Douglass scores 13, makes all-tourney team, but Caston falls to N. Miami

Warner adds 9 points, 9 rebounds

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Madi Douglass Natalie Warner

BUNKER HILL — Layla Hampton scored on a layup on an inbounds play with 22 seconds left to give the North Miami girls basketball team a 32-30 win over Caston in the Miami County Invitational consolation game at Maconaquah Tuesday.

Hampton’s basket gave North Miami their first lead. They were Hampton’s only points of the game.

Laney Musall, wearing a bulky brace over her right knee, hit four 3-pointers and scored a game-high 18 points for North Miami. She also had the assist on Hampton’s winning basket. Grace Sailors added 10, all in the second half.

Madi Douglass scored 13 points to lead Caston. Natalie Warner added nine points and grabbed nine rebounds.

Douglass and Sailors were named to the all-tournament team after the game.

North Miami improved to 7-5. Caston dropped to 7-7. The teams will meet again at Caston Jan. 22 in their Hoosier North meeting.

After Hampton’s basket, Caston called timeout with 12.8 seconds left. After the timeout, Douglass threw up an air ball, and Sailors rebounded but traveled while rolling on the floor with the ball with 1.3 seconds left.

Caston had one last chance on a baseline inbounds pass, but Douglass’ off-balance 3-pointer at the buzzer missed.

Caston jumped out to a 9-0 lead. They led by as many as 10, and they still led 25-18 when Adyson Steininger swished a 3-pointer from the left corner in the final minute of the third quarter.

Musall answered with a 3 from the top of the key with seven seconds left in the quarter. She hit another 3 from the left corner in the first minute of the fourth quarter. That cut the Caston lead to one.

Douglass split a pair of free throws and then scored on a strong driving lefty bank shot. The lead was back up to 28-24.

Caston ran Musall off the 3-point line, so she dribbled inside the arc and nailed a 19-footer.

Douglass split a pair of free throws, but Sailors scored on a putback to make it 29-28.

Then things got agonizing for both teams.

Gigi Berry missed two free throws for Caston with 2:31 left. Caston got a stop. Musall got a steal, but Caston forced a held ball and took possession. Ellie Zartman missed a layup, which led to another held ball. North Miami took possession.

Kayden Donaldson missed a scoop shot, and Warner rebounded and was fouled with 1:05 left.

Warner made one of two free throws to make it 30-28.

Musall came up clutch again. She hit a pullup 15-footer to tie the game. 

Caston’s Grace Colvin raced down the court, but the ball slipped out of her hands off the dribble and went out of bounds with 35.3 seconds left.

North Miami called timeout with 26.6 seconds left. North Miami coach Nathan Curtis called a play with multiple possibilities, one of which involved Musall getting the ball back on a give-and-go for a shot.

Instead, she found a wide-open Hampton.

“Somebody on the back side just fell asleep, and I don’t know if it was a back screen … and we missed the screen and didn’t talk it through or what,” Caston coach Josh Douglass said. “I’m going to have to go watch it on film.”

Curtis said it is a play that they run often.

“I thought that they may key on Donaldson, and that’s kind of who we’re trying to get the ball to,” Curtis said. “But there’s a secondary option there with Layla coming to the basket on a slip. When we ran it, and I’d seen it coming open because they dove straight to where Kayden was at. … Laney almost gave up on it. She was about to throw it in the corner, I think, but she saw it coming in late, and Layla was able to make the shot.”

Curtis said Musall suffered a PCL injury to her right knee in a game on the same Maconaquah court Nov. 26. She played “four or five minutes” in a 37-36 loss to Peru Monday in the first round, according to Curtis. That was her first action since the injury. 

While she has been limited in practice, Curtis said she has continued to work on her shooting in practice.

She outscored the entire Caston team 7-5 in the fourth quarter.

“Just having her on the floor is a good thing for our team,” Curtis said.

Caston switched between man-to-man and zone defenses in the first half. They held both North Miami bigs – Sailors and Donaldson – scoreless in the first half. 

An Allison Craig banker off a Colvin assist, a Warner transition layup, a Douglass transition runner in the lane and a Douglass 3-point play in transition made it 9-0 less than five minutes in.

The lead was down to 9-4 after a quarter, but two Douglass baskets and two Warner baskets helped extend the lead to 10 in the second quarter before a Musall 3-pointer late in the half made it 17-10.

Two Sailors baskets cut the lead to three at the outset of the second half, and Musall had a 3 to potentially tie the game, but she missed, and Hadlie Coffing found Colvin for a right wing triple to push the lead back up to 20-14.

Still, North Miami continued to blitz Caston ballhandlers with Musall leaving her player and running two to the ball as soon as the Caston ballhandler – typically Colvin or Douglass – crossed halfcourt.

Douglass said they placed greater emphasis on the first game of the tournament, a 54-41 loss to Maconaquah Monday. Douglass prepared a “quick” scouting report for the North Miami game.

The biggest game of the week for the Lady Comets could be their game at Triton Saturday. There are no undefeated teams in the Hoosier North, but Caston and Triton are two of the six teams with one loss.

“We still know we have a chance at conference,” coach Douglass said. “We still know we have a chance at sectionals. Does it stink to come here and lose two? Yep, but all four teams in this are high-quality teams.”

In the championship game, Maconaquah pulled away in the fourth quarter to defeat Peru 49-36. Maconaquah’s Delaney Betzner and Ireland Kile and Peru’s Addison Robbins joined Madi Douglass and Sailors on the all-tournament team.

North Miami 32, Caston 30

CASTON (30) (7-7)

Hadlie Coffing 0 0-0 0, Grace Colvin 1 0-0 3, Madi Douglass 5 3-5 13, Allison Craig 1 0-0 2, Natalie Warner 4 1-2 9, Ellie Zartman 0 0-0 0, Camila Hernandez-Rios 0 0-0 0, Adyson Steininger 1 0-0 3, Gigi Berry 0 0-2 0

TEAM: 12 4-9 30

NORTH MIAMI (32) (7-5)

Laney Musall 7 0-0 18, Porscha Pickett 0 0-0 0, Kayden Donaldson 0 0-0 0, Layla Hampton 1 0-2 2, Grace Sailors 5 0-0 10, Audi Medina 0 0-0 0, Laina Kling 0 0-0 0, Brealyn Correll 1 0-0 2

TEAM: 14 0-2 32

Three-point field goals:

Caston 2 (Steininger, Colvin),

North Miami 4 (Musall 4)

Total fouls: Caston 7, North Miami 9

Turnovers: Caston 12, North Miami 8

Score by quarters

Caston 9 8 8 5 – 30

North Miami 4 6 11 11 – 32