News & Updates

2016 Womens Inductees Announced

December 15, 2015

The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Directors announces the 2016 Women’s Induction Class to be honored on Saturday, April 30, 2016.

Name High School Graduation
Deana (Moren) Baker  Bremen 1982
Debbie Bolen   North Judson 1988
Cheryl (Dowell) Crowell  Evansville Bosse   1985
Edna (Rochner) Hottell  Georgetown 1929
Mike Griffin Scecina 1962
Luanna Faye Hill  Pike  1978
Melissa (Standley) James South Bend St. Joe 1986
Sonya (Carter) Washington Gary Lew Wallace 1985
Dana Wilkerson Anderson                  1987

 1986 Fort Wayne Northrop undefeated state championship team

Indiana Fever Silver Medal Award

John Harrell         Huntington 1964    

 

Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame announces 15th Womens induction class

(New Castle) – Loaded with basketball talent and tradition, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame proudly announces their 2016 womens induction class, to be honored at the 15th annual Womens Awards Banquet on Saturday, April 30, 2016.

Deana (Moren) Baker remains the all-time leading scorer at Bremen High School, after leading her team in scoring four seasons and totaling 1,259 points. She also set single season records in points (438), scoring average (19 ppg), FG attempts (378), FG made (156), FT attempted (173), FT made (126) and recoveries (212 steals) and graduated as the program leader in recoveries (403) and 2nd in assists. The leading scorer for three seasons at Eastern Mennonite University, she totaled 1,080 points in her three-year career, setting season (85.7%) and career (83.7%) free throw percentage records. She was named the 1986 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Year and a two-time honorable mention All-American and is an inductee in the EMU Athletic Hall of Fame. Following 25 years as a biotechnology / pharmaceutical consultant, she is currently an Assistant Professor of Biology with Thomas University. Holding two masters degrees in Science Education and Pharmacy from California State University and the University of Florida, she resides in Goshen.

Debbie Bolen graduated as Indiana’s all-time leading girls high school basketball scorer and only the 2nd to have topped 2,000 career points when she graduated from North Judson – San Pierre High School in 1988 with 2,421 points. Currently 9th on the IHSAA all-time girls scoring list, Bolen was a three-time 1st team all-state selection, leading her teams to three sectional and two regional championships. She was named a 1988 Indiana All-Star and nominated as an All-American after averaging 25 or more points per game in each of her high school seasons, including averages of 30.4 points and 12.1 rebounds per game her senior year. Bolen became the first woman to score 2,000 career points at an Indiana high school and an Indiana college when she graduated in 1993 as Valparaiso University’s all-time leading scorer with 2,008 points. A four-time all-conference selection, she earned Conference Newcomer of the Year, Conference All-Tournament Team, Conference Player of the Year and Valparaiso University Athlete of the Year honors, where she still holds 17 single-game, season and career records including career points, assists and steals. Employed as a longtime teacher and basketball coach at North Judson, she spent three seasons as the varsity girls head coach from 2012-2015. She resides in Kouts.

Cheryl (Dowell) Crowell set the Evansville high school single-game scoring record before making four NCAA Tounrmanent and consecutive Final Four appearances with Long Beach State. Leading Evansville Bosse to three city, three conference, three sectional, three regional championships and a 1984 state finals appearance, Dowell set the Evansville girls single-game records of 45 points and 22 rebounds during her prep career. At Long Beach State, she was a key member of four NCAA Tournament teams that amassed a combined record of 120-19 and reached consecutive Final Fours in 1987 and 1988. She averaged 7.1 points and 5.3 rebounds as a sophomore member of the 33-3 1986-87 national semifinalists and averaged 8.4 points and 6.7 rebounds the following year for the 28-6 49ers. She graduated as the 5th leading rebounder in school history (809), was 3rd in school history with 17 career double-doubles and remains on the school’s list of NCAA Tournament individual single-game records for FG% (70.0%) and FT% (1.000%). A cosmetologist and case manager in Evansville, she resides there. She is married with four children.

The late Edna (Rochner) Hottell was an early girls basketball pioneer, starring for the Georgetown (now Floyd Central) High School girls basketball team long before IHSAA-sanctioned girls basketball. Joining the high school team as an eighth grader, she played five years with the high school squad. The highest scorer for her four years of high school, she once scored 34 of her team’s 36 points and those teams lost only two games in four years. Following graduation, she played two seasons with the traveling Calumet Girls Basketball team, playing boys rules (full court) and against boys. She scored 18 of her team’s 24 points in one game and was invited to play for the St. Louis All-Stars in the 1931-32 season for the princely sum of $25 per game plus expenses, before her mother disallowed the opportunity. Later marrying Kendall Hottell and helping him run a dairy farm, they had two children. Hottell died in 2008.

Mike Griffin spent a total of 41 years coaching basketball at various levels in Brownsburg, including leading their girls basketball team to its’ only undefeated regular season and state finals appearance. A graduate of Scecina Memorial High School in Indianapolis and Marian College, Griffin served as Brownsburg boys varsity head coach from 1983-85, leading the program to a 24-19 record, including a Hendricks County championship. A 19-year run as girls varsity head coach beginning in 1986 produced a 303-111 record (73%) including 10 county championships, five sectional championships, two regional titles and a trip to the 1991 state finals with a 25-0 team. Leading four of his teams to 20-win seasons, he was named the 1991 State Coach of the Year, 1994 Indiana All-Star assistant coach, a two-time District Coach of the Year and 11 other Coach of the Year honors. He and his wife Jill reside in Brownsburg.

Luanna Faye Hill led Pike High School to early girls basketball success. The first Pike player to be selected an Indiana All-Star (1978), she averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds per game as a senior and set the Pike record for career assists (190). Helping teams to a 44-13 record over three seasons, Pike won three Marion County Championships, 1976, ’77 and ’78, and a 1977 Central Suburban Athletic Conference championship, while Hill was a three-time all-county and two-time all-conference selection. She played one season at Indiana University and one season at Ball State University, graduating with a bachelors degree in Psychology. Employed as a teacher and coach at Pike, Cardinal Ritter and Lebanon since 1982, she has coached basketball, softball, tennis and volleyball at multiple levels. Employed as a teacher at Lebanon High School since 1998, she lives in Indianapolis.

Melissa Standley James helped South Bend St. Joseph’s to their first two girls basketball sectional championships before a record-shattering career at the United States Air Force Academy. A 1986 Indiana All-Star after helping St. Joe’s to 1985 and ’86 sectional championships and a 40-4 record over her junior and senior seasons, she totaled 895 career points and grabbed a school-record 647 rebounds as a two-time all-regional, two-time all-city and all-state player. A three-year leading scorer and four-year leading rebounder at Air Force, she remains their all-time leader in career points (1,738), rebounds (853), free throws made (460) and free throws attempted (667), set the career record in games started (103) and ranks 4th in career FG% (.502). She still holds season records in points (571), scoring average (20.4), free throws made (165) and free throws attempted (242). Standley was a three-time all-conference selection and voted 1990 all-district. An Air Force officer from 1990-1996, she has been a teacher over the last 15 years. Married with two children, she currently is a private tudor and women’s basketball coach at Al Udeid Air Base in the nation of Qatar, where she resides with her husband.

Sonya Carter Washington was a 1985 Indiana All-Star after averaging 27.9 points, 13.0 rebounds and hitting 56% FG and 78% FT her senior year at Gary Lew Wallace High School. She set the school’s career scoring record during her junior year, while she averaged 25.9 points per game. Named to all-conference, all-area, and all-tournament teams, she was the Gary Post-Tribune Player of the Year in 1985 and scored a game-high 17 points and game-high 10 rebounds in Indiana’s win vs. Kentucky in 1985 All-Star games. A four-year starter at U.S. International University in San Diego, CA, she was a three-year team captain and averaged 18.8 points and seven rebounds. She was named conference Newcomer of the Year, a member of the all-freshman team and earned WCC all-conference honors. Employed as a teacher and coach at Pope Elementary, Trinity Christian Academy and currently Parkview Learning Center, she currently resides in Jackson, Tennessee. She is married and has two children and one stepchild.

Dana Wilkerson graduated from Anderson as Madison County’s all-time leading scorer (1,692 points), setting Anderson High School girls records for points, assists and steals. She averaged 26.0 points and 11.4 rebounds her senior season after averaging 23.7 points as a junior. A star of Anderson teams that were 71-15 in her four varsity seasons, they won one regional, three North Central Conference championships and three times won Lafayette Classic. A 1987 Indiana All-Star, she set the single-game (25) and series (46) scoring records for Indiana’s girls in the Indiana – Kentucky All-Star series. A standout at Long Beach State University (alongside fellow 2016 HOF inductee, Cheryl (Dowell) Crowell), she was a member of four NCAA Tournament teams, including their 1988 Final Four squad, that amassed a 107-28 record. Totaling 1,635 career points, she graduated as and remains the program’s 6th all-time leading scorer, is the all-time leader in assists (551),6th in field goals made (644), 6th in field goals attempted (1,396), graduating 3rd in free throws made (326), 3rd in free throws attempted (482) and 3rd in steals (276) and scored in double figures 84 times. A two-time Big West all-conference player, Wilkerson earned academic All-American and 3rd team All-American honors and was a member of the 1988 Junior National Team that won a gold medal in Brazil. Playing with the Long Beach Stingrays, she was a member of their 1998 ABL runner-up team and played with the Chicago Condors in the 1999 ABL season. Involved as a teacher and coach at California’s Woodrow Wilson H.S. in Long Beach, she was later girls athletic director at Lynwood H.S. while their girls basketball teams won 2002 and 2003 California state championships and were named the 2002 National Champions. She resides in Long Beach, California.

On the 30th anniversary of their undefeated state championship season, the 29-0 1985-86 Fort Wayne Northrop Bruins will be inducted collectively into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. The 6th undefeated state champion in Indiana high school girls basketball history, their undefeated season came amidst a streak of 57 consecutive wins, which set an Indiana high school basketball record. The Bruins already feature two individual HOF inductees, the late Dave Riley, who was inducted as a coach into the Hall in 2008 and1987 Miss Basketball Lori Meinerding Morris-DeVries was inducted as an individual in 2014. They will become the 6th IHSAA girls basketball team inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Indiana Fever Silver Medal Award is presented to John Harrell. A graduate of Huntington High School and Huntington College, he is a longtime sportswriter and editor, most notably with the Bloomington Herald Times since 1970. He worked previously in Huntington and Fort Wayne. In December 2000, he created and launched JohnHarrell.net, devoted to Indiana high school football and basketball, revolutionizing the way players, coaches, fans and administrators track results, records, rankings, schedules and postponements and doing so without receiving any pay or fees through the website. Pairing with mathematician Jeff Sagarin since 1980, his website also applies the Sagarin Ratings to Indiana high school teams. A 2006 inductee in the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame, he received the 1995 IHSAA Distinguished Media Service Award and the 2009 Virgil Sweet Service Award from the IBCA. Married to wife Martha for the past 46 years, they reside in Bloomington.

The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s 15th Annual Women’s Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, April 30, 2016. The day’s events will include a free reception at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame museum that afternoon and a banquet that evening at the Primo Banquet Hall in Indianapolis. Reservations are available online now and tickets for the banquet will be made available in 2016. Call the Hall at 765-529-1891 or visit www.hoopshall.com for more information. You may purchase a congratulatory ad for an inductee or honoree either online or through the mail.