IndyStar girls basketball preseason Super Team members on best chirps
“Knock-off Sydney Parrish.” “Are those shoes from Temu?” And more. These are the best chirps players have heard from opposing student sections.
SOUTH BEND — When the final horn sounded, the scoreboard read South Bend Washington 100, Gary Lighthouse 0.
Not a typo.
There was no doubt going into Saturday afternoon which girls basketball program was better, given Washington’s top-20 ranking in the preseason coaches poll and Lighthouse entering on a 28-game losing streak.
That being said, 100-0 stands out like a sore thumb. It’s jarring to look at.
It could have been avoided.
“We reached out to everybody,” said Washington coach Steven Reynolds by phone after the game. “LaPorte, Jimtown, any 4A school in the area that we could possibly play, and nobody wanted to play us. And I have to fill a schedule.”
With the Northern Indiana Conference shrinking from 12 to eight schools this year, that left four openings on the Washington schedule. An early-season tournament the Panthers had played at Lake Central the past few years wasn’t on the docket anymore as well.
Given Washington’s caliber of program — the current senior class has won three-straight sectionals, a Class 4A regional title in 2023 and a Class 3A state championship in 2022 — the Panthers like to bulk up their schedule with as many quality opponents as possible, including out-of-state foes. When it came time to recognizing the multiple Division-I players on Washington’s roster each of the past four years, though, Reynolds felt slighted.
“I get penalized when I go out of state, as far as rankings and the girls trying to make Indiana All-Star teams and all those kinds of things,” Reynolds said. “So, this year, I’m like, ‘OK, I’m going to try and stay in Indiana as much as I can.’ But when we call teams, they don’t want to play us, so then we have to go to that second tier of teams, and my (Athletic Director Garland Hudson) is trying to do the best he can.”
That results in what happened Saturday. Gary Lighthouse was added to the schedule less than a month before games began. The Lions only played nine games last year, losing them all and only scoring a combined 80 points in those games (8.9 points per game average).
Washington led 33-0 after the first quarter, 66-0 at halftime and 86-0 through three quarters. It’s just the seventh shutout win for any IHSAA girls basketball team this century and first one to reach 100-0.
“When I tell you we could’ve scored 300 points — we could have,” Reynolds said. “The thing is I have 12 girls that I put through hell every single day in practice. I am not going to tell them to go out there and not play to the best of their capabilities. We didn’t press, we didn’t pressure them, we didn’t do anything. We played halfcourt, which is not our style. And I tell them be hospitable, have sportsmanship.”
After the game, Reynolds gathered the Gary Lighthouse players and staff to commend them for their effort.
“After the game, we went through the line, and I got all those girls together and told them how proud of them I was and that their coach (Kia Matthews) was a great coach,” Reynolds said. “Don’t worry about the score. I knew it was your first game, but this coach is going to help you become better women and better basketball players.
“And (Matthews) was brought to tears; she said that had never happened to her before that we would take some time to talk to her girls. I told them we appreciated them coming and hoped they appreciated that we did pull back. We did show mercy.”
The competition level goes up for Washington in its next game, a road trip to Valparaiso Thursday night. The Vikings won a 4A regional championship last season.
