Lady Redskins Get Back On Track In Home Finale

In what was the final regular season home game for the Knox Lady Redskins, emotions would fly throughout the evening. The night began with the honoring of Knox’s lone Senior on Senior Night. Katie Fitzgerald would be featured in front of the welcoming crowd from both Knox as well as Chesterton High School, in an incredible display of class and appreciation. With the crowd on their feet, roaring with applause, it began to settle in for those in attendance, that Fitzgerald standing at center court at Weinberg Gym, was something a little more than a regular ceremony. The road to her Senior Night had a lot of twists and turns, but Fitzgerald has time and time again overcome obstacles and challenges, to earn her way onto one of the best 3A girls basketball teams in Northern Indiana. With her emotions overflowing with the crowd’s acknowledgement of her, Fitzgerald tried hard to fight back tears. As the Lady Redskins have throughout this season, when they see a teammate struggling on the court, they rally together to help pick them up. Such was the case with Fitzgerald standing as the lone senior at center court, her eyes red with tears. Without hesitating, the entire Lady Redskin roster stormed the floor to embrace their teammate, who has been an inspiration to the entire community throughout this season. Immediately, the tears of joy turned to all smiles and enthusiasm, as the Lady Redskins embraced their Senior.

To top it all off, following the celebration of Senior Katie Fitzgerald, a tear-jerking a cappella rendition of the National Anthem would be performed by Knox student Kennedy Holst, who brought butterflies to the stomachs of all in attendance, as she belted out the words to The Star Spangled Banner in Weinberg Gym.

Oh yeah…..there was a game too…

Coming off of their first loss of the season, the Lady Redskins were eager to get back on the floor to hopefully wash the taste of that loss out of their mouths. The task would not be an easy one, as the 4A Chesterton Lady Trojans had come to town with a 16-4 record, having just loss a tough game to Crown Point 60-33. The first quarter would see somewhat of a struggle on the offensive end of the floor, with neither team having much success putting the ball in the basket. When the buzzer sounded, the Redskins would hold a slim two-point lead at 8-6.

The second quarter would see the two teams begin to come out of their shells on the offensive end of the floor, with Knox continuing to push the tempo, and Chesterton trying to slow things down. The aggressive pace of the Lady Redskins would start to pay dividends, as they were able to get seven, first half steals, many of which led to points at the other end, helping the Starke County crew outscore Chesterton 14-7 in the second quarter on their way to a 22-13 halftime lead. Junior forward Remi Jordan would pace the Lady Redskins in the scoring column with 10 points in the first two quarters, while teammate Felicity Olejniczak would terrorize the Chesterton offense, pulling away 4 steals in the first half.

While it felt as though the Lady Redskins were on the verge of running away with the game, the Lady Trojans never stopped competing, and began to rely on some impressive sharpshooting from Senior Ashley Craycraft. After only hitting two 3-point field goals in the first half, the Lady Trojans would explode for five in the second half, led by Craycraft and Junior Nalani Malackowski, who would account for all seven of Chesterton’s made 3-pointers in the ballgame. The Lady Trojans would also rely heavily on the rebounding effort of Sophomore Carley Balas, who would have a game-high eight boards in the effort. By the end of the third quarter, the Lady Trojans would outscore Knox 13-10, to make it a 32-26 game, heading into the final quarter.

Scoring would become a bit more challenging in the the fourth quarter for both teams, with eyes becoming more focused on the clock at each bench. The Redskins would rely on free-throw shooting in the final minutes of the ball game to keep Chesterton at bay. After going just 2-3 at the line in the first half, the Lady ‘Skins would go 11-16 in the second half, giving them a 10-point advantage in the game, as they went 13-19 to Chesterton’s 3-5.

When the final horn sounded, Knox would be able to outscore Chesterton 19-17 in the second half, to come away with a 39-31 win, their 21st of the year! Knox’s Felicity Olejniczak would be named the Ashley Derrickson/Five Star Player of the Game on WKVI, as she was second on the team in scoring with 10 points, and had a game-high 8 steals in the win!

The Lady Redskins will wrap up their regular season on January 30th, when they travel to New Prairie to take on the Lady Cougars, before hosting their own 3A Sectional, in which they have a first round bye and will play the winner of Hanover Central and Culver Girls Academy.

Scoring Statistics

Knox(39): Megan Bolen-2, Remi Jordan-17, Felicity Olejniczak-10, Brianna Korcha-8, Preston Minix-2

Chesterton(31): Ashley Craycraft-21, Malani Malackowski-9, Lauren Davis-1

Made 3-pointers

Chesterton(7): Ashley Craycraft-4, Nalani Malackowski-3

Free Throws

Knox: 13-19 68%

Chesterton: 3-5 60%

Rebounding

Chesterton(26): Ashley Craycraft-2, Nalani Malackowski-4, Geneva Nelson-4, Carley Balas-8, Emma Pape-1, Kaitlyn Carr-6

Knox(11): Megan Bolen-5, Remi Jordan-2, Felicity Olejniczak-1, Brianna Korcha-2, Preston Minix-1

Steals