Published: November 20, 2009 11:35 pm      

Quakers top Orioles to advance

DANVILLE — It wasn’t always pretty, but Plainfield got the job done Friday night against Avon.

The Quakers were whistled for more than 20 fouls, but held off Avon 49-36 to advance to the final round of the Hendricks County Tournament.

“It’s always ugly basketball when you have the county tournament this early with rivals playing each other,” Plainfield coach Curt Benge said. “I don’t know how anybody would expect anything different. It’s just what you’re going to get.”

Julia Henson scored 15 points — including four three-pointers — to lead Class 4A No. 8 Plainfield (2-0).

The three-point shot didn’t always work for Plainfield — they shot 6-of-27 from beyond the arc — but it was effective enough to help the Quakers build a lead.

“We had a lot of discussion about how we can’t rely on that,” Benge said. “We’ve got kids who can do other things, and I think in the second half we started looking for other things rather than settling for that quick look.”

Haley Austin scored a team-high 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Avon (2-1). Jill Steinmetz added nine points and 10 rebounds.

The Orioles got to within nine points midway through the fourth quarter, but were doomed by turnovers and poor free throw shooting. Avon shot 3-of-10 from the charity stripe in the first half, and was whistled for three five-second throw-in violations.

“I’m not displeased with our girls at all,” Avon coach Steve Drabyn said. “Playing a team this good this early in the season gave us a bit of a measuring stick. As poorly as we shot it from the free throw line and as many turnovers as we had, we still had it within nine points with four or five minutes to go.”

Plainfield jumped out to an early 8-2 lead behind two Henson three-pointers and a breakaway lay-up by Samantha Smith.

The Quakers led 14-5 after one and 24-15 at halftime. The lead remained at double digits throughout the third quarter, but Avon cut the deficit to 39-30 on an Austin lay-up with 4:50 to play.

Plainfield responded with a 10-2 run, capped by a pair of free throws from Sarah Janssen.

“Our goal was to come out and to battle,” Drabyn said. “We knew they were going to take it right at us, and it was our challenge to meet that physicality. I thought pretty much, we did that.”

Plainfield will play Brownsburg (2-2) at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow for the county championship. Avon takes on Cascade (1-3) at 6 p.m. tomorrow in the third-place game.

kevin.leibrock@flyergroup.com