The Lady Hounds started the new year of 2022 with a Friday-Saturday doubleheader, against the Trojans of Center Grove and Fort Wayne South Side respectively.

January 7th at Center Grove (48-24 Win)

In their first game in 8 days, the Hounds took the trip down 465 to Greenwood to take on a very evenly matched Trojans squad. Within just a few minutes of the game’s start, Michigan commit and Senior star Kate Clarke drained a mid range jumper to score her 1000th point throughout 4 years of Carmel Basketball. Despite that, it was a fairly evenly matched 1st Quarter, with Center Grove being powered by two early 3-pointers from Junior Savanna Bischoff put them in an early lead, but quickly, Clarke and newly crowned IndyStar Player of the Week Hannah Lach contributed at the other end, giving the Hounds a 13-10 lead after 8 minutes of play. But the Hounds’ domination started in a big way in the 2nd Quarter, with the Hounds’ typically unimpressive defense absolutely shutting down the Trojans’ offensive momentum with their signature trap defense. With that, the Hounds headed to the locker room with an impressive 11-point lead. The Hounds’ defense shone even more in the 3rd Quarter, only giving up two points, with their offense, led by Mackenzie Thomas, continuing to chug along, scoring 15 points in the 8 minutes after the break. After that, the Hounds cruised during the 4th Quarter allowing a few Freshmen to take the court as they doubled up on the Trojans, extending their win streak to 4 with an impressive 48-24 win at the Vandy Gym.

Carmel Scoring: Roper-11, Lach-8, Thomas-7

Center Grove Scoring: Bischoff-8, Karr-5

January 8th vs Fort Wayne South Side (77-44 Win)

In the midst of a grand celebration for Kate Clarke’s great milestone, the Hounds offense fired on all cylinders, as they blitzed the Archers’ defense for 25 points in the 1st Quarter of play, with Clarke leading the way despite remaining on a minutes restriction. Not to mention, Hannah Lach retained the hot hand from the perimeter to give the Hounds a 17-point lead after only 8 minutes of play. However, the Archers’ Olivia Smith and Justice Billingsley countered offensively before halftime, outsourcing the Hounds 16-8 in the 2nd Quarter. But the Archers’ could not have prepared themselves in any way for the absolute storm of offense from the Hounds, as Clarke, Lach, and Thomas put up a season-high 28 points in a single quarter of play, the 3rd Quarter. Compare this to the Archers’ 9 in the same time, and the buzzer had all but sounded. At triple zeros, the Hounds came away with a 77-44 blowout win, their 2nd-highest margin of victory throughout the whole season, extending their win streak to 5 games.

Carmel Scoring: Clarke-19, Thomas-16, Lach-15

Fort Wayne South Side Scoring: Billingsley-19, Smith-18

This Week’s Takeaways: 

During this week, we saw arguably the Hounds’ best game both offensively and defensively. The fact that they completely dominated the defensive end against a fellow MIC rival was incredibly impressive, and it sends a message that couldn’t be any clearer: the trap works. It has been the Hounds’ signature style ever since Erin Trimpe took the reins of the program in 2019, and the bigtime win on the road against Center Grove is the epitome of that defensive strategy. The only thing is, with six games left before the start of the postseason, this team absolutely has to keep up this hot streak.

Offensively, Saturday’s game against South Side was certainly promising, but it came on a historically successful shooting performance. While the game against Center Grove the night before was not necessarily a “bad” game offensively, it definitely was not clean. Before sectionals start up, this team has to be in tip top shape in terms of not turning the ball over as well as cleaning up their transition moves. If they do that, then this Hounds team could very well make it out of Sectional 8, the hardest Sectional in the state of Indiana.

The Week Ahead: 

• Thursday, January 13th at Columbus North (10-5)
• Saturday, January 15th vs Mishawaka Marian (14-3)

–  Gabe Perrin, Co-Sports Director