Manchester Girls Underdog Of 2A Northfield Sectional
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Dale Hubler-dhubler@timesuniononline.com
NORTH MANCHESTER – The change to class basketball did away with the David-and-Goliath matchups in terms of school enrollment. Nothing, however, can remove the underdog role from the world of sports. And when the Manchester Lady Squires lace up their sneakers this week for Class 2A Sectional 37 at Northfield High School, they will certainly be the underdog. Under first-year coach Brooke Airgood, the Lady Squires are 1-18. They have been outscored by an average of 21 points per game this season. The good news is games aren’t won on paper. If they were, nobody would have ever seen the movie “Hoosiers.” “Oak Hill or Wabash is the favorite,” Airgood said of the seven-team field, which also includes Lewis Cass, North Miami, Southwood and the host Lady Norsemen. “We’re coming together as a team, we’re working hard, but we’ve got a long way to go.” Action at Northfield gets underway Tuesday when Southwood and North Miami square off. In a pair of games on Wednesday, Oak Hill meets Manchester and Lewis Cass is slated to play the host school. On Friday, defending champion Wabash plays in the first semifinal game against either Southwood or North Miami, while Wednesday’s winners battle in the second semifinal. The sectional championship game is scheduled for Saturday night, with the winner advancing to the Lapel Regionall to play the winner of the Southmont Sectional. “We’ve played them before,” Airgood said of first-round opponent Oak Hill. “They’re a tough team. They have a great coach. We’re going to do our best and try and matchup better this time.” Manchester and Oak Hill played early in the season, with the Lady Squires falling 60-33 on the road. Manchester has played each team that makes up Sectional 37. The Lady Squires are 0-8 against those teams and are 0-10 against Class 2A opponents. Manchester’s lone win this season was a 54-42 victory at Fort Wayne Blackhawk back on Jan. 20. Northfield is 6-1 against the rest of the sectional field, while Wabash is 6-2 and Oak Hill is 5-1. The Lady Squires are in search of their first sectional championship since 2007. After an 8-15 campaign last year, a season that ended with a 33-27 loss to Wabash in the sectional finals, Manchester head coach Mark Underwood stepped down from the position he held for 12 years. Airgood, who grew up in North Manchester but moved away during her high school years, returned home after coaching in Arizona, California and Texas. After graduating the majority of the scoring punch from last year, it’s been a learning experience for a young Manchester team with a new head coach. “Turnovers were a big problem at the beginning of the season,” said Airgood. “We were turning it over about 30 times per game, now we’ve got it down in the teens.” The Lady Squires opened the season with just four seniors on the roster, and one of them, Tabby Dewitt, hasn’t played in the last seven games. Dewitt was averaging 14.8 points per game, the fourth-best average in the Three Rivers Conference. Manchester’s leading scorer that is currently playing is freshman Cierra Carter, who scores just under seven points per game. As a team, the Lady Squires average 34 points per game and give up 55. “(Earlier in the season) we weren’t able to beat a team’s press,” said Airgood. “We’ve gotten better at that. The kids are more aggressive now. We’ve come a long way. I think their confidence is better. We still have a lot of work to do though. The girls need to work hard in the summer.”
