By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – The Swish Squad, absent for few games, made a triumphant return to BNL Fieldhouse.
The first five shots launched by Bedford North Lawrence . . . swish. Four from deep . . . swish. Every starter . . . swish. That tickling sound was, to paraphrase the immortal words of legendary broadcaster Joe Dean, string music in Bedford, Indiana.
The seventh-ranked Stars blasted New Albany with an early barrage and roared to a 73-34 victory during the matinee performance on Saturday afternoon. Chloe Spreen, growing more accustomed to the physicality of interior play, scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while pacing BNL (6-1) to their second straight Hoosier Hills Conference win in this current four-game schedule set.
The tremendous getaway – 14 points in the first 2:18 – was perfect, and relieved some stress. The Stars were getting tired of hearing about their mediocre misfiring. That explosion, followed by the 27-point encore in the second quarter, was felt by many. New Albany (2-6, 0-1 in the HHC) suffered the brunt of it.
“Great start, a start we needed to have from the standpoint of shooting the basketball,” BNL coach Jeff Allen said. “It’s what I expect from this group – not to be perfect but to shoot the ball better than they have the last few games.
“It’s a relief to see us play that way. They were feeling the pressure a little. Watching the ball go in the basket, everyone has a little more fun. It energized the defense and you play harder. It makes everything better.”
The script was flawless. Irye Gomez deep in the corner, Karsyn Norman pulling up from 10 feet in transition, Chloe McKnight from the deep wing, Spreen from 3-point line, Jenna Louden left alone from long range. By the time New Albany first-year coach Shelby Gliebe called timeout to regroup, the damage was done.
“We knew they were all shooters, but to come out that hot at the start, we weren’t expecting that,” Gliebe said. “But it‘s BNL, so maybe you don’t not expect it.”
The early surge powered BNL to an 18-6 lead at the first break, and then the Stars raced to a 26-point margin with their biggest scoring quarter of the season. Spreen was that catalyst with 10 points in the 18-4 run to a 36-10 advantage.
“It felt really good for us, playing like we know how,” Spreen said. “We just turned it up and played well as a team. When we do that it brings success.”
BNL had balance as McKnight totaled 14 points and Gomez finished with 13. The Stars shot over 50 percent (27 of 51) and cracked the 70-point mark for the first time this season.
“Coach Allen has beeen drilling that in our heads,” Gomez said. “We have to hit shots to score more and win at a better level. It was just a lot of fun.”
New Albany, wanting to duplicate BNL’s high-octane attack, couldn’t keep up this time. Maleea Roland had 14 points, but the Bulldogs were hampered by 21 turnovers.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Gliebe said. “We heard some girls talking about how sore they were, so we need to get in the weight room and get used to that style of play.”
“We wanted to continue to play at that pace and that level of effort,” Allen said. “In the Mooresville game we felt we took our foot off the gas. We did a much better job today. It’s continuously playing hard and not taking plays off.
“We had some turnovers, but it was turnovers I can live with because they were aggressive turnovers where we were looking to advance the ball and play fast.”
BNL will continue its HHC run when it visits Jeffersonville on Tuesday.
NEW ALBANY BULLDOGS (34)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
34 Layne Burke, f 1-2 3-9 0-0 5 3 7
32 Alaina Walker, g 0-0 0-1 0-0 3 1 0
20 Anasha Crowdus, g 0-0 0-2 0-0 0 0 0
10 Taylor Treat, g 0-2 3-13 0-0 1 3 6
3 Maleea Roland, g 2-3 5-10 2-2 4 2 14
12 Delani Ewing 0-1 0-3 0-0 3 0 0
23 Journey Howard 0-0 1-1 0-0 0 1 2
5 Vanessa Burns 1-2 2-4 0-1 1 3 5
14 Myah Mitchell 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 4-10 14-43 2-3 18 13 34
BEDFORD NL STARS (73)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
22 Irye Gomez, f 2-7 4-9 3-4 3 3 13
11 Chloe McKnight, f 2-5 5-9 2-2 3 0 14
2 Chloe Spreen, f 1-1 7-13 6-6 11 0 21
21 Karsyn Norman, g 0-2 2-7 0-0 4 3 4
23 Jenna Louden, g 1-2 3-4 0-1 4 3 7
40 Haley Deckard 0-0 2-3 0-1 5 0 4
24 Carlee Kern 0-0 1-1 0-0 1 0 2
12 Makena Moore 0-1 0-2 0-0 2 0 0
32 Madisyn Bailey 1-1 1-1 0-0 1 1 3
20 Emma Brown 0-0 1-1 0-0 1 2 2
44 Grace Kinser 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 3
50 Emma Crane 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
31 Ella Turner 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 8-20 27-51 11-14 35 12 73
New Albany 6 9 10 9 – 34
Bedford NL 18 27 9 19 – 73
Turnovers – New Albany 21, BNL 17
Field goal percentage – New Albany 14-43 (.325); BNL 27-51 (.529)
Free throw percentage – New Albany 2-3 (.667); BNL 11-14 (.786)
