Indy Chronicler

RUSSIAVILLE — While the Western-Carroll girls basketball game stood as a nonconference game, in the opening month of the season, it was still personal.

“We’ve played them since sixth grade. They’ve always been good competition so we take this game pretty personally,” Western senior Chloe Hunt said.

“Alli [Harness] and Madison [Wagner] are competitive just like our seniors. We’re competitive, we butt heads and all we want to do is win.”

That added bit of motivation pushed Class 3A No. 6-ranked Western past Class 2A No. 7 Carroll 56-41 on Thursday at Richard R. Rea Gymnasium. Western improved to 7-0 while Carroll dropped to 5-2.

Defensively, the Panthers went about slowing down a potent Carroll offense in an unorthodox way when they came out in a zone as the game was tied 11 all after the first.

Afterward, Western coach Misty Oliver touched on what led to the defensive game plan.

“Scouting them, nobody plays them in a zone. Everyone wants to play man and face guard Alli Harness. Last year, we played them and we zoned them. It was effective so, why go away from it? … Normally, you can’t guard a good shooting team with a zone like that but it was effective for us,” Oliver said.

Western’s Lauren Bradley opened up the second quarter with a 3-pointer before a steal and layup by Harness kept the Cougars’ momentum.

Harness went on to finish with a team-high 17 points while Western’s Hunt led all scorers with 19 points followed by Bradley’s 18.

In terms of what worked well for the Panthers offensively, Hunt pointed to her team’s ability to do damage in the paint.

“They really gave us the open paint and I think our team really thrives in the middle of the court. That’s where we succeed as a team and they gave it to us so we were sure to take advantage of it,” Hunt said.

Coming out of the half with a three-point lead, Hunt began to heat up with a bucket in the paint followed by trips to the free throw line before going on to score seven points in the fourth quarter as Western outscored the opposition 20-10 in the final period of play.

For Carroll coach Brady Wiles, the inability of his team’s offense boiled down to the pace of play.

“We just didn’t play fast,” Wiles said. “When we get slowed down and when we don’t push the ball it affects us. For whatever reason, we decided we weren’t going to push the ball. … I credit [Western’s] defense in the halfcourt definitely but, we slowed ourselves down.”

And while Western remained undefeated, Hunt stated that there were many more to come.

“We have grit, we have passion. We don’t want to come out here and lose and we seniors, the starting five, we’re taking it personally. We’re playing every game like it’s our last time on the court,” she said.

Entering Thursday, Western was one of 23 unbeatens remaining in the state.