H.S. girls basketball: Lions roar to claim Bi-County Tourney title
LAKEVILLE — Bremen girls basketball coach Alex Robinson said one of his biggest goals Saturday night was for his team to get off to a good start.
Katie Moyer made sure that happened for the Lions.
Bremen used a stellar start, ignited by Moyer, and a fine finish to turn back New Prairie 52-41 in the finale of the girls portion of the TCU Bi-County Tournament at LaVille High School.
Moyer scored a game-high 21 points and senior star Ellia Foster added 20 to pace the champions.
Maddie McSurley, the lone senior for New Prairie, led the Cougars with 11 points.
Bremen moves to 13-8, while the Cougars fall to 10-10.
Moyer, a strong 5-10 junior, scored eight of her team's first 10 points as the Lions never trailed and built a 19-7 lead after the opening period. Moyer had 15 points at halftime as the Lions led 32-19.
"This feels great," said Moyer. "I knew I had to use my size tonight and that we needed energy at the start and to throw the first punch and we did that."
Robinson, who guided the Lions to the tourney title in 2019 and 2020, said the strong start was imperative.
"We wanted to set the tone with a strong start tonight and we did that," said Robinson. "We came out flat versus LaVille in the semifinals Thursday night.
"Katie was huge attacking early for us. And Ellia did what she has done for four years for us. She's just so consistent."
There was no Bi-County girls title tilt in 2021 due to COVID.
The Cougars, who lost 62-40 at Bremen in an NIC game back on Dec. 10, showed their grit. Coach Aimee Litka's youthful squad, which has just one senior, rallied to cut the Bremen lead to 45-40 with just under three minutes to play. The experienced Lions answered the bell as Ellia Foster hit two key free throws and Moyer added a big rebound bucket to seal the win.
"Our girls are unflappable and we trust them," said Robinson of the close game late. "We have been here in a lot of close ones this year. Our girls have supreme confidence. For our seniors this was the third time in the Bi-County final and that experience matters."
Second-year New Prairie coach Aimee Litka says her team needs to see the big picture with postseason play right around the corner.
"We have to look at six weeks ago no one thought we would be here (in the championship game)," said Litka, a former star player at Saint Joseph. "We are much better now than six weeks ago.
"This should give us confidence. This loss does not end our season and should not define us. We never let them deliver the knockout punch tonight. We had players battle the whole way.
"Moyer hurt us. We had to have Maddie guard Ellia Foster and we just did not have another player athletic enough and strong enough go guard Moyer tonight."
Jayden Flagg had nine points and Morgan White eight for the Cougars.
Ellia Foster was named the MVP of the tournament. Elizabeth Edmond of Argos was given the W.B. Hawkins Award from TCU for the girls portion of the tourney.
BREMEN 52, NEW PRAIRIE 41
At LaVille
NEW PRAIRIE (41): Eva Dodds 3 1-2 7, Jayden Flagg 3 2-2 9, Maddie McSurley 5 1-3 11, Jaiden Winters 0 0-0 0, Morgan White 2 2-2 8, Morgan Flagg 2 0-0 4, Kaylee Hoggard 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 16 6-9 41.
BREMEN (52): Emma Graverson 0 0-0 0, Katie Moyer 10 1-3 21, Ellia Foster 6 6-6 20, Madison Youngman 0 1-2 1, Mikayla Shively 2 0-2 5, Kila Foster 1 2-2 5, Jaiden Monhaut 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19 10-16 52.
NP | 7 | 19 | 32 | 41
Bremen | 19 | 32 | 39 | 52
3-point goals: New Prairie 3 (White 2, J. Flagg), Bremen 4 (E. Foster 2, Shively, K. Foster). Team fouls (fouled out): New Prairie 15 (White), Bremen 13. Team records: New Prairie 10-10, Bremen 13-8.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: The Bremen girls basketball team won the TCU Bi-County Tourney Saturday
