my hands straight up. She made like
an NBA shot, sort of wiggled around. It was just a good shot.”
Lauren Meese on winning the Patricia
L. Roy Mental Attitude Award: “It means a lot to me. It would be a little sweeter
if we had won. But it’s still a great accomplishment … to get
something like that when you didn’t expect it.”