How Lutheran gambled in one of Rockford's biggest regional basketball finals in 30 years
Joni Carlson gambled Thursday. Lutheran plays a 1-1-3 zone defense. But not against the No. 2-ranked Class 1A team in the state. Lutheran’s coach decided to play man-to-man.
“We’re definitely not used to it,” Lutheran star sophomore point guard Soraya Parker said. “But this was a big game and we had to step up.”
Lutheran was able to double-team 6-foot-3 Tulsa recruit Whitney Sullivan and also stay tight to Orangeville’s two star guards, Laney Cahoon and Nadalee Doyle. Playing a new defense wasn’t a gamble because it was also new to Orangeville. No, the gamble was how physically aggressive Lutheran played that man-to-man. So aggressive that Lutheran’s four best players had 14 combined fouls after three and a half quarters.
But when Lutheran didn’t foul, Orangeville didn’t score. The gamble paid off with the Crusaders winning 57-42 on their home court in the Rockford Lutheran girls basketball regional finals.
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“We knew we were in foul trouble, but challenging their outside shots was all that mattered,” said Parker, who scored a team-high 17 points before fouling out with 6:37 to play.
Shauna Jones, one of three Crusaders with eight points, also fouled out for Lutheran with 2:53 to play. By then it didn't matter. Orangeville never got closer than eight points in the second half.
“Whitney was our focus, but they have great shooters to go along with Whitney, so we wanted to take their points away also. I don’t know many teams that have matched up with them this year with man, so we tried to make them as uncomfortable as possible.”
Lutheran did that — and then some.
With Lutheran (25-8) ranked No. 9, this was one of the biggest regional clashes in the last 30 years in Rockford, perhaps the biggest since No. 5-ranked Lutheran beat No. 4 Winnebago in a boys Class A regional final in 1992.
More: Rockford’s greatest games No. 3: Lutheran slips past undefeated Winnebago
But unlike that overtime classic, Lutheran never trailed in this game. And the Crusaders led comfortably over Orangeville (30-3) ever since it went on an 11-0 run late in the first half to open a 14-point lead. Sullivan — who also fouled out with 3 minutes to play — picked up her second and third fouls early in that run and sat out the rest of the half.
That was the other part of the gamble that worked so well. Yes, Lutheran was called for a lot of fouls, but that defense shut down Orangeville so well that Sullivan got a little frustrated, which led to some of her foul trouble. Some of that was because Lutheran dominated the boards, holding Sullivan to less than half her rebounding average.
“Down low they took the ball away from our girls,” Orangeville coach Jay Doyle said. “They out-hustled us. That’s a tough thing to deal with.”
Even tougher was dealing with Lutheran’s defense, which denied Sullivan the ball inside.
“I love getting up in people’s shorts and making them uncomfortable,” said the 5-7 Jones, who double-teamed Sullivan along with 6-foot senior Hannah Morgan (eight points). “She’s tall, but I’ve got the heart to get up there with her.”
With Lutheran denying Sullivan inside touches and open outside looks by Cahoon and Doyle, Orangeville struggled mightily. Cahoon finished with 21 points, Sullivan 10 and Doyle nine, but the rest of the Broncos scored two points. Total.
Worse, Orangeville shot 5-for-37 over the first three quarters.
If they didn’t get fouled and make a free throw, the Broncos couldn’t score.
“You ain’t going to win a game against anybody shooting 5 for 37,” Orangeville’s Doyle said.
That was what the gamble was all about. Even at the cost of two Lutheran players fouling out and two others nearly doing so.
“It was worth it,” Carlson said after winning her 11th regional title as Lutheran’s coach. “We were forcing tough shots. And we were keeping Whitney off the glass.
“The reward outweighed the risk.”
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: In a classic regional final, Lutheran risk fouls to defend Orangeville
