Bulldogs ‘locked in’
Gerodemos typifies Crown Point’s defensive tenacity in DAC win against Valparaiso
Crown Point’s Nikki Gerodemos came up with a steal, drove the length of the court and converted a layup.
Similar plays dotted the Duneland Athletic Conference game at Valparaiso on Friday, as the Bulldogs’ defense dominated in a 66-26 win.
Gerodemos, a junior forward, scored in that fashion to give Crown Point (12-1, 4-0) a 9-0 lead with 2:21 left in the first quarter before Bolanle Ayangade scored for Valparaiso (10-5, 1-3) 13 seconds later. The Bulldogs led 20-2 after the first quarter.
“We started off fast because we had really good defense,” Gerodemos said. “We know we play our best basketball when our defense is good, so we want it to be as good as it can be every time.
“Good defense leads to good offense, and we have fun moving around and putting pressure on the ball. We were really locked in.”
Coach Chris Seibert agreed Crown Point set the tone with its defense.
“We came out and really competed on that end,” he said. “We did a good job of taking away some of the things their players really like to do tendency-wise.”
Star junior guard Jessica Carrothers had a game-high 25 points and added four steals. Junior forward Lilly Stoddard, a Purdue recruit, had eight points and eight rebounds.
Gerodemos finished with seven points and three steals, and Alyna Santiago had seven points and four steals.
In all, 10 players scored for Crown Point, which is ranked No. 4 in the state coaches poll.
“We’ve really been emphasizing getting more players contributing on the offensive end and sharing the basketball,” Seibert said. “We did a really good job of making the extra pass to get a little higher-percentage shot.
“The biggest thing we talked about with the kids is just keep shooting. Even if the shots don’t go down early, we have to keep shooting. They had two or three players on Lilly a lot of the game, and the only way to loosen that is to make shots. We did a good job with that as the game progressed.”
Senior guard/forward Kiana Oelling had 13 points for Valparaiso, which had won four straight games entering Friday.
Crown Point’s win set up Saturday night’s matchup for first place in the conference at Merrillville (8-3, 5-0), which carried an eight-game winning streak into Friday’s game at Mishawaka.
“Merrillville’s been playing great, and they’re very well-coached,” Seibert said. “They play extremely, extremely hard. They play a similar style to us — frenetic — where there’s a lot of trapping and creating chaos on the floor.
“It should be a fun game just for someone to watch basketball because it should be up and down. We have to execute against their pressure defense.”
Gerodemos believes Crown Point will be ready.
“It’s a big game,” she said. “They’re undefeated in the conference as well, so we know it’s going to be a good game, and we have to make sure we bring our best effort.”