Junior Indiana All-Stars drop 100 on Senior All-Stars. 'That was a ton of fun'

INDIANAPOLIS — Yeah, so that happened. The Junior Indiana All-Stars steamrolled the Indiana All-Stars, 102-75, on Wednesday night at Cathedral. Carroll guard Alli Harness, a Western Michigan commit, led said shellacking, scoring a game-high 19 points with five of the team's eighteen (18!!!) 3-pointers.

"It's been a dream," said Harness, who also recorded six rebounds, two steals and an assist. "To go down and play Kentucky then come here against the seniors — and to win both games — it's a dream come true. And I loved playing with all the girls. I loved it so much."

It was an impressive display by the Juniors, who recorded assists on 21 of their 36 field goals, and looked like they'd been playing together for months — though, to be fair, they had the luxury of playing Sunday vs. Kentucky's juniors.

Fort Wayne Snider standouts Jordyn Poole, a Purdue commit, and Johnea Donahue (Bowling Green) poured in 15 and 13 points, respectively, while Juliann Woodard of Jennings County posted a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds, plus four assists, five steals and two blocks. Hamilton Heights' Camryn Runner added 13 points, and Noblesville guard Reagan Wilson (Iowa State) notched eight points, and matched Poole with five assists.

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Nine players scored for the Juniors.

"The thing that boggles my mind is how unselfish they all are. They just move the ball and share the ball," Junior All-Stars coach Zach Newby of Lapel said. "When you have someone who can control it like Jordyn Poole can and get everyone else involved, that was a ton of fun. I just sat back and watched. I didn't do a lot."

Harness said she wasn't surprised by how well the Juniors meshed, explaining: "We're all so good and we all bonded together so well that it just clicked."

Miss Basketball Laila Hull, a Zionsville alum and North Carolina commit, led the senior All-Stars with 17 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, a steal and four blocks. Forest Park's Amber Tretter (Miami (Ohio)) added 13 points and Columbus East's Saige Stahl (Indiana State) tallied 11. Hamilton Southeastern's Riley Makalusky (Butler) notched 10 points plus four rebounds, Ben Davis' Cristen Carter, another Butler commit, pulled in seven rebounds.

The senior All-Stars committed 29 turnovers, but narrowly won the rebounding battle, 54-50.

"You just have to learn from it," Makalusky said. "This one, honestly, it hurts, but we have to make sure we win against Kentucky. That's the important one."

Here are some other fun things to know from Wednesday's proceedings.

So, about the Juniors hanging 100…

That was a topic of discussion following the game.

Harness dropped 36 points in a 101-52 win over Frontier as a freshman, while Cathedral's Layla Gold (Valparaiso) said she's never been on the wrong end of a game that bad, adding: "They got hot and we kind of got in our heads, got sped up and started playing really fast."

Makalusky also pointed out that the Juniors hit just three 3-pointers against Kentucky on Sunday before going off for 18 against their Indiana counterparts. "They caught on fire, because they were tired of missing," she said. "But I feel like we played well. We didn't hit the shots they did, but we'll play well against Kentucky."

One final home game for Gold

Cathedral's first senior Indiana All-Star since Kimberly Roberson in 2005, Gold had the chance to play one more game on her home floor, knocking down a couple free throws and pulling in three rebounds over 12 minutes of action.

"It felt so good to come home," Gold said. "I've only been gone a couple weeks, but I missed everybody. … (And) it means a lot to represent Cathedral in this game. It's been really fun, and to be able to play with so much talent is a gift itself."

Asked how Indiana All-Stars week has been, Gold replied (with a laugh): "This is the most social I've ever had to be, so that's hard, but it's fun. It's been a lot of fun."

Newby on coaching the Junior All-Stars

Here's the Lapel coach on experiencing Indiana All-Stars week as a coach: "When they called and offered it to me, I thought it was a joke. I didn't think it was for real," he said. "But to coach different kids, I've never done that before. The only kids I've ever coached are kids who've come up through my program. So I was curious to see how it would be to coach other kids and it was so much fun. They were awesome to me and listened to me and treated me as if I had always been their coach. It was a lot of fun."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana All-Stars: Juniors hit 18 3-pointers in rout of seniors