GIRLS BB: No. 4 Caston overcomes cold shooting night to beat Winamac

Nov. 13—WINAMAC — Two high-scoring girls basketball teams squared off Saturday night and the matchup quickly turned into a defensive slugfest and remained that way throughout.

Class A No. 4 Caston came out on top 47-33 against a much-improved Winamac team.

Last year's final score was 49-15 as the Warriors were able to turn a 34-point loss into a 14-point loss against a veteran Caston team.

The Comets (5-0, 1-0 HNAC) opened league play with their 10th straight conference victory. But it wasn't easy against the Warriors (2-2, 0-1).

"It was a very physical game which I think you had two high-powered offenses coming into this game but you look at the final score, 47-33. I think that was due to how physical the game was and neither team offensively could get any type of flow just because how physical it was," Caston coach Josh Douglass said.

The Warriors' 2-3 and 1-3-1 trapping zones gave the Comets problems all night. The Comets shot a chilly 26% from the field overall (14-of-53) including shooting just 2-of-20 from 3-point range (10%).

But despite that the Comets still found a way to win. They won the turnover battle 28-12 and made 16-of-24 free throws (67%).

Douglass thought his team attacked the defense well but just had a bad shooting night.

"Honestly I thought we did very well with it especially with the physical of a game," he said. "There were some times it confused us, we turned it over. We did not shoot the ball well tonight which was kind of expected considering it was the first back-to-back nights and both of them being on the road for us. So that was big. They had a good home crowd tonight for them. So we were just a little flat. Good shots, I can't complain about our shots, they were there, in and out, on the rim. It wasn't like we were tossing up air ball after air ball tonight, they were there, they just didn't fall tonight.

"We found a way with our defense to hold them to 33. They've been averaging in the 50s. I thought we did some really good things defensively. Sometimes we weren't all the way checked in defensively but that's a good thing. The HNAC is not easy. You've got to go on the road and win one. Sometimes they're not very pretty and tonight we found a way to win one."

Douglass was expecting a tough game from the Warriors.

"Look who their coach is. You know they would be. There's a reason he's been in state title games and things like that. So you knew they'd be well improved," he said. "They're well coached, they play hard. Any time you play hard you're going to give somebody a game."

Isabel Scales had 18 points, nine rebounds, four steals and two assists for the Comets. Addison Zimpleman had 10 points and three steals. Madi Douglass had nine points, five boards, five steals and three assists. Macee Hinderlider had five points, seven boards and three steals. Olivia Thomas stepped up with her best game of the season with four points and three boards in the close contest.

The Warriors were within 13-8 after one quarter, 23-14 at halftime and 32-22 after three.

The Warriors were coming off a 57-55 win at Argos on Friday night in a game that went down to the closing seconds. The Comets were coming off a big revenge game at North White Friday in a 57-15 victory against a team that knocked them out of the tournament two straight years but is dealing with heavy losses to graduation.

"One of the big things I think tonight was the difference between each of our games last night," Winamac coach Tony Stesiak said. "We had to fight until the very last second literally to get a win at Argos and they cruised at North White and that was a big difference. They had more legs than we did. I would have liked to have seen this game on fresh legs a little bit but the schedule is what it is.

"We made them work 'til the end. Nobody's had them play down to the wire this year, I think that's a nice accomplishment. I like a lot of the things we did but I think lack of legs, especially our kids that played a lot of minutes from last night kind of caught up with us as the game wore on. Missed free throws were a big sign because we've been shooting really well from the free throw line. I think we missed eight free throws in the first half alone, I think that was a big factor. Sore legs and tired legs show up at the free throw line and some of those missed layups I think we would have had. We took them down to the wire. I'm pretty proud of this group, we've come a long way."

Piper Link had 13 points, seven boards and three steals to lead the Warriors. She had 17 points and 12 boards in the win over Argos.

"Senior leader. That's how you want kids to play when they're a senior," Stesiak said. "She wasn't healthy last year but also didn't want to come out, so she battled through it and she's healthy this year. Kids handle senior years differently. She sees an opportunity to go out with a really good successful season and she's playing confidently, she's playing well. She understands this year what we want to do. She gets good matchups and she's making some good decisions, working hard, staying out of foul trouble. So she's staying on the floor and she's playing with a ton of confidence and the guards are confident in her. If she doesn't get post ups she finds a way to get offensive rebounds and putbacks that way too."

Marissa Iverson scored eight points, Sadie Popejoy had six, Kandace Kroft had four points and six boards and Maggie Smith chipped in two points.

"If we can play with this team, this is one of the better teams we'll play all year," Stesiak said.

The Comets had to win with defense Saturday. Stesiak talked about why the Comets are so good there.

"Weight room. Basketball IQ. Trusting coach Douglass in the process he's trying to instill," he said. "When you've got as many kids that have played for four years together and you see that, it's one team, one heartbeat. They play together on the defensive end, they know what they're looking for on the offensive end. I thought our defense was really good. I thought we got them to take some tough shots. I thought their offensive rebounding was big. But they're so connected and they're so strong, it's hard to get by them, they're good help defenders, they recover well. I thought we had some post advantages that we were able to take advantage of a little bit. That might be the only thing as you're looking for as a weakness is if they face a team that's got some size inside, but they can match guards up and handle those defensively as well as anybody."

Scales had 18 points, eight boards, five steals and three assists against North White (0-2). Zimpleman scored 14 points and Douglass had 13. Hinderlider added two points, six boards, five assists and three steals.

Iverson had 13 points and seven boards against Argos (1-3). Kroft scored 12 points and Popejoy had seven. Smith added two points, five assists and four steals.

Winamac hosts Culver Tuesday for an HNAC contest.

Caston hosts a Rossville team Tuesday that was a Class A sectional champion a year ago. Due to a lack of JV players for Rossville, the varsity game will begin at approximately 7 p.m.