GBB 3A STATE FINAL: #8 FW Concordia pulls 59-48 shocker on #1 Rushville

FORT WAYNE – The explosion never came. The patented burst of offense that always served as the knockout punch never happened. 

That, in a nutshell, is the story of top-ranked Rushville’s 59-48 upset loss to No. 8 Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran in the Class 3A state championship game March 6 at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. 

On this night, the game went as so many before it. But when the critical time came, it was Concordia that exhibited the afterburners.

Concordia’s defense would be the story of this contest, and it took very little time for the Cadets to display it. Their man-to-man forced Rushville into misfiring on its first five shots of the game, and Concordia quickly took advantage in racing to a 10-0 lead with 4:39 to go in the opening quarter. 

Rushville coach Melissa Marlow called a timeout, and when the Lions returned to the court they did what they had done so many times before during the season. They immediately responded with a 5-0 run and, by the end of the quarter, had battled all the way back to trail only 14-13.

The second period resembled a heavyweight fight as the two teams took turns throwing big punches. After Rushville took the lead 17-16 at the 6:27 mark of the period, Concordia (24-3) responded with an 8-2 run to retake control. 

It mattered little to the Lions. They roared back to end the half on a 6-0 spurt that sent them to intermission with a 25-24 advantage.

Anyone who has seen Rushville (25-3) play was not surprised at the way the first half progressed. This team had played a number of close games during the season, and they all ended the same way. At some point, the poise and talent of the Lions surfaced, and they would suddenly take control. 

Most of the thousands of Rushville fans in attendance were looking for a repeat in the final 16 minutes.

The first half of the third quarter, in retrospect, was a microcosm of the game from the Rushville perspective. Concordia used a 7-0 run to roar back from a 30-26 deficit. The Lions quickly tied the game at 33, then suffered what might have been the key minute of the game. 

On its next two possessions, Rushville had five point-blank looks at the basket. None of them fell, and that futility was symptomatic of a day when the shots just didn’t fall. The Lions would end the contest by going just 8 of 28 in the second half, compared with the torrid 57-percent shooting (12 of 21) by a Concordia team playing mere blocks from its school.

“We like to play a fast-paced game and get up and down the floor,” said 10th-year Rushville coach Melissa Marlow. “Today we weren’t putting the ball in the hoop, and it made it hard to play our game.

 

“Our press helped us get a lead at halftime. Obviously they talked about that at halftime and did a wonderful job in the second half of breaking our press and converting it into points.”

For most of the game, that poor shooting can be attributed to the outstanding team defense of the Cadets. In the critical third-quarter stretch, though, it was just a case of the ball bouncing the wrong way. 

In any event, all that led to the explosion everyone was expecting, except it originated from the Fort Wayne sideline. Over the last 3:20 of the third quarter, the Cadets shredded the Rushville defense on a 13-4 run that gave them a 46-37 lead at the end of three periods. 

Concordia had used Rushville’s script on the Lions.

“Coming out in the second half, I thought we had good composure,” said seventh-year Lutheran coach Dave Miller. “We made a couple shots and had a couple stops, then it just kind of grew. Everyone picked up on that, and we were OK.

“We had a lot of contribution from a lot of people today, four in double figures. It’s been that way all year. People step up at different times.”

Marlow’s crew tried valiantly to close the gap in the early minutes of the final stanza, but the magic simply was not there. Trailing 48-40, Rushville stopped the Cadets on three straight possessions. But they failed to slice the deficit. 

In that stretch, the Lions – one of the better free throw shooting teams in Indiana at 72 percent – went 0 for 4 from the charity stripe. Senior Alexa Bess fired the last bullet for the Rush County crew when she drained a 3-pointer to cut the margin to 50-43 midway through the quarter, but Concordia never blinked. 

The Cadets took care of the ball and hit key free throws down the stretch, and Rushville never mounted a serious threat.

Make no mistake. These were two of the state’s best squads regardless of class. They were both balanced offensively, solid defensively (though with different styles of defense), and extremely intelligent clubs. 

The game totals reveal the similarities. 

Concordia placed four players in double figures in the scoring column: 16 points from center Erynn Meiklejohn, 12 apiece from Anna Goeglein and Angela Doerffler, and 11 from Andrea Newbauer. Junior standout Shelbie Justice led Rushville with 18 points, while Bess and Morgan Herbert each added 10. 

Each team committed only 13 turnovers, and Rushville led the rebounding battle by just one at 34-33. 

The difference was clearly in marksmanship. Concordia’s nearly perfect team defense held the Lions to 32 percent from the field while the Cadets cashed in at 45 percent on 21 of 47 attempts.

All was not lost for Rushville, which was making its fourth state finals appearance.

“These five seniors made a pact in the fourth grade to make it to the state finals,” Marlow said. “They had a dream come true.

“They’re disappointed right now, but I’m extremely proud of them.”

Following the game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee named Angela Doerffler of Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran High School as the winner of the Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude Award. Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate partner, will present a $1,000 scholarship to the school in her name.

The award is named in honor of former IHSAA Assistant Commissioner Patricia L. Roy, who oversaw the girls basketball state tournament from its inception in 1976 until her retirement in 1999. It’s presented annually to a senior participant in each classification who was nominated by her principal and coach and has demonstrated excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership, and athletic ability.

Doerffler served as captain of this year’s squad and was recently named to the All-Summit Athletic Conference Team. The talented athlete will earn 12 varsity letter awards from Concordia: four each in soccer, basketball, and softball. 

She has been a youth camp instructor for basketball, soccer, and softball at Concordia and is an active member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. She is a Sertoma Award winner, an award bestowed upon a student at Concordia who exhibits exemplary acts of service. A member of the National Honor Society, Doerffler owns a 3.9 grade-point average and is ranked in the Top 5 percent in her class. 

The daughter of Dean and Barb Doerffler of Fort Wayne plans to attend Valparaiso University this fall.

The box score:

Rushville 13 12 12 11 – 48

Concordia Lutheran 14 10 22 13 – 59

## Player FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA Off Def Tot PF TP A TO Blk Stl Min

23 ANDREWS, KALEIGH f 4-12 1-3 0-2 6 3 9 2 9 3 2 0 5 32

31 JUSTICE, SHELBIE f 5-12 0-1 8-10 4 6 10 2 18 0 3 1 3 32

33 BESS, ALEXA f 4-9 2-4 0-2 1 6 7 2 10 1 4 0 1 32

12 HERBERT, MORGAN g 3-12 0-1 4-4 1 2 3 4 10 2 0 0 0 31

24 HITTLE, MEAGAN g 0-4 0-2 1-2 0 3 3 4 1 0 4 0 0 16

04 BEAMAN, KRISTA 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 17

Totals 16-50 3-12 13-20 12 22 34 15 48 7 13 1 9 160

FG % 1st Half: 8-22 36.4%, 2nd half: 8-28 28.6%, Game: 16-50 32.0%

3FG % 1st Half: 1-7 14.3%, 2nd half: 2-5 40.0%, Game: 3-12 25.0%

FT % 1st Half: 8-9 88.9%, 2nd half: 5-11 45.5%, Game: 13-20 65.0%

## Player FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA Off Def Tot PF TP A TO Blk Stl Min

20 GOEGLEIN, ANNA f 4-8 0-1 4-4 2 7 9 3 12 2 2 0 1 30

44 MEIKLEJOHN, ERYNN c 6-12 0-0 4-4 3 3 6 2 16 1 2 2 1 29

23 DOERFFLER, ANGELA g 4-7 1-4 3-6 1 2 3 3 12 2 3 0 0 30

24 BORCHELT, LAUREN g 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 4 0 1 3 0 0 13

34 NEWBAUER, ANDREA g 5-16 0-3 1-2 0 8 8 3 11 6 3 0 2 31

10 HOCKEMEYER, EMILY 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

12 KAMMEYER, ANNALISSA 2-2 1-1 2-2 0 2 2 3 7 1 0 0 0 21

13 WATSON, SHAUNA 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 5

Totals 21-47 2-9 15-20 7 26 33 18 59 13 13 2 4 160

FG % 1st Half: 9-26 34.6%, 2nd half: 12-21 57.1%, Game: 21-47 44.7%

3FG % 1st Half: 1-4 25.0%2nd half: 1-5 20.0%, Game: 2-9 22.2%

FT % 1st Half: 5-6 83.3%, 2nd half: 10-14 71.4%, Game: 15-20 75.0%

Points …

• In Paint: Rushville 24, Concordia 28

• Off T/O: Rushville 8, Concordia 10

• 2nd Chance: Rushville 11, Concordia 6

• Fast Break: Rushville 4, Concordia 4

• Bench: Rushville 0, Concordia 8

Largest lead: Rushville by 4 3rd-06:13, Concordia by 11 4th-07:46

Score ties: 6

Lead changes: 6

Officials: Mike Waisnora, Michael Eason, Tim Cartwright