Bloomington South girls basketball repeats as sectional champs

Editor's note: This story will be updated.

TERRE HAUTE — The decisive second quarter embodied everything right about this year's Bloomington South girls basketball team.

Yes, the Panthers are back-to-back sectional champs with a lot of the same pieces around for both. But this team has had to find its own way with a full complement of 10 players depending on each other to each do their 1/10th.

South always plays strong defense and hits free throws. Add in five 3-pointers in a 27-point outburst that buried Terre Haute South as the Panthers went on to win 62-49 on Saturday, Feb. 7 at Terre Haute North in the Class 4A Sectional 13 title game.

Violet Hall had 13 points off the bench as her ankle heals up. Tatum DeVries had 12 points, Avery Schwartzman 11 and guard Annika Smith had seven points and 10 rebounds to go with a nice handful of assists and steals.

"It's really just a big thing for us, especially with the seniors we have this year," Hall said. "Oh, look, they didn't graduate anyone and it's the same team basically as last year.

"It was kind of, I would say, pressure on us. But it's definitely a big task to handle with losing both (Rojas-Cepero sisters, who went back to Spain). I think we did a great job of incorporating the new pieces that we got this year. We've pulled together and really great for the senior group to be able to lead the kids and get Bloomington South used to winning."

Things didn't look nearly as bright the day starting senior Julia Lashley broke a bone in her shooting hand and about a week later, Hall turned an ankle forcing her to miss the last week of the season. They fought through it all to prevail.

"I'm really proud of the team we have this season and to have some hardware to represent all of that," Craft said.

South (19-5) advances to regional where it will take on Floyd Central in a time and place to be announced by the IHSAA.

Early foul trouble for the Panthers, forcing Rebekah Arnold and Audrey Craft to sit, was not the problem it was for the Braves (16-8), who struggled mightily when Za'Nariae White and Shaundrea Sanders had to sit with three fouls in the second period.

The Panthers were already well into turning a 15-10 deficit into a 40-21 lead by halftime, scoring the final 10 points of the period and hitting six 3s in the final 8:05. Six different Panthers hit from distance.

"They get on runs like that where they see the ball go in and it obviously becomes infectious," South coach Larry Winters said. "And then on the other end, we could handle the (foul trouble) better than they could handle the (foul trouble).

"That was the big difference in the game was that second quarter where we were able to extend and get comfortable enough that it was never a doubt the outcome. How close it was still to be detemined, but the outcome was pretty much done."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Sectional champs again! Bloomington South girls basketball repeats