NORTH MANCHESTER -ÊTo prepare for Saturday's semistate game against Bishop Luers, Manchester's girls basketball team will break out ... football shield pads?

That's what Manchester coach Jody Shewman's plan on Wednesday was, anyway. Her Squires are going to face something unlike they've faced before this season: a defense that likes to run players through the ringer.

Thinking the game may resemble a football game as far as contact, Shewman will break out the pads in Friday's practice. Players will hold the pads and use them to body other players around.

"(Luers) is very, very rough, very physical," Shewman said. "Kind of all over you. If you have refs who let it go, they can cause a lot of trouble. That's what happened to Prairie Heights.

"They're really rough, and they play really hard. Just pound you. We're going to have to stand our ground and work harder than they do."

Asked if this defense would be more physical than any defense her 20-3 Squires had seen in their first 23 games, Shewman gave an unequivocal "Yeah."

This is how good Luers' defense is: The Knights are 18-5 and in the semistate with a leading scorer who averages 9.7 points per game.

That Luers defense has been toughened by the always brutal Fort Wayne schedule. Just look at Carroll, another Fort Wayne area team; the Chargers entered their sectional 9-10, but they're still alive and will compete in Saturday's Warsaw Semistate with a 13-10 record.

Luers beat that Carroll team by 31 (63-32) during the regular season.

Luers also pulled off regular-season wins against the likes of Homestead (62-55), Bishop Dwenger (49-46) and Snider (38-33 in overtime). All three schools traditionally crank out solid girls basketball teams; Snider is still alive in this postseason.

Even Luers' sectional road was rough. Luers emerged after going through Heritage (51-46) and Leo (57-40).

"Our sectional," Luers coach Gary Andrews said, "is probably the toughest 2A sectional in the state."

You want proof? Leo beat Woodlan by 26 points, 63-37, in the first round of the Eastside Sectional on a Tuesday night. Woodlan entered ranked No. 1 in 2A with a 17-2 record.

And Luers destroyed that same Leo team by 17 points.

Defense has done it, Shewman said, and Andrews said her assessment is correct.

"We hold teams to 40 points per game," he said. "We're not a great scoring team, but our defense keeps us in the game and gives us a chance to win."

Scoring is one of Manchester's strengths. The Squires score 60 points per game; Luers allows 40.

If this game possesses a story line, that's it: Manchester's high-flying offense meets Luers' stingy defense.

Which will give?

The Squires could cause Luers problems because they have four legitimate scorers: Megan Eckert (17.3), Katie Parker (11.4), Jodie Peden (10.9) and Jessica Hicks (7.7).

Hicks' 7.7 may look unimpressive, but the important number is 19.7. That's how many points per game the 5-foot-10 freshman is averaging in the tournament. Manchester has played three postseason games; Hicks has led in scoring in all three with 18, 18 and 23.

Shewman diligently worked with Hicks in the three weeks leading up to the tournament, because, as Lewis Cass coach Steve Ford said last Saturday, the Squires basically had "no inside post game" during the regular season. Ford's team lost to Manchester 67-48 in the Maconaquah Regional, and he left all but asking, "Who is Jessica Hicks, and where did her 23 points come from?"

Shewman knew if her Squires wanted to go deep into the tournament, they needed more than a perimeter game.

Hicks has given them that inside game, but now the word's out. With teams hell-bent on chasing Eckert all over the court, Hicks had three field days.

Andrews knows about the field days.

"Anytime a team has a girl like Eckert, you have to concentrate on her," Andrews said. "But now you have to be concerned with Hicks - I saw she went for more than 20. You can't keep an eye on one person with Manchester. The whole team is a concern.

"Manchester is a team that can just go out there and outscore you. That's a concern, because we're not a good offensive team at all."

Shewman figured someone eventually would recognize Hicks. But now that Hicks is a threat, that could re-open the perimeter scoring for the Squires, which has been a strength all season.

"We're going to talk about that on Friday, that Hicks is going to have to be aware of the double-teams on her," Shewman said. "That will leave Jodie, Katie or Megan wide open. If not, she can dish off to Lindsay (Seagert). Jessica's a very smart player. I think she and the other four will pick up on that. If they realize their girl is going away from them, they'll get open more."

Scoring is not Luers' thing. Problem for Manchester is, the Knights play four reserves who can score along with their starters.

"They're all under 10," Shewman said. "In a way that's good for (Andrews), because it means he can go to anybody. They're real inconsistent. In the Leo (sectional) game, their guards hit a lot, and their post players did not. In the Prairie Heights (regional) game, the guards hit about three shots and the post players scored everything else in the paint.

"It will be a matter of us picking up on what's on and what's not on. If their guards are on, we'll have to get out on them. If their posts are killing us, we'll have to double down."

Then Shewman returned to Luers' defense.

"We cannot let their defense frustrate us, not take us out of our game," she said. "That will be the key right there.

"They like to have teams score only 45 to 50. Obviously, we like to score a little more than that. They'll look to slow us down. We'll look to push it.

"They'll be all over us. They play a pretty tight man-to-man, and I think that will help us. We have a tendency to play pretty well against man-to-man." [[In-content Ad]]