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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Samantha Redinger celebrates with Jenny Emenaker and Roberta “Bert” Thompson during a senior night ceremony following Argos’ 79-54 win over Oregon-Davis Thursday. Emenaker, a 2002 Argos grad, was the first 1,000-point scorer in school history, and Thompson had set the previous single-game school record of 48 points in 1979. Redinger has broken Thompson’s record twice this season, including a 55-point game against Oregon-Davis Thursday. She also scored her 1,000th point against Bethany Christian on Dec. 21. From left – Argos coach Scott Jennings, Emenaker, Redinger, Argos senior Aleasia Sarver, Thompson. (photo provided)
ARGOS — On a night in which they celebrated their history, Argos senior guard Samantha Redinger added to it against visiting Oregon-Davis at Phil Weybright Gymnasium Thursday.
Redinger set a school record with 10 3-pointers and 55 points as the Lady Dragons earned a 79-54 win against their future Hoosier North rival.
Alydiah Leed and Ellie Bollenbacher added 10 points each.
Point guard Gabriella Krause led Oregon-Davis with 18 points. Jayla Patrick added 16, and Sarah Thompson had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Krause, Patrick and Thompson are all sophomores.
Argos bumped their record up to 8-10. O-D fell to 5-12.
Argos has beaten O-D four straight times. Prior to that, they had lost five straight to the Lady Bobcats.
Argos led by as many as 30 points in the third quarter.
Redinger held the previous school record of 50, which she set against Trinity Greenlawn on Nov. 17. She now has three of the top four scoring games in school history.
The school record prior to this year was 48, which Roberta “Bert” Thompson set in 1979. Thompson and Jenny Emenaker, a 2002 grad who was Argos’ first 1,000-point scorer, both came out to congratulate Redinger in a postgame senior night ceremony. That was in addition to the pregame senior night ceremony in which Redinger and fellow senior teammate Aleasia Sarver were recognized.
Redinger scored her 1,000th career point against Bethany Christian on Dec. 21.
She has scored 575 points this season, and she has at least five games left. She is averaging 39.5 points over her last four games.
“She’s ridiculous right now,” Argos coach Scott Jennings said. “I don’t know how she’s putting up those kind of numbers, but it’s credit to her teammates. Her teammates are screening for her. They’re finding her. They’re playing so unselfish right now. She’s playing so well that when teams do jump out and double-team her or get somebody through the screen, she’s finding them. She’s getting assists now, and that’s what I like about it.”
Redinger hit two 3-pointers from the left wing to start, and she also hit six of seven free throws in the first quarter. She had two free throws and a 3-point play off a putback as part of a 15-3 first-quarter run as Argos built a 29-14 lead.
“We just wanted to have a good senior night,” Redinger said. “We wanted to come out with energy, have fun and get the win.”
Meanwhile, Leed hit a 3-pointer, a long 2-pointer with her foot on the line and a layup on a give-and-go play with Morgyn Barcus as the lead reached 33-18 in the first quarter.
Redinger went on an 8-0 run to start the second quarter, sandwiching two left corner treys around a steal and crossover layup as the lead reached 23.
Redinger had a 4-point play, a transition layup and a putback, and Bollenbacher had two putbacks in the third quarter as the lead reached 55-25.
“Aleasia got in foul trouble, and so Ellie’s our key rebounder down there, and I tell our guards they have to rebound better. Sam’s picking it up, Leed’s starting to rebound a little bit more. Yeah, Ellie’s huge for us. And she’s not that tall. For her to do what she does, she’s just so strong, but she is our key rebounder, but we’ve got to get some other players to step up because we get outrebounded nearly every game.”
Redinger buried four more treys in the fourth quarter and added two more driving layups to finish her night.
In the postgame ceremony, Jennings noted to the crowd how much her teammates do to help her get open. Redinger was asked about Jennings’ comments.
“Just like he said,” Redinger said. “They look for me every time we come down the floor. Morgyn’s always looking for me bringing the ball up. Ellie, Aleasia and Alydiah, they always set screens. Alydiah looks for me passing the ball – double screens, triple screens, they get me open.”
Redinger said she played travel ball for the first time this summer. Her cousin Klair Clinger plays at Washington Township. Klair’s father Chombo started a travel team and invited Redinger and Bollenbacher among others to play on the team.
She said travel ball was really fun with a lot more running and shooting, and she said the speed of high school basketball slowed down after that.
Redinger and Sarver both did not come for soccer this fall. Instead, they spent the fall in the gym working on improving at basketball. She said she and Sarver have been best friends since Sarver moved to Argos when she was a seventh-grader.
“So I didn’t play soccer this year,” Redinger said. “Me and coach Jennings and Aleasia, we were in here almost every day running, shooting and over the summer too.”
Argos 79, Oregon-Davis 54
OREGON-DAVIS (54) (5-12)
Gabriella Krause 6 5-8 18, Madison Wireman 1 0-0 2, Ashleigh Laster 2 0-0 4, Jayla Patrick 6 0-0 16, Sarah Thompson 2 10-14 14, Chloe Temple 0 0-0 0, Natalie Thompson 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 17 15-22 54
ARGOS (79) (8-10)
Samantha Redinger 18 9-12 55, Alydiah Leed 4 1-2 10, Morgyn Barcus 1 1-2 4, Aleasia Sarver 0 0-0 0, Ellie Bollenbacher 5 0-0 10, Lexi Gibson 0 0-0 0, Leah Pizzuto 0 0-0 0, Grace Thomas 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 28 11-16 79
Three-point field goals:
Oregon-Davis 5 (Patrick 4, Krause),
Argos 12 (Redinger 10, Leed, Barcus)
Total fouls: Oregon-Davis 13, Argos 18
Technical foul: O-D bench, 5:03, fourth
Fouled out: Bollenbacher (ARG), 3:23, fourth
Turnovers: Oregon-Davis 23, Argos 18
Score by quarters
Oregon-Davis 18 5 11 20 – 54
Argos 33 10 16 20 – 79
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