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WARSAW — What we witnessed Tuesday at The Tiger Den was a fully realized Homestead girls basketball team.
The No. 3 Spartans are very deep, impressively explosive and admirably unselfish offensively, and their defense is downright suffocating. They demonstrated as much against Warsaw, dispatching the state's top-ranked team, 66-51, on their home floor, where they had won 29 straight games.
Unselfishness and balance defined Homestead's performance on offense, and its defense was very impressive, turning over its opponent almost at will as it limited the Tigers, who average nearly 74 points per game, to their second-lowest scoring output of the season.
Epps up for Player of the Week: IndyStar girls basketball players of the week (Jan. 12-17)
Credit coach Lenny Krebs' team — which was without Alexis Neely and Reagan Huss, its third- and fourth-leading scorers — for hanging tough and keeping that game from getting out of hand. But the Spartans never really relinquished control in the second half, answering with a momentum-killing bucket and/or steal-and-score each time the margin slipped into the single digits.
"From the time we woke up today, we all had so much energy," Myah Epps said. "During shootaround and warm-ups, we had so much energy."
"And even when they went on runs, we were so composed as a team and our huddles were super effective," Carley Moellering continued.
Let's start on the offensive end, because that's where Homestead is perhaps most impressive.
The Spartans are overflowing with talent, boasting a lineup that's stacked with high-end college talent, including five seniors, four of whom are committed to play at the next level.
That senior class "has a lot of alphas in it," coach Rod Parker said, and chemistry hasn't always come naturally. But as they've matured, they've realized they need to use their skill sets to complement each other and rallied behind the common goal of wanting to win.
The result? Five players are averaging 10-plus points per game and four have at least 40 assists on the season.
Isolated to Tuesday: Moellering (Indiana Wesleyan commit) scored 21 points, Helsom (Toledo) added 14, Whitney Ankenbruck (IWU) scored 13, Epps (Louisville) notched eight and sophomore Delaney Noll, one of the state's top 2028 prospects, logged six.
"I've been very proud of this group," Parker said. "If they can (play together), there are stretches of time that we're pretty hard to guard. … It's fun and the best part of it is, they're great people. My job is a lot of fun."
Moellering was particularly excellent against Warsaw. She drilled three 3-pointers in the first quarter, then added 12 points in the second half, including a critical five-point swing in the fourth quarter that bubbled Homestead's lead back to double digits after a Brooke Zartman 3 drew the Tigers within nine.
"I was feeling it during warmups," Moellering smiled.
"Yeah, she was definitely feeling it during warmups," Epps interjected.
"But also, I couldn't have gotten those 3s without my teammates," Moellering continued. "They created the shots for me. It was really my team, not just me."
Noll's return from injury around Thanksgiving cannot be overlooked, either. The 5-foot-10 guard plays well-beyond her years and has an advanced understanding of the game. She set up Moellering's fourth-quarter triple, grabbing a loose ball and tiptoeing the baseline before flinging a pass out to her wide-open teammate in the corner.
"Delaney brings a different element, especially in transition," Helsom said. "She's able to find people that I don't even know how she sees it and she keeps us together as a team. When we're falling apart a little bit on defense or something, she's always there to make a big play or calm us down, even though we're the seniors."
Epps stole the show last Friday against Fort Wayne Snider, dropping a career-high 41 points, seven assists, six steals and four rebounds. Her shots weren't falling at the same rate vs. Warsaw — she had one at the end of the third quarter that went halfway down then popped out — but she was exceptional defensively. She limited Zartman's touches in the first half, then used her length to generate deflections and steals in the second.
Homestead put Epps on Joslyn Bricker, Warsaw's leading scorer, in the second half, hoping that length would help slow the Butler commit down. It was effective, Parker observed, but it was also the result of the entire team being more sound defensively.
Bricker accounted for 26 of Warsaw's 30 first-half points. She was held to five points and only one field goal in the second.
"We did a much better job doubling (Bricker) and leaving a couple people on the floor, and closing up those driving lanes," Parker said. "We knew she was good — and she was really good in the first half — so we really just tried to force her to dribble the ball more and get rid of it."
Homestead improves to 19-2 on the season, with notable wins over Pike, Plainfield, Bellmont, Penn, Franklin Central, Greensburg and Fort Wayne Snider. It closes out the regular season against Fort Wayne North (Jan. 23), Carmel (Jan. 24) and Fort Wayne Northrop (Jan. 30), with a rematch vs. defending 3A state champion Norwell likely looming in the sectional.
Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen. Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA girls basketball: Myah Epps, Homestead beat top-ranked Warsaw
Continue reading...
The No. 3 Spartans are very deep, impressively explosive and admirably unselfish offensively, and their defense is downright suffocating. They demonstrated as much against Warsaw, dispatching the state's top-ranked team, 66-51, on their home floor, where they had won 29 straight games.
Unselfishness and balance defined Homestead's performance on offense, and its defense was very impressive, turning over its opponent almost at will as it limited the Tigers, who average nearly 74 points per game, to their second-lowest scoring output of the season.
Epps up for Player of the Week: IndyStar girls basketball players of the week (Jan. 12-17)
Credit coach Lenny Krebs' team — which was without Alexis Neely and Reagan Huss, its third- and fourth-leading scorers — for hanging tough and keeping that game from getting out of hand. But the Spartans never really relinquished control in the second half, answering with a momentum-killing bucket and/or steal-and-score each time the margin slipped into the single digits.
"From the time we woke up today, we all had so much energy," Myah Epps said. "During shootaround and warm-ups, we had so much energy."
"And even when they went on runs, we were so composed as a team and our huddles were super effective," Carley Moellering continued.
Let's start on the offensive end, because that's where Homestead is perhaps most impressive.
The Spartans are overflowing with talent, boasting a lineup that's stacked with high-end college talent, including five seniors, four of whom are committed to play at the next level.
That senior class "has a lot of alphas in it," coach Rod Parker said, and chemistry hasn't always come naturally. But as they've matured, they've realized they need to use their skill sets to complement each other and rallied behind the common goal of wanting to win.
The result? Five players are averaging 10-plus points per game and four have at least 40 assists on the season.
Isolated to Tuesday: Moellering (Indiana Wesleyan commit) scored 21 points, Helsom (Toledo) added 14, Whitney Ankenbruck (IWU) scored 13, Epps (Louisville) notched eight and sophomore Delaney Noll, one of the state's top 2028 prospects, logged six.
"I've been very proud of this group," Parker said. "If they can (play together), there are stretches of time that we're pretty hard to guard. … It's fun and the best part of it is, they're great people. My job is a lot of fun."
Moellering was particularly excellent against Warsaw. She drilled three 3-pointers in the first quarter, then added 12 points in the second half, including a critical five-point swing in the fourth quarter that bubbled Homestead's lead back to double digits after a Brooke Zartman 3 drew the Tigers within nine.
"I was feeling it during warmups," Moellering smiled.
"Yeah, she was definitely feeling it during warmups," Epps interjected.
"But also, I couldn't have gotten those 3s without my teammates," Moellering continued. "They created the shots for me. It was really my team, not just me."
Noll's return from injury around Thanksgiving cannot be overlooked, either. The 5-foot-10 guard plays well-beyond her years and has an advanced understanding of the game. She set up Moellering's fourth-quarter triple, grabbing a loose ball and tiptoeing the baseline before flinging a pass out to her wide-open teammate in the corner.
"Delaney brings a different element, especially in transition," Helsom said. "She's able to find people that I don't even know how she sees it and she keeps us together as a team. When we're falling apart a little bit on defense or something, she's always there to make a big play or calm us down, even though we're the seniors."
Epps stole the show last Friday against Fort Wayne Snider, dropping a career-high 41 points, seven assists, six steals and four rebounds. Her shots weren't falling at the same rate vs. Warsaw — she had one at the end of the third quarter that went halfway down then popped out — but she was exceptional defensively. She limited Zartman's touches in the first half, then used her length to generate deflections and steals in the second.
Homestead put Epps on Joslyn Bricker, Warsaw's leading scorer, in the second half, hoping that length would help slow the Butler commit down. It was effective, Parker observed, but it was also the result of the entire team being more sound defensively.
Bricker accounted for 26 of Warsaw's 30 first-half points. She was held to five points and only one field goal in the second.
"We did a much better job doubling (Bricker) and leaving a couple people on the floor, and closing up those driving lanes," Parker said. "We knew she was good — and she was really good in the first half — so we really just tried to force her to dribble the ball more and get rid of it."
Homestead improves to 19-2 on the season, with notable wins over Pike, Plainfield, Bellmont, Penn, Franklin Central, Greensburg and Fort Wayne Snider. It closes out the regular season against Fort Wayne North (Jan. 23), Carmel (Jan. 24) and Fort Wayne Northrop (Jan. 30), with a rematch vs. defending 3A state champion Norwell likely looming in the sectional.
Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen. Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA girls basketball: Myah Epps, Homestead beat top-ranked Warsaw
Continue reading...
