Catherine Buddenberg hustled for the ball near the sidelines in the first half of the Dixie Heights game Saturday with Mercy.
The junior did not grab it, but she did keep it in play and the ball veered out of bounds off a Mercy player chasing it with her.
Hustle plays like that and more have made people turn their heads as the host Colonels finished the first week of the season undefeated with a 49-37 win over the defending 6th Region champion from Louisville in the Hoops for Harvest Classic.
“They go pretty far. When you hustle, it pays off and it helps the whole entire team,” Buddenberg said. “Defense leads into offense. When we all work together, we click. We’ve been playing together since we were in seventh and eighth grade. So when we talk on offense and defense, it all leads to good teamwork.”
Buddenberg ended up leading the Colonels (3-0) with 12 points going above her average. Buddenberg had been averaging nine points entering the game.
Buddenberg had plenty of help. Junior Bella Crawford and senior guard Jalynn Brooks scored 11 points each with senior Avery Moore scoring all eight of her points in the first half giving the Colonels a big lift in the paint.
“(Mercy) stayed in that (2-3 matchup) zone so we found spaces, got in rhythm and found the open shots,” said Joel Steczynski, Dixie Heights head coach. “It took us a bit to get that. I think we were getting worn down and we were in foul trouble from the tip. We have to clean that up.”
Mercy has some size with senior centers Peyton Arnold and Leah Kaelin, but Dixie Heights overcame that consistently making some nice cuts and on target passes to finish around them near the rim.
“We’ve worked a lot in practice on getting these extra passes, not dribbling a lot,” Crawford said. “I think we all gained a lot of trust over the practices in the summer. We all know we can make a shot and we all know we’ll work hard to get the rebounds.”
Mercy (0-3) graduated three seniors from last year’s state quarterfinal team and saw its two leading scorers transfer to other programs. Division I prospect Leah Macy (25 points per game average last year) transferred to Bethlehem and Alyssa Murphy (13.4) made the move to Corydon Central (Indiana).
Sophomore guard Abby Reitzel kept Mercy in the game scoring a game-high 22 points. Steczynski credited Brooks for holding Reitzel to two points in the second half.
Dixie Heights led 10-5 after Buddenberg converted a three-point play. Mercy cut it to one later in the quarter before Brooks made a triple at the buzzer to put the Colonels up 15-11 after one.
Mercy went up 23-21 in the second quarter before the Colonels finished the half with a 6-0 run to go up 30-25 at halftime. Crawford capped the run off hitting a jumper.
The Colonels started the third quarter strong going up 35-27 almost two minutes into the second half after a Crawford three-point play before Mercy scored seven in a row to trim the margin to 35-34 after the third quarter.
Olivia Pifer put in an offensive rebound to give Mercy a 36-35 advantage 40 seconds into the fourth quarter, but the Colonels finished the game scoring 14 in a row going up 49-36 with 1:11 left in the game. Buddenberg made two free throws then a lay-up from the left side to finish it.
“We actually had an opportunity to pull away in the third. We were getting the shots that we wanted,” Steczynski said. “They weren’t falling at the end of the third.”
Dixie Heights travels to Holy Cross (1-2) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
COLONELS 49, JAGUARS 37
MERCY — 11-14-9-3 — 37
DIXIE HEIGHTS — 15-15-5-14 — 49
Scoring
Mercy (37) — Reitzel 22, McCauley 5, Kaelin 4, Pifer 3, Arnold 2, Becker 1
Dixie Heights (49) — Buddenberg 12, Brooks 11, Crawford 11, Moore 8, Carner 5, Thelen 2
Free Throws: Mercy 8/15, Dixie Heights 9/12
3-Pointers made: Mercy 5, Dixie Heights 2
Records: Mercy 0-3, Dixie Heights 3-0
