Both Castle teams take home hardware from Toyota Classic

PRINCETON, Ind. -- It was a pleasant bus ride back to Newburgh for the Castle girls’ and boys’ basketball teams late Saturday night, and each team earned it.
 
The pair became just the third set of teams representing the same school to win the Toyota Classic championship in the tournaments 17-year history and the first since Gibson Southern in 2002.

It took were wins over Wood Memorial Tuesday, Princeton Thursday and Gibson Southern Saturday for both teams to take home a trophy.

Most of the tournament was smooth sailing for the Knights’ teams. 

Over the course of the six games the two teams combined to play in, only one, the boys’ championship game, was decided by single digits 59-57 against Gibson Southern.

The Class 4A No. 9 Castle girls’ team (14-0) won its three games in the tournament by an average of 30 points each, and the boys’ team (6-3), even with the close outcome against Gibson Southern, still won its three games by a combined average of 14 points.

On the court, the two Castle teams were hard to stop.

“The girls just usually play hard,” Castle girls’ coach Bob Meier said. “We talk about controlling your attitude and your effort and for the most part, we’re always able to do that. (Saturday) was no exception.” 

Added boys coach Brian Gibson: “We have guys that are committed to winning championships. Making the extra pass (worked well for us) we had a lot of assists in the first two ball games. I don’t know how many we had (Saturday) but we did a nice job of finding each other and to be successful, that’s how we have to play.”

Aside from taking home the main trophies, each Castle team finished with two players earning all-tournament team accolades.

Forwards Chloe Mills, who led all scorers with 20 points in the girls’ championship game, and Jessica Nunge, who added 17 points of her own in the final game, represented the Castle girls’ on the all-tournament team.

The boys’ found representation from guard Alex Hemenway, who led the Knights in scoring in the championship with 18 points, and forward Jace Stieler, who finish second on the team with 14 points. 

Wherever the teams go from here, both gain a confidence boost after collecting a mid-season trophy, but neither team wants this victory to be the sole high note of its season.

The girls’ team continued to show dominance on the court throughout the tournament. The team has won every game this season by double digits and 13 of its 14 wins have been by more than 20 points.

“Doing this just inspires us to keep moving forward and it’s a lot of motivation,” Nunge said. “There’s a good chance (we could win state), we’re all hopeful and we’re going to battle for it. We’re not going to take anything for granted.”

As for the boys’ team, it was able to shake off three straight losses in early December to capture the Toyota Classic championship. 

“It’s a big confidence booster,” Hemenway said. “You won’t be able to tell whether we can make (it to state) right now. You’re going to have to tell when we’re far into the postseason because we make adjustments and we have to make everything we put into practice come out on the court.”