Lanesville beats Bethany Christian to win first Indiana girls basketball championship

Morgan Sonner scores game-high 18 points

Phillip B. Wilson | Feb 25, 2023

By Phillip B. Wilson | Photos by Tyler Hart

INDIANAPOLIS — They remember the first time they met coach Angie Hinton. Linzie Wernert and Morgan Sonner admitted they were “very” intimidated in that lunch chat.

Hadley Crosier recalls taking a picture with Hinton and her Hall of Fame husband Joe at an AAU game and instantly accepting that she had become part of a basketball family.

Although Hinton had won a girls basketball state championship at New Albany in 1999, her arrival in 2018 at little Lanesville on the Southern Indiana border wasn’t about expecting that kind of success. Just do more than had been done before. And that kind of snowballed.

“I always dreamed of it, but I never believed we could actually do it until last year, when we were one point away,” Crosier said of a regional final loss to eventual state champion Tecumseh. “That made us really want to work hard. It made us really hungry for it.”

A Class 1A program that had endured 12 consecutive losing seasons before Hinton achieved the ultimate for the first time Saturday as Lanesville overwhelmed Bethany Christian 60-41 for a state championship on Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Lanesville has only accomplished such a feat once before when the baseball team celebrated in 2017.

“This is what we’ve worked for since (Hinton) got here really,” said Wernert, who had 13 points and nine rebounds and received the mental attitude award. “We’d always fallen short in regionals. This year, we finally got past that wall and were able to keep going. We’ve worked for it since the buzzer sounded last year. We’ve just been hungry for it and wanted it and worked for it. Now we’ve got it.”

Sonner led all scorers with 18 points.

“It doesn’t really feel real right now,” she said.

If anything was undeniably real, it was how the Eagles (28-2) played defense. Opponents averaged just 28.4 points per game. Credit Bethany Christian (24-4) for being just the fifth school to score 41 on Lanesville.

The Bruins, also in their first state final, made just 11 of 35 shots (31.4 percent). Crosier, a feisty sophomore catalyst known for her tenacious defense, actually got the Eagles started by hitting a 3-pointer for the game’s first score.

The lead reached 17-7 by quarter’s end. Lanesville had won each of its previous tournament games by double digits. Here came another. The margin was 34-18 at halftime and 44-31 after three quarters.

“We really didn’t know what we could build,” Hinton said. “Joe and I talked about it. We knew we could make the program better. That was our goal. They hadn’t won very many games, so we started setting goals for them, to win more games than you did the last year. Each time we started winning more games, well, we were making history. Then we won conference. And they had no banners on the walls, so they wanted to get banners. Now we have banners on the walls.

“Then you win sectional that first year and, I’ll be honest with you, I really didn’t know from the day I started how many days I was going to be there. I told them and still tell them, ‘I’m day by day.’”

What a day this became.

“What stands out to me the most is just all the memories that we’ve made as a team and getting to experience new things,” Crosier said. “Even just riding in like a charter bus. That’s something so cool for us. I know other bigger schools get to experience that, but we don’t.”

Bethany Christian, located on the opposite end of the state in Elkhart, tried not to dwell on the disappointment of coming close.

“The run to the state finals has been quite remarkable for our team and our community,” said 17th-year coach Krysten Parson. “It’s been such a joy to be a part of this journey. At the end of the day, these kids have been making history all year.”

Junior guard Zoe Willems led the Bruins with 17 points. Junior guard Mariah Stoltzfus added 11.

“Their defense is probably the best we’ve ever seen,” Willems said. “It was pretty tough, but I’m really proud of our team and how we fought.”

Stoltzfus said the goal was to make a run in the tournament. A school with an enrollment of 135, which ranks 384th out of 400 in the state, survived to the final day.

“Not ever winning a regional, not ever winning a semi-state, we made history for our school,” Stoltzfus said. “We know we made our community proud. At the end of the day, that’s what we care about most.”

That and, perhaps, channeling this experience into preparing for another run next season.

“I’m going to have a lot of motivation for next year,” Willems said.

Bethany Christian’s path to glory sounds similar to the one Lanesville has taken. Hinton shook her head as she tried to put the title in perspective.

“It’s just truly amazing,” Hinton said. “It does bring tears to my eyes. I mean, who would have thought it, you know?”

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