HILLARY SMITH: With the will, the Cougars are finding their way

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP | Smiling on the edge of the court, the Gary 21st Century girls basketball team beamed like a squad that had won a sectional championship.

In reality, the Cougars had just lost, 73-19, to Morgan Township.

Still, the moment was captured, each face a smiling reminder of how far the team had come this season, their first in IHSAA postseason play.

Through a 100-4 loss to NorthWood, 21st Century kept beaming. Through a 90-34 loss to Roosevelt, the Cougars didn't stop and didn't complain.

When their head coach left after the second game of the season, leaving two assistants in charge as the combined interim head coaches, the team didn't blink.

Why? Because despite the 3-16 record they'll finish the season with, the Cougars saw progress.

"Honestly, I feel like overall we grew the most in scoring," junior guard Demonique Wilder said. "In the past seasons, we never got to the 30s, and this year we were in the 50s, and sometimes even higher.

"(After the losses) we were taught not to look at the score, look at how hard you played and if you did your best."

As social media pundits took to message boards to question the 100-4 loss, coach Alan Gaines said he doesn't blame a single opponent. When Morgan Township hit a 3-pointer, up by 50 with 4 minutes left in the game, there's no animosity or questioning of sportsmanship from Gaines or his team.

"Once we get big enough to put 73 on somebody, we're going to put up 73," Gaines said. "We'll take our lumps, but we told our girls, 'Don't look at the score, play the play and play the game.'"

Their average margin of difference this season was 25.1 points. Last season it was 50 points, and the year before that it was 58.8 points.

That's what progress is.

"There's a difference between having a team and a program. That was a program that we played, a 4A school with state championships," Gaines said. "You don't see what we're going to one day be. When every pass that needs to be made is made and every cut is a cut, not a half-cut. You just have to point out, why did you lose that game?"

The pundits can stop complaining, as can those decrying sportsmanship. Anyone who thinks that a Class 4A school such as NorthWood shouldn't be playing 21st Century only needs to remember that Chesterton was among the first 4A teams to put Bowman on the schedule and within two years, the Eagles had beaten the Trojans.

The Cougars don't graduate a single senior. Despite being a fourth-year program, 21st Century is a team of seven freshmen, two sophomores and three juniors. Every one of them gave a smile for the camera, proud to put a face on the first sectional team.

"This feels excellent, because I can look back and say I was one of the founding players at this school," Wilder said. "That next year we can say we played in the first two sectionals, that just feels great."

This column solely represents the writer's opinion. Reach her at hillary.smith@nwi.com.