North Central Cruises To Indiana 4A Finals

Indianapolis North Central's Lady Panthers have moved on to the final game of the Girl's 4A State Basketball Championship where they will face No. 2 Warsaw at Conseco Fieldhouse next Saturday.

INDIANAPOLIS (PRWEB) March 2, 2004 --North Central put together another total effort against Mooresville to advance to the Class 4A Championship game next Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse, where they will face No. 2 ranked Warsaw.

North Central, ranked fifth in the final poll of the season, beat Mooresville 60-44 behind the efforts of Amber Harris, who scored 14 points and blocked six shots, Kelli Agness, who scored 12 and Ashley Conner, who added 10 points. Lucia Darling scored 7 for the Panthers and Valarie Dupee put in 6 points but it took the effort of the whole team to get them through the Lady Pioneers.

"That's how it's been all year", said Agness, a Senior guard for North Central who put her team up for good at 36-34 on a driving basket just before the third period ended. "Not just one person has been the standout player. Every person has had to step up and win a game for us when it's on the line and that's what makes our team so good."

Mooresville had the lead for most of the first half and went into the locker room with a 21-17 lead on the strength of 10 first half points by Senior Rachel Kenney, who finnished with 16 points. North Central was able to hang around without the help of their leading scorer, Harris, who spent most of the half on the bench due to two early fouls.

"Everybody thinks that Amber is way too valuable," said North Central Coach Alan Vickrey. "Not that Amber's not valuable. I don't want to play without her. But, our kids know how to play without her. Those eight seniors are pretty dog-gone good."

Mooresville probably wishes that they could have played without her in the second half.

Harris, who is 6'6, started the half of with a breakaway fast break and a dunk to pull North Central to within two. A few trips down the court later, Harris was fouled on a turnaround jumper and made a three point play to put her team up 24-23 and fired up the team and the crowd.

Conner, the Senior point guard, scored eight points in the final quarter for North Central, who outscored Mooresville 24-10 in the fourth period. Agness had four clutch free throws near the end of the game to help seal the victory.

"This is what they've worked for for four years," added Vikrey. "It's been a great run. Our kids are playing with tremendous confidence and play as a team about as well as any group you could ask for."

"We have been talking about this and working hard for it," said Conner. "Our focus was to go to state and we finally got there. We went through some tough times and tragedies last year and it kind of held us back. But, I think that this year we are really focused and have stayed together."

"This is good, this is a dream. This is how you want to go out."

Indianabball.com