Penn, St. Joe Claim Regional Titles
The list is down to two for area girls basketball teams who have extended their stellar seasons at least one more week.
Powerful Penn and strong South Bend St. Joseph’s each captured regional championships on Saturday to move into the Final Four of their respective classes.
No. 4 Penn dominated the field at the Class 4-A LaPorte Regional with a pair of convincing wins. No. 3 St. Joseph handled a a pair of foes easily to claim its regional crown at the Class 3-A event at Twin Lakes.
Penn (26-2) will now face No. 2 Homestead (26-2) next Saturday in the North Semistate, while St. Joe (25-1) will take on No. 2 Heritage Christian (24-4). Those games will be played at either Crown Point or Carroll as the IHSAA will announce the venues for all semistate games later on Sunday.
The Kingsmen got an All-Star performance from star Camryn Buhr to rout Merrillville and Gary West on Saturday. Buhr poured in 27 points as coach Kristi Ulrich’s team beat Merrillville 64-40 in the regional final Saturday night. She had 31 points as Penn topped Gary West 82-55 in the semifinal earlier on Saturday.
Penn also welcomed back senior Katelyn Marenyi on Saturday. The stellar point guard had been sidelined due to a foot injury.
Lindsy Kline had 14 points and Claire Carlton nine for Penn in the win over Merrillville. Marine scored 14 points and Kline added 11 in the victory over Gary West.
St. Joe topped Lighthouse College Prep Acaemy 55-27 in a semifinal game and then blasted Benton Central 72-40 in the title tilt at Twin Lakes.
Both Westview and Bethany Christian saw their seasons end Saturday with regional semifinal losses.
Westview, which beat Whitko to win the sectional title at Central Noble, lost 64-42 to No. 1 Oregon-Davis at the Class 2-A Winamac Regional. Senior star Grace Hales led Westview with 15 points. The Valparaiso University bound Hales finished her outstanding prep career as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,600 points.
Maria McCoy had 14 points for the Warriors, who finish the season at 21-6.
Oregon-Davis, now 26-2, will face No. 4 Lafayette Central Catholic (23-5) in the semistate.
Bethany Christian dropped a 58-38 to No. 5 Argos in a semifinal at the Class 1-A Caston Regional. Darienne Mast led the Bruins with 15 points. Tessa Clark scored nine points and Tarynn Clark eight for Bethany. The Bruins finish their season at 14-11.
Courtney Dunlap poured in 34 points to lead Argos, which on to win the regional title Saturday night. The Dragons will take a 23-3 mark into the semistate to face Tri-Central (17-11).
Argos is coached by former Tippecanoe Valley girls coach Gary Teel.