What We Learned IHSAA girls basketball: Drama in the City, records fall and more

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Happy sectional draw week, everyone.

We'll have plenty of state tournament preview coverage over the next couple weeks (including a special live edition of The Scorers Table on Sunday), but there's a lot to unpack from last week. The first half of which provided milestones (read more online), while the second half delivered on the drama with a couple buzzer-beaters and an OT thriller in Zionsville.

Here's what we learned.

Olivia Berzai at the buzzer

Though not much of a 3-point shooter (27 attempts in 41 career games), Bishop Chatard sophomore Olivia Berzai found herself knocking them down at a fairly steady clip during the team's pregame shootaround Friday.

"Man, I gotta start shooting more 3s," Berzai told assistant coach Chris Wallis.

"Yeah, if you get an open look, go for it," he replied.

Berzai got that open look during the City championship game a few hours later — with Chatard trailing host Cathedral by two in the final seconds of overtime.

Teammate Addison Duncan rushed the ball up the floor and threw it to Berzai on the wing. Berzai gathered the pass, turned her shoulders and took the shot, swishing it through as time expired.

Her first 3-point attempt of the game (5-for-21 this season) lifted Chatard to a thrilling 45-43 overtime win and its second City title in program history (2021).

"There were only 4.9 seconds left, so there wasn't a lot of time to do anything," said Berzai, who is 3-for-3 from 3 over the past five games. "I was just like, alright, if I get a shot, I'm going to take it. … Addie hit me with a good pass and we hit the shot to win the game. It was awesome."

The play — which has Duncan inbound the ball from the baseline to Betsy Tragesser, before taking a return pass and racing it up — is one they work on regularly, Berzai said, and isn't necessarily designed for one specific player. "We just try to get the ball down the court as quickly as possible and get a good look."

"We ended up getting a good look (and) that's pretty much all we needed," Berzai added.

That shot served as some redemption for Berzai, who was "pretty upset" with herself after missing a go-ahead layup moments earlier.

"The whole season, my coaches, my teammates, we're all looking for the next play mentality," she said. "I was just like, OK, here, we're going to try to get a good look. I found a spot, Addie hit me and — yeah."

Berzai was one of three Trojans to score nine points (Alyx Kendall and Anna Caskey), while Duncan netted 10 points and the one all-important assist.

Zionsville responds to tough loss with wild win

The Eagles weren't in a great place entering Friday vs. Noblesville. They committed over 20 turnovers and squandered an 18-point lead Tuesday at North Central, which had lost four straight and seven of its past nine, albeit against an absolutely brutal schedule.

But in the aftermath of that dramatic come-from-behind win over the Millers, coach Andy Maguire said the NC loss may have been one of the best things that happened to his team this season.

"We talked after that about being resilient and fighting through adversity," he said, describing the team as a whole before citing Allie Caldwell, specifically. After shooting 29% with eight turnovers Tuesday, the senior went for 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting, six rebounds, seven assists (only four turnovers) and a block. She hit three 3s, including the game-tying triple — following a flurry of Zionsville misses — in the final minute of regulation.

Caldwell went up for that shot and "I was like, 'Yeah, you got it, girl! You got it,'" Haan laughed.

Caldwell delivered perhaps the biggest shot of the night, but that was a really impressively balanced performance by Zionsville, which picked up key contributions from its entire six-girl rotation.

■ Faith Leedy scored a season-high 15 points on five 3-pointers. She also pulled in five rebounds and dished out four assists before fouling out in OT.

■ Haan (12 points) held Noblesville's Reagan Wilson to 11 points and only four 2-point field goal attempts (she averages around 7-8).

■ Freshman McKenzie Chapman logged 12 points and was basically the team's only source of offense in an otherwise forgettable third quarter.

■ Caroline Sampson and Brooke Karesh combined for 15 points and 13 rebounds with Karesh going 4-for-4 from the field and Sampson hitting a pair of critical free throws late.

Something to watch for this Friday at HSE: Zionsville utilized a two-post lineup for stretches against the Millers. Maguire said that was necessitated largely by foul trouble, though they should maybe run it more.

Zionsville has a unique luxury among its sectional foes with two post players, but…

"Most of the teams we play use four guards and since we want to play man-to-man, it puts us at a disadvantage somewhere," Maguire said. "But it helped us on the offensive end tonight."

About Noblesville

Three quick hits on the Millers…

■ Noblesville did a good job speeding up Zionsville and forcing them into some turnovers inside the half-court (18 turnovers, 10 NHS steals).

■ It was good to see Ava Shoemaker back in the lineup after she was sidelined over the holiday break due to injury (returned Jan. 6 vs. Cathedral). The senior, who got the visitors on track in the first half, picked up 12 points, seven steals, five rebounds and four assists vs. Zionsville.

■ In true Reagan Wilson fashion, she didn't allow her shooting struggles (27% FG, 2-for-11 3s) to influence the rest of her game. She dished out three assists and was credited with a pair of steals, though there were multiple occasions when she helped initiate the sequence that ultimately led to a turnover.

Irish trying to 'get out of their own way'

Cathedral coach Lisa Finn estimated that between commitments to other sports and injuries, last week's City semifinal vs. 2A Covenant Christian marked just the third time the Irish have had their full lineup in the past month. That inconsistency has only made it more difficult for this team to re-establish its identity on the offensive end, where it's struggled to replace leading scorer Laila Gold, who averaged around 25 points as a senior.

Scoring was an issue Thursday, with Cathedral struggling for consistency from the field (36% FG, 0-for-10 from 3) and overall at the line (17-for-29), before averting disaster with a fourth-quarter rally fueled by senior Taylor Lewis (12 points, 10 rebounds).

"We needed to feel that. We needed to go through that," said Finn, who has 16 freshmen in the program. "I told them, we just need to get out of our own way. They know what to do. They've shown that in glimpses. … We just have to go back to basics. When the offense isn't working, play defense. That's why we won the game."

"We're able to play with anybody, but we just get in our own space," senior Abby Beasley added. "Once we settled down and took a deep breath, the game came to us."

With regards to the roster instability, Lewis — who missed about a week earlier this season with a concussion — said while it has been tough, they've been able to "build so much better chemistry" and rely more on one another.

It was encouraging to see Cathedral rally in the second half to force overtime against Chatard. The Irish scored 34 of their 43 points over the final 20 minutes and came back from down eight entering the fourth. They beat Chatard, 43-37, at the end of December.

Odds-and-ends

■ Talia Harris lifted Fishers to a dramatic 40-38 win over Brownsburg on Friday. The senior standout took a handoff from Neveah Dickman at the top of the key and drilled a jumper from just inside the arc as time expired. Harris finished with a team-high 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and a steal.

■ Jennings County senior Juliann Woodard surpassed Panthers coach Kristi (Green) Sigler as the program's all-time leading scorer with a first-quarter free throw vs. Greenwood on Friday. The Michigan State commit, whose record-breaking feat came on alumni night, has over 1,600 points and 1,000 rebounds for her career.

■ Hamilton Heights' Camryn Runner celebrated Senior Day with a record 64 points vs. Tipton. That's the most since Stephanie White's 66-point game in 1995, according to IGBRR Hoops.

■ We're planning to host a live post-draw edition of The Scorers Table on YouTube this Sunday. Stay tuned for more details.

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: What we learned in Indiana high school girls basketball this week