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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
LOGANSPORT –- Isabel Scales struggled against Pioneer, so she went to the barn and got better and helped the Caston girls basketball team beat Lewis Cass in the consolation
game of the Cass County Invitational at the Berry Bowl at Logansport Saturday.
Scales, Caston’s freshman point guard, scored a team-high 20 points, and Jordan Clingler added 14 as the Lady Comets topped the Lady Kings 47-38.
Caston improved to 6-2. Their six wins have already exceeded last year’s win total.
Kendal Johnson scored a game-high 21 points for Lewis Cass (0-5).
Scales and Johnson were named to the all-tournament team in a postgame ceremony.
Scales was held to no field goals and two points in a 49-32 loss to Pioneer three days earlier in the first round of the tournament. Scales’ father Barry was an assistant coach on former coach Don Helmick’s staff, and father and daughter went to work at the family’s barn between Fulton and Rochester on her offensive game. They moved some hay bales and swept the floor and just played.
Barry Scales specifically tutored his daughter on playing through contact and using different moves to get open. Scales called her father her “role model” and the person who “made me the player I am today.”
“My mindset,” Scales said when asked about the difference between the Pioneer and Lewis Cass games. “Pioneer is a good team, and I just wasn’t focused. I was I guess you could say scared. … Not really scared but a little intimidated. They’re a pretty good team. So today, I’m like just forget about it and just play basketball. It is what it is. So I think that my whole mindset changed today, and it helped me a lot.”
Caston trailed 21-20 at halftime and 28-25 late in the third quarter when they went on a 10-0 run covering the third quarters to go ahead for good.
They led by as many as 11 in the final seconds of the game.
Clingler, Caston’s senior post player, started the 10-0 run with a bucket in the post. Scales went coast-to-coast for a layup to put Caston ahead for good at 29-28 with 25.7 seconds left in the third quarter. Scales split a pair of free throws with 7.7 seconds left in the quarter to make it 30-28.
After neither team scored for the first 100 seconds of the fourth quarter, Abby Williamson gave Caston some breathing room with a long 3-pointer from the left wing. Another Clingler bucket in the post completed the run. Clingler is one of four Caston players returning from contact tracing.
“I told her she’s her own worst enemy,” Douglass said. “She’s one of the best bigs around when she puts her mind to it. And we’ve got to do a good job of finding her. I thought tonight we were finally doing a good job of looking into her and getting her the ball.”
Lewis Cass stayed within 38-33 after Scales and Johnson exchanged 3-pointers, and the lady Kings got the ball back. Caston retreated into a zone, but Maddi Smith stepped into a passing lane on a pass intended for Johnson for a steal and a layup.
Two Scales free throws with 2:00 left got the lead to eight. Then Caston broke down the Lewis Cass defense, and when Bailey Harness found Addison Zimpleman for a layup, the lead was in double digits for the first time at 44-34.
“I thought we played much better in the second half compared to the first half,” Douglass said. “We had a nice run out there in the second quarter, I think it was, where we got up by eight. He called a good timeout, and we kinda let up. We talked about that you can’t let up. We’ve got to figure a way to keep playing through that when they start making that big comeback there. Defensively, we were losing people in the first half. Second half, I thought we did a better job of staying with them.”
Caston led 15-7 with 6:21 left in the half on a Brianna Yarber jumper, and Lewis Cass coach Kyle Amor called timeout.
The Lady Kings outscored Caston 14-5 the rest of the half. Johnson hit a 3-point shot and also had a 3-point play on a sharp cut to the basket as part of the run.
Scales had defensive responsibilities on Johnson, a move-in from Winamac. For a brief period in the fourth quarter, her job was to face-guard Johnson. But Caston also incorporated more zone defense.
“In the second half, especially in the fourth quarter, I kept switching,” Douglass said. “Anytime (Amor) called timeout, I was trying to throw something different out there just to make him stop and think and those girls stop and think, ‘Hey, what he just draw up isn’t going to work here, so let’s try something else here.’”
And now Caston has a chance at its first winning season in seven years, and they’re doing it with only one senior starter and two freshman guards in Scales and Zimpleman.
“My whole goal was I knew this year was going to be rough,” Scales said. “We’re all young. We’re learning. We’re two freshmen out there, me and Addison. We’re just trying to keep our team up because they’ve had losing seasons so the whole mindset is different. So we’re trying to keep them motivated and tell them, ‘We can be a good team. We can win. Just believe.’ And I think the whole mindset has changed.”
Caston notes
Caston’s game at North Miami scheduled for Tuesday was postponed due to coronavirus issues at North Miami. No makeup date has been set.
Caston’s game with North Judson scheduled for Thurday was postponed due to coronavirus issues at North Judson. No makeup date has been set.
Caston has added a game with Northfield to replace the North Judson game. Game time is 6 p.m./7:30 p.m. (JV/Varsity) at Caston.
Caston plays Hoosier North home games against Triton (Saturday), Pioneer (Tuesday and Knox (Dec. 17) in the next week.
Caston 47, Lewis Cass 38
CASTON (47) (6-2)
Isabel Scales 5 8-13 20, Addison Zimpleman 1 0-0 2, Bailey Harness 1 0-0 2, Maddi Smith 1 2-2 4, Jordan Clingler 7 0-0 14, Layne Oliver 0 0-0 0, Brianna Yarber 1 0-0 2, Abby Williamson 1 0-0 3
TEAM: 17 10-15 47
LEWIS CASS (38) (0-5)
Kendal Johnson 8 3-8 21, Jackie Wiles 0 0-0 0, Kyndal Silcox 3 0-1 6, Kyla Mennen 1 0-0 2, Paxtyn Hicks 3 1-2 7, Odessa Vest 0 0-0 0, Kinsey Mennen 0 0-0 0, Jordyn Hensley 1 0-0 2
TEAM: 16 4-11 38
Three-point field goals:
Caston 3 (Scales 2, Williamson),
Lewis Cass 2 (Johnson 2)
Total fouls: Caston 11, Lewis Cass 13
Turnovers: Caston 16, Lewis Cass 15
Score by quarters
Caston 11 9 10 17 – 47
Lewis Cass 7 14 7 10 – 38
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