North Harrison came into Saturday’s game with their hands full. They had just come off a narrow loss to rapidly improving Mercer. The second shoe dropped a few hours later that night, when the high-flying Grundy County Panthers, playing one of their best seasons in recent memory, took a tumble and took a shocking 60-50 loss to East Harrison. That meant that North Harrison had to face the Panthers, who had lost 60-59 to North Harrison in a December game that turned out to decide the HDC Title.
There was no shame in losing to the Bobcats, who are composed of Ridgeway and Cainsville. The Bobcats would go on to win their first ever tournament on the girls side as East Harrison, downing Mercer 47-45. It was the first tournament win for the Cainsville girls since 1999, and the first in decades for the Ridgeway girls. It was the first-ever HDC Tournament title for the Ridgeway girls.
But that meant that North Harrison, instead of the expected third place battle with archrival East Harrison, had to battle against a revenge-minded Panther squad. The Shamrocks had already been torched twice by the Cardinals, and Grundy County came into Saturday’s game averaging 59 points per game, one of the top scoring teams in the area. Thankfully, neither Worth County nor North Harrison will have to worry about them unless the Panthers get to the Final Four. They came into the game with a 17-5 record. But what transpired exceeded all expectations, as the Shamrocks came away with the 48-36 victory in a game that was not as close as the final score. Grundy County scored almost half of their points after the game was already decided. The 36 points was the second lowest point total of the year for Grundy, besides a 21 point output against undefeated Green City, an unbeaten Class 1 power on the other side of the state.
The focus of the game was on shutting down sharpshooter Morgan Axtell and stopping Grundy’s drives and lobs, since they had several players who were between 5’8” and 5’10”. North Harrison put four different players, Mason Cracraft, Olivia Babinski, Emma Craig, and Payton Craig, on Axtell. They held her to nine points before they began subbing freely in the last five minutes. Two of her three triples were heavily contested looks.
The rest was accomplished by swarming and pressuring the ball. Against Mercer, North Harrison waited until they were in trouble before turning on the clamps defensively. But against Grundy, they put pressure on the ball right off the bat and didn’t let off until the game was safely in hand. They stole the ball 18 times, with Payton Craig swiping 10 and Emma Craig getting 5 more. The Panthers, flustered by North Harrison’s newfound ability to pressure the ball, threw the ball away at least 30 times, with many errant passes and a few traveling calls as well.
The Shamrocks still struggled from the field at times, similar to the two Mercer games. But it didn’t matter because of their ability to stop Grundy and get the defensive rebound. They established control of the glass right off the bat, with Emma Craig getting five offensive boards in the first minute and 10 for the game. Emma finally got a shot to go down after encountering a lid in the two Mercer games, and Payton Craig hit two free throws off a steal and added a putback. Emma got a steal and went to the rack to make it 8-0 with 5:22 left.
That prompted a Grundy County timeout and a North Harrison scoring drought, which they didn’t break until Emma Craig finally got a shot to go down with 39 seconds left in the first. But they never took the clamps off defensively, only giving up a high post shot to Aubrey Gann and a contested three by Axtell. That meant they were still in front 10-5 before Gann’s putback to make it 10-7.
Grundy County started off the game in a box and one on Payton Craig, holding her to four points in the period, while Emma got the other six. But when Jandie Peterson picked up her second foul with 7:45 left, that seemed to open the floodgates for Payton in the second. She drove down the right baseline after getting a pass from Addie Slaughter, dropped off a backdoor pass to Slaughter that finally went in, got a drive that turned into two free throws, and a pair of steals that turned into four more free throws to make it 20-7. Nothing else was working for North Harrison, but they were able to create points off of drives and steals. Payton got eight points in the second despite getting all the defensive attention.
Aubrey Gann’s shot from the left wing cut it to 22-12 at the half and her contested outside shot cut it to eight, but then Payton Craig’s drive restarted North Harrison again, and then all of a sudden, the shots started to fall. Payton went backdoor to Addie Slaughter again. Peterson countered with a free throw, but then Emma Craig got a baseline shot to go down, prompting Grundy’s second timeout with North Harrison up 28-15.
Usually, when you come out strong out of the other team’s timeout, it is a good way to break the other team’s will. That was the case this time, as Brandy Rivet, who had missed everything she shot up to that point, suddenly got a triple to go down. Mason Cracraft knocked one down from the high post, Payton Craig went coast to coast after a defensive board, and Addie Slaughter got a tip and Payton Craig got a steal to make it 37-15.
Jandie Peterson hit two free throws and Axtell hit a triple from the left wing to make it 37-20, but Rivet countered with her second triple to make it 40-20 after three.
All of North Harrison’s points in the fourth quarter were scored by someone that was not Payton Craig or Brandy Rivet. Mason Cracraft went backdoor to Addie Slaughter, Slaughter hit Cracraft on the left wing, and Emma Craig got a steal and Payton Craig pushed it ahead to Cracraft to make it 46-20 before North Harrison started subbing freely.
Payton Craig had 18 points and Emma Craig had 12. Addie Slaughter, Brandy Rivet, and Mason Cracraft each had 6.
Emma Craig had 2 blocks while Payton Craig and Carly Rinehart each had 1.
Emma Craig had 10 boards while Payton Craig had 6, Addie Slaughter 3, Kami Gibson 2, and Mason Cracraft and Vici Stellpflug had 1.
Addie Slaughter, who was late to the game because she took the ACT test that morning, still made positive contributions to Saturday’s game by dishing it off to open teammates. The game had been moved up from 2 pm to 12:30 due to incoming inclement weather. The referees were late as well, buying her time. She led the team with 5 assists. Payton Craig and Mason Cracraft had 4 each, while Olivia Babinski and Ashlynn Gilpatrick had 1.
Payton Craig had 4 tips, while Brandy Rivet and Addie Slaughter had 2. Olivia Babinski and Emma Craig had 1.
Payton Craig had 10 steals, continuing to battle for the area lead in steals. Emma Craig had 5, Addie Slaughter 2, and Olivia Babinski 1.
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