Patberg, Indiana’s best rout Kentucky All-Stars

LEXINGTON, Kentucky — Brent Chitty and Ali Patberg had completely different endings to their first Indiana-Kentucky All-Star Games, but both came away on the winning end Friday night.

Patberg, who earned Miss Basketball honors after leading Columbus North to the Class 4A state title, led the Indiana girls to a 93-49 blowout at Transylvania University. Chitty, the Columbus East coach, then guided the Indiana boys to an 83-80 nail-biter that wasn’t decided until the closing seconds.

Patberg led the Indiana girls with 15 points and three assists and added five rebounds and a steal in only 19 minutes of action. She went 5 of 9 from the field, including 1 of 1 from 3-point range, and 4 of 6 from the free-throw line.

Indiana led only 30-25 at halftime before Patberg keyed a 63-24 second-half spurt.

“The first half, I think they outplayed us,” Patberg said. “We didn’t play with energy. Then, the second half, we picked up the pace, we played harder. We started to rebound, and that led to easy points in transition, and everything started to fall into place after that.

“I think we’re a really good team,” she said. “Once we picked up the intensity in the second half, it was pretty obvious. We knew how bad we played in the first half.”

In the boys game, Carmel’s Ryan Cline, who is headed to Purdue, led Indiana with 23 points, including the go-ahead basket with 25 seconds remaining.

The Indiana girls and boys will host Kentucky again today in a doubleheader at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The girls game begins at 5 p.m., followed by the boys at around 7:30 p.m.

“This is what we’ve worked for our whole lives — playing in this,” Patberg said. “We’ve had a lot of fun as a team. It’s been a good experience. I’m excited for (today) to play at Bankers Life again.”