Recent Columbus East graduate and Indiana All-Star Saige Stahl (12) goes up for a shot as Kentucky’s Love Mays (left) and Abby Holtman (5) defend Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Photo courtesy of IBCA/Indiana All-Stars
Saige Stahl averaged 26 points a game during her senior season at Columbus East, but she knew she would have a different role when she played for the Indiana All-Stars against Kentucky last week.
Stahl grabbed eight rebounds both Friday and Saturday night, and Indiana came away with a split in the two-game series that dates back nearly a half-century.
“I knew scoring was going to be totally different,” Stahl said. “You’re playing against the best players, so I told myself I was going to focus on rebounding, and that’s exactly what I did. On Friday night, I got some some good grabs, and on Saturday, I was able to grab, my college coach told me, ‘eight big rebounds.’ That was my goal, and to achieve that, I was pretty happy.”
After arriving for practice Tuesday at Marian University, the All-Stars had an exhibition game against the Indiana Junior All-Stars Wednesday at Cathedral. Stahl scored 11 points, but the Juniors won 102-75.
On Friday, Stahl had three points and eight rebounds in 10 minutes of action in a 72-62 loss to Kentucky in Owensboro, Kentucky.
“Every game, we knew we had to be ready to go, especially starting off with the Junior game,” Stahl said. “We’d never played with each other before, so that first game was definitely our hardest. We struggled a bit, and we lost, and we took that to heart and we went out there on Friday and played Kentucky. We fixed some little things, and we ended up losing that game, as well, but we knew what we had to do for the next game. We had to dig down deep and figure it out.”
Wanting to avoid a sweep, Indiana battled back to pull out a 71-67 win against Kentucky on Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Stahl finished with two points and eight rebounds in about 15 1/2 minutes of action.
“Walking into Gainbridge, we knew that it was our home court, and we knew we had to put everything we had out there, considering it was our last high school event,” Stahl said. “We knew that we wanted to win, and we would do anything that we had to do to get that.”
The Indiana team was missing guard RaShunda Jones of South Bend Washington on Saturday.
“We actually lost one of our handlers,” Stahl said. “She had to go graduate, so we made some adjustments to our starting lineup, and switching in and out with different girls, we were able to move the ball faster, run up and down the court. We had to change our speed of the game to be better than theirs, and that’s exactly what we did. We moved the ball. We worked down the court, and we were just able to get better shots and hit shots, which was different than (Friday) night. We didn’t shoot very well, but we were able to come out and do better.”
Miss Basketball Laila Hull of Zionsville led Indiana with 22 points in the victory.
“I have so much respect with all the girls that I played with,” Stahl said. “I knew each and every one of them were great, so I know it was hard for the coach to decide who to go in at what point. So I waited my turn, and when I went in, I just gave it everything I had.”
Stahl had a memorable five days with the All-Stars. Coming away with a victory on Saturday made it all that more special for her.
“It was definitely a fun week and a week to remember,” Stahl said. “I made great friends and got to know everybody on the team a little bit more.”
One of those All-Star teammates was Hobart’s Asia Donald, a future teammate of Stahl at Indiana State.
“I was able to talk to her a little bit and get to know her before we head to Indiana State in July,” Stahl said. “I was able to see what type of player she is. I know she likes to attack, just like me. She can handle the ball pretty well, so it was good to be able to recognize those things before being at Indiana State.”
Stahl now will get to work to try to be in the best possible shape she can be when she goes to ISU next month. She’s also been able to get up some shots at Trinity Lutheran, where her brother Hudson will be a freshman in the fall.
“We have a schedule of some things that we have to do to be in shape for when we head to Indiana State, just so that we can have more time on the court rather than worry about conditioning,” Stahl said. “So I have some things I have to do. I’m going to keep going to the court, working and shooting. I have to keep my body fit and in better condition before I head there, so that’s my goal.”
