HIGH SCHOOL

Columbus North girls drawing inspiration from classmate Speidel

Kyle Neddenriep
kyle.neddenriep@indystar.com

The Columbus North girls basketball team will make its second state finals appearance in four years with added motivation.

Many of the Columbus North players are close with Josh Speidel, a senior classmate and standout basketball player who suffered a severe head injury in a car accident four weeks ago near Columbus in Bartholomew County. Several made the trip to Methodist Hospital the night of the accident and in the days and weeks that followed.

Columbus North coach Pat McKee, speaking at media day Monday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse for coaches of the eight teams in the state finals, said the boys and girls basketball teams were close prior to the accident.

"This has only increased the bond between the teams," McKee said, "because of the emotional nature of it."

McKee said he spoke with Lisa Speidel, Josh's mother, two weeks ago on the boys' senior night. He expressed his sympathy, telling Lisa he'd trade any amount of tournament success for this team to see Josh recover.

"She said, 'We don't want to you to do that. We want you to go get net and share it with Josh,' " McKee said. "I related that story to the players one time and I think it was helpful. I think it helped inspire our girls."

Second-ranked Columbus North (27-1) will play fourth-ranked Homestead (26-2) in the 4A championship at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday night. It is a rematch of an 86-75 Columbus North win in the championship of its holiday tournament.

The Bulldogs are led by 5-10 senior Ali Patberg, a Notre Dame recruit and McDonald's All-American selection. Patberg is averaging 25.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 6.1 assists and is considered one of the frontrunners for IndyStar Miss Basketball.

Homestead, the top scoring team in the state (76.9 ppg), is making its first state finals appearance. The Spartans are led by sophomore guard Karissa McLaughlin (23.6 ppg) and shoot 39 percent as a team from the 3-point line.

"They have at least six players who can flat put the ball in the basket," said McKee, a former assistant sports editor at the Star for 26 years. "We did beat them but we played arguably our best offensive game considering the level of opponent. I hope we can replicate that performance because if we do I like our chances."

• The 3A game will also match two programs looking for their first state titles. Fourth-ranked Princeton (29-1) made an appearance in 1996, while No. 9 Tippecanoe Valley (25-2) is making its first appearance.

Tippecanoe Valley's lone state championship in any sport is the 1979 Class A football title.

"It's been great for our community," said Tippecanoe Valley coach Chris Kindig. "I've been around a lot of basketball — boys and girls — and I've never seen anything like the crowd we had (in Warsaw for semistate). I think we'll sell our fair share of tickets for Saturday. When you have that kind of crowd, you can really feed off of it."

The Vikings will have their hands full with a Princeton team led by junior star Jackie Young. The 6-foot guard, a Notre Dame recruit, scored 43 points in Saturday's 77-38 semistate win over Bishop Chatard to set a new state single-season scoring record with 967 points.

"The big question is what we can do with her," said Kindig, a 1980 Tippecanoe Valley graduate. "We probably won't be able to stop her but maybe minimize her a little bit. It's going to be tough to do. We have to figure that out."

• Heritage Christian is gunning for its sixth Class 2A title — all of them coming since 2006. The top-ranked Eagles (27-2) face No. 2 Fort Wayne Canterbury (23-2) in a rematch of a title game won last year by Heritage Christian, 64-61.

Canterbury moved up to 2A under the Indiana High School Athletic Association's tournament success factor after winning five Class A championships from 2008-13. Both Heritage Christian and Canterbury will move up to 3A next year under the success factor.

The Eagles have battled injuries along the way, losing 5-11 junior Taylor Hall (5.5 ppg) to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee against Lawrence North on Jan. 31. Her sister 5-6 senior and second-leading scorer Sydney Hall (11.8 ppg) went down with a stress fracture on Feb. 3 against Noblesville. Sydney returned to see a few minutes of action in a 61-41 semistate win over Providence on Saturday.

"Hopefully she can get some minutes (on Saturday)," Heritage Christian coach Rick Risinger said. "She has a great attitude. She's like a racehorse and he's ready to just go, go. I anticipate she'll get some minutes, I just don't know at what level yet."

Risinger's team is led by 5-11 junior Tyasha Harris (17.4 ppg, 4.4 assists) but has good balance with 5-10 senior Peyton Fallis (9.3 ppg), 6-3 junior Darby Foresman (8.4 ppg, 5.9 rebounds), 5-10 senior Allison Schofield (7.8 ppg) and 5-11 freshman Katlyn Gilbert (6.9 ppg).

"Ty is an excellent player who does whatever it takes," Risinger said. "She's kind of a Magic Johnson type of a player. She can score if we need points and she'll take control of the game on certain possessions if she needs to. But the stats don't mean much to her. She wants to win. She makes her team better, similar to what (former Heritage Christian star) Kelly Faris did back in the day."

• The Class A game will match No. 1 Barr-Reeve (28-0) against No. 2 Lafayette Central Catholic (23-6). Lafayette Central Catholic rallied from an eight-point deficit in the final 50 seconds to defeat Oregon-Davis 47-44 in the semi-state. Barr-Reeve has been the runner-up in the boys tournament four times but has never won a basketball state title in boys or girls basketball.

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.