Lanesville overcomes injury to top scorer, repeats as champs
Adversity is something Lanesville faced all season — hey, even before this season began.
Saturday’s IHSAA girls basketball Class A state championship contest against Marquette Catholic provided even more for the defending state champs.
Yet, as the Eagles did all season, they met the challenge. Lanesville scored the final seven points of the game — five on free throws by junior Hylton Brumley — to pull out a 51-43 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Lanesville (29-1) lost leading-scorer Hadley Crosier in the first quarter with what appeared to be a serious knee injury and not only persevered through that, but also survived a 17-of-51 (33%) shooting performance and a 41-21 rebounding deficit to claim the win.
“The kind of team we have, you saw,” Lanesville coach Angie Hinton said. “I told the kids at halftime, we have faced adversity all year and these kids are gritty players who have fought through that all year.”
Marquette Catholic (24-5) had been the last Class A team to repeat as champs, which the Blazers did in 2018 and 2019.
Crosier, a 16-point per game scorer, went down late in the first quarter and Marquette took an 11-10 lead into the second quarter.
Initially, the Eagles responded by opening the second quarter with a 7-1 spurt to hold a 17-12 lead. The biggest factor there came from 6-1 junior Shelby Allen — a key member of last season’s statetitle squad who injured a knee last offseason and didn’t return to the line-up until December.
Allen had six points in each of the first two quarters to help the Eagles claim a 2726 lead at halftime.
Marquette rallied in the third quarter behind cold shooting by the Eagles, who missed all eight shots they took from the floor. That helped the Blazers take a 33-31 lead into the final quarter.
Marquette’s Laniah Davis, who came in averaging 20 points per game, broke a 3333 tie with a pull-up jumper with 7:06 left to give what proved to be her team’s last lead. Davis finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
A minute later, Allen hit a follow-up basket to tie the score and Emma Davis gave Lanesville the lead the for good by canning a 3-pointer with 5:09 remaining.
Marquette hung tough, however, and trailed only 43-42 after a Livia Balling basket with 1:44 left.
On the next Lanesville possession, Hinton called timeout and set up a play for Allen, who converted a lay-up with 1:27 left to spark the final run. Marquette finished the game by missing its last six shots and Brumley iced the game by converting 5of-6 free throws from that point.
“We knew we all had to step up,” Brumley said referring to Crosier’s injury, but also the final minutes. “It was a state championship game and we were going to go out and do what we had to.”
Brumley finished with 15 points to go with Allen’s 20.
“This one stung more than I imagined,” Marquette coach Katie Collignon said. “Down the stretch we made uncharacteristic turnovers and the free throws helped them late.”