Marquette Catholic Breaks Free Late for First State Title
Sophia Nolan’s only basket of the second half sparked a 7-0, game-ending run to lift Marquette Catholic to a 38-31 win over Vincennes Rivet in the Class A championship game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Nolan finished with a team-high 12 points for the Blazers, with 10 coming in the first half.
The victory gives Marquette Catholic (27-2) and coach Katie Collignon its first state championship in program history. Rivet, which had previously won the 2011 state title, finishes 26-3.
Rivet broke out to an 11-6 lead after one quarter, but cold shooting plagued coach Rick Marshall’s squad. Marquette came back to take a 17-13 lead at halftime and still led, 27-24, after three quarters. After Nolan broke the tie, her sister, Emma, added a basket and the Blazers closed the game with three free throws in four attempts – their only chances from the line in the game.
Sophia Nolan finished with a team-high 12 points and seven rebounds, while Emma Nolan also had seven rebounds.
Grace Waggoner led Rivet, which shot 8-of-46 (17 percent) from the floor in the contest, had 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Class A State Championship Records
Fewest Points Allowed:Â 31 by Marquette Catholic.
Vincennes Rivet’s Megan Niehaus named Mental Attitude Award winner
Following the game, members of the IHSAA Executive Committee named Megan Niehaus of Rivet High School as the winner of the Patricia L. Roy Mental Attitude Award in Class A Girls Basketball.
The award is presented annually to a senior participant in each classification who was nominated by her principal and coach and has demonstrated excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability.
She ranks third in her senior class of 26 students, has served as Student Council president and secretary of the National Honor Society. She is part of the Youth Leadership Knox County, Rotary Interact Club Secretary and has been part of Rivet’s contingent to the IHSAA Student Leaderhip Conference.
Beside basketball where she is a two-time All Conference honoree, she also has played soccer and run track for Rivet where she was voted most valuable player and was a two-time sectional champion in both the 100 and 200 dash.
She is the daughter of Butch and Tina Niehaus of Vincennes and plans to pursue a Doctorine of Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern Indiana.
The Indiana Fever and Indiana Pacers, the presenting sponsor of the IHSAA Girls Basketball State Tournament, presented a $1,000 scholarship to Rivet High School in the name of Megan Niehaus. Since 1989, more than $840,000 in college scholarships have been presented to deserving high school athletes in Indiana.
The award is named in honor of the former IHSAA assistant commissioner Patricia L. Roy, who oversaw the girls basketball state tournament from its inception in 1976 until her retirement in 1999.
