It doesn’t matter where East Chicago Central senior Nia Hurt goes, people are always telling her to shoot the ball.
“It’s everybody,” Hurt said. “I think they jinxed me.”
For three quarters, the 5-foot-4 guard had just one point Tuesday night as East Chicago struggled to score while playing on the road at Crown Point.
But Hurt and the rest of the Cardinals erupted in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Bulldogs 24-10 to earn a 39-33 win in maintaining their unblemished record.
“We’re off (school) all week and we had a rough day at practice yesterday,” East Chicago coach Eric Kundich said. “I thought we were going to get off to a slow start. I didn’t know it’d be three quarters worth of slow.”
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East Chicago (8-0) trailed Crown Point (2-3) by 23-15 count to start the fourth quarter. On the first possession, Hurt got an open look from 3-point range and drained her shot.
“That brought my confidence up,” Hurt said.
Hurt scored 11 of her 12 points in that final quarter, sparking the comeback. With 2:05 left in the game, junior Taiyanna Jackson hit a 3-pointer that put the Cardinals ahead 32-31 — East Chicago’s first lead of the game.
Kundich said that Jackson, who finished with a game-high 16 points and 11 rebounds, was more effective inside.
“Her going down to the post changed the game,” Kundich said. “I wish she’d attack the basket a little more often. She has a habit of staying on the perimeter too much.”
Staying on the perimeter too much was a team-wide problem in the first half, as East Chicago shot just 17 percent (3-for-17) from the floor in the first two quarters — including 0-for-7 on 3-pointers.
“We told our kids (at halftime) that they needed to continue attacking the basket against their zone and stop settling for the outside shot,” Kundich said.
Crown Point got 14 points from senior guard Mya Scheidt and nine more from junior guard Caitlyn Phillips, who hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first half to help the Bulldogs build a 15-8 halftime lead.
“A couple of those were on set plays when her teammates set some real nice screens for her,” Crown Point coach Chris Seibert said. “Also, Mya made some nice passes when she got double-teamed.”
But Seibert knew his team needed more than points to stay a safe distance ahead of the Cardinals.
“We knew they were going to make a run,” Seibert said. “We squandered some opportunities in the second and third quarters that would’ve extended our lead to 10 or 15 points.”
Dave Melton is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.