ABOVE: The Loper White Bulldogs, coached by Randall Gooding, celebrate after last night’s elementary city girls basketball championship game. | photo by KRISTIAAN RAWLINGS
There was nervous energy, incessant chatter, the facial expressions shifting with each maddening bounce of the ball around the rim. And that was just from the parents in the stands.
The tension was arguably less apparent on Shelbyville High School’s Frank Barnes Court, where elementary girls battled out the A and B league city tournaments last night on Garrett Gymnasium’s big stage. Loper White, coached by Randall Gooding, claimed the A league title over St. Joe, coached by Jeff Johnson, and Loper White B, coached by Cristal Astudillo, won their league trophy, defeating classmates on the Max Southern-coached Loper Orange squad.
Both games were hard-fought.
Loper Orange’s Stella Sherwood scored the first basket of the night, in the B league title game, the first of her 4 points, which included a bucket at the first quarter buzzer. White led 8-6 at the half, but Orange battled back, with the game remaining tight until a Nora Rife bucket gave White a commanding 16-9 lead. The White B Bulldogs withstood a late Orange charge to win, 18-13. Rife and Laila Williams each contributed 8 points, and McKenzie Colee scored the remaining basket. Orange was led by Julia McCracken’s 6 and Sherwood’s 4, with Sadie Kinder scoring 2 and Dakota Phillips adding a point.
Loper White players were Rife, Hayden Justus, Colee, Harper Olmstead, Eleena Dudgeon, Williams, Ariana Contreras-Revilla, Caroline Rush and Alejandra Lopez Mendez. Loper Orange players were Sherwood, Sophia Idlewine, Madison Turner, Dakota Phillips, Kinder, Justice Meal, Zoey Hatfield, McCracken and Alex Hyatt.
The A title game followed, and it, too, was worthy of the SHS bright lights.
Despite the 19-12 final score, the Loper White Bulldogs and St. Joe Lions were evenly matched throughout three quarters. St. Joe led, 8-7, but Delaney Bowers scored consecutive shots to put Loper up, 11-8, heading into the final period, and they never looked back. The Lions continued to fight, however, with Juliana Bushfield and Kendall Thoman, who had earlier left the game briefly to have a bloody nose treated, scored baskets in the fourth quarter. Bowers reached double digits for Loper, Harper Cheney added 6, Addison Keller, 2, and Piper Jones scored a point. Bushfield led St. Joe with 6, Thoman scored 4 and Sophia Jones-Sandoval added 2.
Loper White players were Izzy Cunningham, Keller, Autumn Gooding, Bowers, Cheney, Jones, McKenna Craig and Kate Swonger. The St. Joe Lions players were Jones-Sandoval, Katie McFarland, Aubrey Stevens, Marley Leon-Cruz, Thoman, Rebecca Duffy, Bushfield, Jayla Padilla, Claudia Serratos and Chloe Drake.
Loper principal Adam Harpring, whose school provided three of the four teams on the court, served as announcer. Bryan Brown, Shelbyville Central Schools PE teacher, organized league and tournament play.