Lakeland Christian Academy players huddle together before tip-off in a home game earlier this season. The Cougars travel to Bethany Christian to take on the host Bruins Tuesday night. (File photos by James Costello)

BETHANY CHRISTIAN SECTIONAL
GOSHEN — Coaches like to say that one of the hardest things to do is to beat a team three times in the same season. Lakeland Christian Academy is certainly hoping that’s the case as the team travels to Goshen to take on host Bethany Christian in the Sectional 52 opener Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

The Cougars (13-8) have fallen twice to the Bruins (12-10) already this season — once via a narrow 30-29 defeat at home in Winona Lake back on Dec. 5 and the second time via a 37-28 decision on Dec. 16. LCA seems to have turned a corner since that last loss to Bethany, however, having won seven of its last 10 and closing the regular season with five straight wins. The Bruins, by contrast, dropped two straight games — albeit to Fairfield and Westview — headed into this week’s tournament.

Cougars coach Allison Kaufman says her team is excited for another crack at the Bruins.

“We have played them twice this season, and we are excited for the chance to play them again,” she said. “In both games we played them, we had a chance to win the game. We definitely have continued to improve since we have last played them. The team has really come together and continue to build a lot of chemistry especially the last half of this season.”

While Lakeland and Bethany complete a trilogy in the opener, Elkhart Christian (10-9) and Lakewood Park (14-5) face off in Wednesday’s quarterfinals with a game between Fremont (10-12) and defending champion Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (2-20) scheduled for the nightcap. Winless Hamilton (0-22) waits to play the winner of Tuesday’s opener at 6 p.m. Friday, while the winners of Wednesday’s games advance to the late semifinal Friday in Goshen. Lakewood Park is the likely favorite with a 6-0 record against the other six teams in the field — including a narrow 33-31 defeat of Lakeland on Nov. 16 — but it’s a pretty balanced field, says Kauffman.

Hope Fancil leads LCA on the offensive end with 15 points per game.

“Tournament time is really exciting as none of the teams want their seasons to end. Most of the teams in our sectional are pretty even in talent and have had close regular season games,” she said. “Looking at the bracket, it is very balanced and we are anticipating some exciting games.”

While defense has been key to LCA’s winning season, the Cougars have also shown real growth on the offensive end in the second half of the season. Senior Hope Fancil and her 15 points-per-game average are still the focal point, and sophomore Tori Calizo has given her team a solid second option throughout the year, averaging better than nine points per game. But junior point guard Anna Reimink has stepped it up on the offensive end, as has senior forward Jess Slone, and teams that key in too much on Fancil are likely to suffer for it.

Toughness — both of the physical and mental varieties — are also going to be critical.

“The girls have been doing a great job of working together and are continuing to build chemistry. We have proved in multiple games that all of our girls can put the ball in the hole, and they are doing a great job finding each other,” Kaufman said.

“The biggest key is to come out with confidence and stay mentally and physically tough, which has been our focus this year. We need to stay in control of the game from start to finish, and the girls will need to believe in themselves.”

OREGON-DAVIS SECTIONAL

Triton head coach Adam Heckaman talks to players during a home game earlier this season. Triton drew one of two byes at the Oregon-Davis Sectional and waits to play the winner of OD-LaCrosse Friday.

HAMLET — Sectional byes can be both a blessing and a curse. One less game to play means one less game you have to win, and there’s more time to prepare. But on the other hand you have to wait to find out who exactly you’re preparing for.

Triton head coach Adam Heckaman is taking the good with the bad after the Lady Trojans drew the bye at Sectional 51. The Lady Trojans (10-12) play the winner of Tuesday’s quarterfinal between host Oregon-Davis and LaCrosse in the late semifinal Friday night.

“I have mixed feelings about having byes. It gives us a week to prepare. We don’t know who we’re preparing for the first couple days, so we’ll work on us and then figure out who we’re playing there going into Wednesday and Thursday,” said Heckaman.

A weeklong wait may be especially problematic for the Trojans after just one game last week. That’s a lot of time out of competition, after all. But on the other hand it’s also a lot of time to clean some things up — time that coaches often don’t have a lot of once the season kicks into high gear and they’re playing games every few days. If last Friday’s regular season-capper with North Judson-San Pierre is any indication, a week of preparation may do Triton some good.

“When the draw came out were were a little nervous about that. Especially with last week where we had the same scenario with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to practice and we didn’t play until Friday,” Heckaman said. “But we saw last week that it was a pretty good game for us. It gave us a lot of time to really prepare what we were going to do defensively, and it allowed us time to work with kids on some things offensively. In the meat of the season we didn’t have a lot of time to work on some of those things, so I think it’s helped us to get better last week, and I’m looking for the same thing this week. I think the girls will come hungry, ready to work hard, ready to get better, and I think that will lead to some good things for us.”

A wide open field has the Trojans excited for their prospects this year. That hasn’t always been the case at Sectional 51, where host OD has usually been in a class of its own. The Lady Cats (10-12) actually look beatable this year after returning to earth from a two-year foray into the 2A tournament due to the IHSAA’s Tournament Success Factor. The Cats should be favored in their opener after a remote 83-52 win over LaCrosse (14-9) earlier this season, but they’ve won just four of their last 11 contests, which could help energize the Tigers.

“The field is very even this year. OD I think in the last 11 years they’ve won all their 1A sectionals except for one so they’re obviously going to be the team that everybody is looking at trying to beat, especially at their place. But I think there’s a lot of teams in there this year that can compete with them, and in the past years that maybe hasn’t been the case,” explained Heckaman.

Defending champion Argos (11-9) takes on South Central (9-12) — which has lost five straight — in Tuesday’s opener, meanwhile, with Culver Community (3-17) waiting to play the winner in the early game Friday.

While OD and LaCrosse have both struggled to string wins together over the past few weeks, Triton has been playing some pretty good basketball.

Hannah Wanemacher handles the ball on the wing during a game against Tippecanoe Valley earlier this year.

The Trojans’ defense has continued to hold teams down — they’re surrendering an average of just over 25 points per game in their last five outings — and they’ve been able to score the ball a little better, too. Much of the offensive improvement has come down to finding a second option behind senior Hannah Wanemacher’s 11.6 points per game. Sophomore Whytnie Miller has found ways to contribute on the offensive end and has boosted her average to nearly seven points a night, and Triton has put senior Nicole Sechrist in positions to score as well.

“We’ve played our best basketball here at the end,” said Heckaman. “We gave North Judson a very good game on Friday night. Defensively we’re playing very well. Offensively we’re still trying to find a few more points here and there, but I think we’re doing better in that area.”

Defense is still the key for the Trojans, however. Because of that, ball security is also an important part of their game — turnovers translate to transition points, and the Trojans struggle to keep pace in those high-scoring contests.

“Turnovers hurt us because we can’t play defense a lot of times on them,” explained Heckaman. “We give the other team too easy an opportunity to score, and something we don’t do easy is score so we need to make sure that turnovers lead to direct points.”