GIRLS’ TEAM OF THE WEEK | Dragons win second straight regional title

By GREG MENGELT

In the morning session of Saturday’s regional at Charlestown, Silver Creek senior Kynidi Mason-Striverson carried the Dragons to a 48-44 victory over Rushville.

Saturday evening was a little different. After Mason-Striverson scored half of the Dragons’ points in the semifinal, a balanced Silver Creek team captured consecutive regional titles for the first time in program history with a 53-39 victory over Gibson Southern (19-8).

Senior Lacey Tingle led the Dragons with 16 points. She also has team bests of seven rebounds and two blocked shots. Senior Emme Rooney a big early 3-pointer with her team down three and added 11 points. Senior Sydney Sierota had a poor day shooting — in both games — but contributed in other ways.

“I thought Lacey Tingle came through with some big and-1 buckets. I thought Sydney did a really good job of attacking the rim. I thought Reese Decker came in and was phenomenal off the bench. She came ready to play,” Silver Creek head coach Scott Schoen said. “I had a feeling they were going to double Kynidi and try to take her away. She scored 24 of our 48 points in the first game, but the team that we have here, we have multiple kids who can score. We did a really nice job of sharing the ball and we did a really good job of finishing.”

Mason-Striverson, who didn’t score for the first 9 minutes of the contest, finished with 14 and made two big 3s as the Dragons took control in the second period.

Silver Creek will face Chatard (18-10) in this Saturday’s Class 3A Jeffersonville Semistate with a spot in the state championship game on the line. Tipoff is scheduled for approximately 3 p.m. The 3A game will follow the Class A semistate between Waldron (24-1) and Tecumseh (18-8), which eliminated Lanesville for the second straight season on Saturday at West Washington.