Carmel’s Catherine Bassi scored eight points for the Greyhounds during their Thursday game with Center Grove. (Richie Hall)
By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
The Carmel girls basketball team gave a tough challenge to Class 4A No. 3 Center Grove Thursday before the Trojans pulled away for a 57-40 win on Bill Shepherd Court at the Eric Clark Activity Center.
The Greyhounds led 10-9 after one quarter, with sophomore Catherine Bassi hitting two 3-pointers. Bassi missed significant time last year and this year recovering from an injury but is slowly coming back.
“She was allowed to play half the game today, because she played four minutes per quarter,” said Carmel coach Jess Darmelio. “She just has an extremely high basketball IQ. She was out for a year, but you can’t tell based on how she’s picked things up, how she’s played seamlessly with her teammates on the court.”
The game was tied 20-20 at halftime. Taylee Fisher scored five points in the second quarter to help keep the Greyhounds in it.
But the Trojans, now 16-0, took over in the third period, outscoring Carmel 20-6. Gracyn Gilliard, Center Grove’s star player, scored eight points in that quarter, then added nine more in the fourth. Gilliard led all scorers with 21 points.
“They’re ranked third in the state, they’re undefeated for a reason. So, at halftime we talked about how they were going to turn their dial up, they’re coming to Gracyn Gilliard a little bit more.” said Darmelio. “They’re going to come after us, and we talked about things what things we’re going to do to turn our dial up as well. I thought we froze a little bit in that third quarter.
“We’re looking for progress. We’re super young. The fact that we showed that we are capable of playing with them for that first half is a step in the right direction for us, so I’m proud of what they did.”
Bella Ramsey scored 10 points in the fourth, including a pair of 3s. She led the Hounds with 16 points, with Bassi and Fisher each scoring eight.
Carmel is 7-8 and hosts Heritage Christian on Saturday.
