Turns out Center Grove still has some guards who can put the ball in the basket.
Senior Emma Utterback poured in a career-best 23 points and classmate Ella Thompson added 15 as the Trojans got the new season started with a convincing 49-24 rout of visting Plainfield on Tuesday night.
"Going into this game, I was like, ‘You know what? You already know where you’re going to college, and you’ve got to be confident in your shot, be confident in your game and what got you here,’" Utterback said.
The visiting Quakers (0-1) scored the first three points of the opening quarter as well as the last four, but Center Grove squeezed a 14-0 run in between to build an early lead. Utterback had 10 of those points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers to get the Trojans started.
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The Vermont recruit kept her roll going into the second quarter, scoring eight straight points to start up another extended run of 14 in a row. Ella Thompson followed with a 3-pointer and a three-point play to stretch the Trojan lead to 31-10 with 58.2 seconds to go in the half.
Utterback went into the break with 18 points, which matched her previous high-water mark from last November.
"She’s got a really good mid-range jump shot," Center Grove coach Kevin Stuckmeyer said. "She’s really high percentage from there, and she showed that tonight. … She was very efficient."
Center Grove scored the first six points of the third quarter to make it 37-12, and the Quakers got no closer than 17 the rest of the way.
Sophomore Mary Wilson contributed seven points for Center Grove. Thompson had four assists and Utterback finished with four steals, spearheading a Trojan defense that forced more than 20 turnovers.
"Our defense caused them some troubles," Stuckmeyer said. "We were really solid in our positioning."
The victory should serve as a springboard for the Trojans, who now face a pair of ranked opponents in Brownsburg and defending state champion Warren Central.
"It was a good start for our entire team," Utterback said. "I think it brought us a lot of confidence. We have some really good teams coming up. We have Brownsburg and Warren Central, very strong, dominant offensive teams, so we need to be ready to play."
