By James Costello Sports Editor
LAKEVILLE — The Lady Lancers should consider changing their names to the comeback kids.
The past three games, LaVille’s girls basketball team has earned come-from-behind victories. Its biggest — or at least most significant — yet came Wednesday, as the Lancers, down 17-12 at the five-minute mark of the third frame, ran out the quarter 14-nil to take a nine-point lead into the final stanza and never looked back for a 44-34 championship win over North Judson at the LaVille Winning Edge Holiday Tournament at Dale E. Cox Gymnasium.
“Once again we were behind, we hung in there, didn’t give up,” said Lancers head coach Kevin McCullough. “The girls were positive and won the game somehow. We were on the ropes.
“I just have to give our girls credit, all eight of them,” he added. “They all hung tough like they did last night. What a win.”
LaVille struggled throughout the first half, scuffling to a 4-of-19 mark from the field and surrendering 13 turnovers with two of its starting guards — including point player Elaine Schmeltz — sitting out in foul trouble. With their starting lineup back in the game in the second half, the Lancers finally began breaking down Judson’s 2-3 zone with drive-and-kick penetration from Schmeltz, who dished out a game-leading five assists, as well as some solid inside-out passing from their front line players.

Senior shooting guard Anna Boits — who led her team with nine points, all from behind the arc — knocked down a buzzer-beating trey from the top of the key to end the third frame, and sophomore reserve guard Shelby Low had an especially impressive third quarter with eight points earned on 3-of-4 shooting from long range.
Low struggled offensively in the first half, going 0 for 4 from the field, but she got a shooter’s bounce on her first shot of the second half, a long two-pointer from the left wing that ostensibly boosted her confidence.
“I cannot say enough about Shelby Low,” said McCullough. “Had to play with foul trouble in the first half. Got a little flustered in the first half; I’ll admit got a little fanny-chewing at halftime about not playing with confidence, not letting her light shine, taking it to the rack, and she made a heck of a comeback. She accepted that criticism, that coaching or whatever and made the most of it.”
Low and Boits’ shooting helped open up the lane for the Lancers, who slowed down their offense in the fourth and began working from the outside in with several backdoor lobs and bounce passes into the low post. Cori Lindke scored six points and Hannah Amor chipped in four off the blocks in the second half, and tourney MVP Kaitlyn Kopetski attacked from the high post to earn all of her four points on 4-of-4 foul shooting in the final stanza.
“We weren’t stalling. We call it four to score. We spread, and we’re attacking,” said McCullough. “We’re still looking to the post, looking to the blocks.”
McCullough referenced one of the greats in describing his players’ second-half turnaround at the championship.
“I told them, ‘Hey, Bobby Knight used to say the best place to be at halftime was two points behind. You can chew your team’s butt and still win the game,’” he said with a smile. “Our girls responded. We talked about how we weren’t playing our best; we did change some of our sets, but it still came down to those three big 3s.”
LaVille improves to 9-2 with the championship victory, the program’s best start since the 2002-03 season. The Lancers will resume play with a Northern State Conference game Jan. 9 at Bremen.
“These are girls that came from 3-17 two years ago; now they’re 9-2,” McCullough said. “From 3-17 to now 9-2. We talked about our first five games we were getting ready for conference, and we went 4-1, then we talked about our next four games we were getting ready for this tournament, and we went 3-1. Then we said, hey this next part we want to be 2-0, and we accomplished that goal.
Now we have a big road test. I said ‘Girls, these next three games are going to be a tough road test for us just like sectional.’ We have to go to Bremen, Riley and Knox, three hard places to play. Let’s get out there and keep practicing, keep getting a little better.”
In the consolation game Wednesday night, Culver ran amok over the Caston  Comets for a 69-33 victory.
Post player Gwen Zehner recorded game-highs of 25 points and 17 rebounds, while Cavaliers guard Whitney Sanders put up 23 points with a contest-leading six steals.
It was Culver’s first win in six games and brought the team to an even 6-6 on the season.
“We did need this,” said Culver JV coach Stephanie Alva, filling in for head coach Ashli Faulkner, on maternity leave over the break. “We told them from the start that we wanted them to push the ball and we were looking to not back down. We wanted to dominate this team. We knew that we were good with our size and our skills. We just wanted to take it to them, and I think they did a very good job of that tonight.”

 

• LAVILLE WINNING EDGE GIRLS BASKETBALL HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT
At Lakeville
Championship
LAVILLE 44, NORTH JUDSON 34
Score by quarters
LV:  5  12  26  44
NJ:  8  14  17  34
LAVILLE (44): Emily Fuller 1 2-2 5, Elaine Schmeltz 0 5-7 5, Jesse Feitz 1 0-0 2, Anna Boits 3 0-1 9, Kaitlyn Kopetski 0 4-4 4, Shelby Low 3 0-0 8, Cori Lindke 3 0-2 6, Hannah Amor 2 1-2 5; Totals: 13 12-18 44.
NORTH JUDSON (34): Staci Allen 0 0-1 0, Haley Frasure 1 0-0 2, Paydin Barrett 0 1-2 1, Danna Timm 3 0-0 9, Elisabeth White 5 1-2 12, Kenley Sanchez 3 0-3 8, Jordann Frasure 0 2-2 2; Totals: 12 4-10 34.
3-point goals: LaVille 6 (Boits 3, Low 2, Fuller 1), Judson 4 (Timm 3, White 1); Rebounds: LaVille 28 (Lindke 7), Judson 29 (White 9); Assists: LaVille 7 (Schmeltz 5), Judson 6 (Frasure 2); Steals: LaVille 8 (Feitz 3), Judson 7 (Allen 2, Timm 2); Turnovers: LaVille 17, Judson 29; Fouls (fouled out): LaVille 18 (Lindke), Judson 16 (none).
Rebounds: LaVille 9-2, North Judson 5-8.

CULVER 69, CASTON 33
Score by quarters
Culver:  21  42  56  69
Caston:   7  13  21  33
CULVER (69): Nicole Carnegie 3 2-3 8, Susannah Baker 2 1-3 5, Whitney Sanders 6 9-12 23, Alison Zehner 2 2-2 6, Gwen Zehner 10 5-6 25, Cindy Miller 0 0-0 0, Ali Overmyer 1 0-0 2; Totals: 24 19-26 69.
CASTON (33): Haley Markley 2 0-0 5, Brittney Offenberger 3 0-0 6, Cathryn Frank 0 0-0 0, Jessica Showley 1 0-2 2, Chelsea Sivits 1 1-2 3, Emily See 4 1-2 10, Jada Powlen 1 4-4 6, Hali Berry 0 1-2 1; Totals: 12 7-12 33.
3-point goals: Culver 2 (Sanders 2), Caston 2 (Markley 1, See 1); Rebounds: Culver 27 (G. Zehner 17), Caston 21; Assists: Culver 10 (Baker 4); Steals: Culver 15 (Sanders 6); Turnovers: Culver 9, Caston 6; Fouls (fouled out): Culver 16 (none), Caston 20 (Offenberger).
Records: Culver 6-6, Caston 3-10.