Zionsville sweeps Charlie Hughes Showcase, signals early-season promise

Zionsville left the Charlie Hughes Showcase with four wins and a clearer read on where its girls team stands heading into the rest of the summer. The Eagles beat Greensburg 56-53, Washington 50-33, Bedford North Lawrence 61-36 and Oak Hill 49-44, closing the weekend by outlasting the Class 2A runner-up.

The showcase itself was built for that kind of evaluation. Held June 19-20 at Fishers High School and Hamilton Southeastern High School, the fourth annual IBCA/IHSAA Girls Team Showcase drew more than 100 teams and was played under NCAA and NFHS rules, with college coaches allowed in the gym. Teams played four regulation 32-minute stop-clock games, and no champion was crowned.

For Zionsville, the numbers mattered because of who was missing. Senior guard McKenzie Chapman, who tore her ACL in March, did not play, and senior guard Sammie Kulkulwicki later went down with an ankle issue in the final game of the day. Even with the backcourt thin, the Eagles found enough ball-handling and composure to finish the weekend unbeaten, a sign that the roster is beginning to settle into roles after an uneven start to the summer.

Emma Tinder carried much of the scoring load. She finished the Oak Hill game with 24 points and five rebounds, and head coach Jen Drudge said Tinder had scored more than 30 points in each of the first three games. Emily Zack added 21 points and five rebounds in the finale and hit the free throws that pushed the game to overtime and helped Zionsville secure the win. Against a senior-heavy opponent in Oak Hill, that combination of pressure scoring and late-game poise gave the Eagles their toughest test of the weekend.

Drudge said she was proud of how the group came together after missing players during the first two weeks of summer league. That was the through line of the showcase for Zionsville: not just the 4-0 record, but the way younger guards handled the ball, how the team held together late against Oak Hill, and how Tinder and Zack gave the Eagles multiple scoring options when the lineup was stretched.

The weekend also fit into a bigger picture for a program trying to rise after a 10-13 first season for Drudge and a 12-12 finish last winter, when Zionsville placed third in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference. Tinder and Zack were both included among players moving up in June’s Indiana 2027 rankings, and their production at the showcase gave that buzz some substance.