Wawasee Girls Win Semistate! Goshert scores 29 as Warriors beat top-ranked South Bend St. Joe
Posted
Daniel Riordan-driordan@timesuniononline.com
ELKHART - As the chants of "overrated" rang from the Wawasee student section, all South Bend St. Joseph's could do was watch.
The Indians watched as junior Kalyn Lantz hit two free throws with one second left to make the final 58-46, as the eighth-ranked Warriors upset the No. 1 team in the state to earn its second state finals appearance in school history and first since 1985.Upset may be the wrong term. While St. Joe was tops in the final 3A poll, Saturday's game at historic North Side Gym in Elkhart was far from a David and Goliath situation.
While St. Joe may have had Tennesse-bound Sydney Smallbone, the Warriors had sophomore Taylor Goshert.
Goshert averaged 13.5 points per game during the regular season but eclipsed that early in the second quarter as she scored her team's first 18 points and 22 in the first half. She finished with 29.
The Warriors trailed 10-3 in the early going as both teams commited a number of turnovers.
Once the nerves settled down it was the Indians who struck first. DeBorah Wilson hit a jumper from the corner to give St. Joe a 10-3 lead.
That's when Goshert took over.
The talented sophomore scored 15 straight points before fellow sophomore Kylee Ort hit a jumper that was followed by two baskets from freshman Terra Weisser.
When all was said and done the Warriors held a 24-10 lead midway through the second quarter.
"We knew it was going to come," said Wawasee senior Jessie Wolf. "No team is going to come in and knock us off our feet. The whole week we talked about how we're an excellent team and no other team would dominate us."
Wawasee gave the Indians chances to get back into the game. There was a period late in the second quarter and into the third quarter where the Warriors missed six straight free throws and went scoreless for more nearly five minutes.
In that time, St. Joe closed the Wawasee lead to three at 25-22.
Lantz hit two big threes to extend the Warriors' lead.
Early in the fourth quarter, another run brought the Indians to within three at 39-36 as they seemed to have grabbed all the momentum.
Goshert then got a steal off of Smallbone and Brennan McAdams hit a basket followed by a pair of Goshert free throws.
The Warriors took St. Joe's best shot and answered back.
And for that, Wawasee will face Brebeuf Jesuit (22-6) for the second time this season.
Wawasee and sixth-ranked Brebeuf will square off for the Class 3A state championship Saturday at 6 p.m. at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Warriors hosted Brebeuf in the Wawasee Shootout and fell 58-53 Dec. 23. That was the last time the Warriors lost as Wawasee has ripped off 14 straight wins.
Brebeuf beat Evansville Bosse 55-53 to earn the right to represent the south in the 3A state finals.
Thoughts of playing in the state championship or taking on Brebeuf were on the backburner Saturday.
Disbelief reigned supreme.
"I think we'll realzie what happened later," said Wawasee coach Kem Zolman. "This is an unbelievable dream."
"I'm crying, that's all I could do," said McAdams. "Since sectionals started only two or three weeks ago we've looked at this as a brand new season, and in this season we're undefeated."
There were plenty of tears on the St. Joe sideline as the Indians lose both Smallbone and 6-foot-5 Kristin Dockery, who will play Division I basketball at Minnesota next year.
Dockey scored a team-high 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds but was held in check by the trio of Wolf, Knafel and Weisser.
"We just had to make sure we put a lot of pressure on her," said Knafel of guarding Dockery.
Wolf and Knafel both fouled out but their defense on Dockery, along with the guard play against Smallbone, held St. Joe in check.
Smallbone ended her high school career with 11 points on just 3-of-13 shooting.
Smallbone was also responsible for several of the 18 turnovers the Indians commited.
To go with Goshert's game-high 29 points, McAdams had 10, Lantz finished with eight and Weisser added six points. Ort tallied four points while senior guard Megan Walker hit a free throw.
Tickets for Saturday's state championship game go on sale tonight for parent of players and cheerleaders from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Wawasee Athletic Office.
Corporation faculty and Students can pick up tickets Tuesday at 7 a.m. while Green and Gold Ticket Holders and season ticket holders can pick up tickets from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Open sales begin Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. and run until 4 p.m.
Tickets are $10.
There will be a community pep rally Thursday at 7 p.m.
WAWASEE 58, ST. JOE 46
Wawasee 11 18 10 19 - 58
St. Joe 10 7 15 14 - 46
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
*Walker 0-2 1-2 1 0 1
*Ort 1-4 2-4 3 3 4
*McAdams 2-4 6-9 1 2 10
*Goshert 8-13 10-11 5 2 29
*Knafel 0-0 0-0 3 2 0
Lantz 2-6 2-2 1 1 8
Weissser 3-5 0-0 2 1 6
Wolf 0-1 0-2 3 0 0
Totals 16-35 21-30 18 11 58
St. Joseph's FG FT R S Pts.
*Smallbone 3-13 2-2 1 3 11
*Werntz 0-1 2-2 2 0 2
*Wilson 5-9 2-5 1 1 12
*Newsom 3-6 1-3 4 1 7
*Dockery 4-7 6-7 8 0 14
Smith 0-1 0-0 1 0 0
Totals 15-37 13-19 17 5 46
Three-point goals - Wawasee 5-11 (Goshert 3-4, Lantz 2-5, Walker 0-2), St. Joseph's 2-9 (Smallbone 2-8 Werntz 0-1). Turnovers - Wawasee 17, St. Joseph's 18. Fouls - Wawasee 17, St. Joseph's 21. Fouled out - Wolf (Wawasee), Knafel (Wawasee)
