Crown Point’s Alex Webster gets ready to put up a 3-pointer on Saturday night in the Bulldogs’ 55-48 loss to Wawasee in the Region Roundball Rumble. (Tasos Katopodis / The Times)

HAMMOND -- If there are any Archie Bunkers left in the Region who still sneer at girls basketball, they'll have a tough time explaining what happened Saturday at the Civic Center.

With six top boys teams from across the state gathered for the third Times Region Roundball Rumble, it was a girls matchup that stole the show, as Wawasee (7-0) downed Crown Point 55-48.

"This shows that the Region is finally accepting girls basketball," said Crown Point all-state candidate Alex Webster, who put in 23 points.

"Just because we can't dunk doesn't mean we can't play," said Webster.

Region allies of the chauvinistic Bunker of the 'All in the Family' sitcom would be hard-pressed to explain away the irony of the girls matchup attracting the largest crowd, most excitement and arguably providing the best example of Hoosier basketball.

Wawasee’s Shanna Zolman, the leading candidate for the Indiana Miss Basketball award this season, puts up a shot over Crown Point’s Janel Heneghan on Saturday night. (Tasos Katopodis / The Times)

And all of this in the Civic Center, an aging facility that stands for Region boys basketball.

"Girls basketball is almost always more fundamentally sound. You put that in an old, classy building like the Civic Center, and people appreciate the whole package. It's Hoosier basketball," said Wawasee all-everything guard Shanna Zolman.

The buzz surrounding the game had a lot to do with the matchup between Zolman, considered by many to be the No. 1 girls high school player in the country, and Webster.

The two guarded each other from the start, with Crown Point (5-2) getting the tip and Webster driving the baseline and banking one in with Zolman on her back. Zolman, who's signed with powerhouse Tennessee, answered with a quick 3-pointer at the other end.

That exchange set the tone for the evening, as Webster hit several key shots, only to be countered by either a no-look pass by Zolman or a basket.

"I knew what Shanna could do. We've played against and with each other. Tonight she just proved to everyone in the Region that she's for real," said Webster, who's signed with Southern Mississippi.

The Times No. 2 Lady Bulldogs took several early leads, as Webster had 15 first-half points and center Carissa Triplett scored six points and had six rebounds.

But at halftime Wawasee coach Kem Zolman, more and more often referred to merely as "Shanna's dad," made adjustments to cut off passes into the 6-foot-2 Triplett. That also clogged the lane for Webster and made it tougher for her to drive to the basket.

Wawasee junior forward Meagan Wallen also stepped up in the third quarter, twice stealing the ball and going the length of the court on the way to 13 second-half points.

Crown Point pulled to within one with three minutes left, but Zolman was fouled and hit 6 of her 10 free throws for the game in the last few minutes to ice the game. She finished with 26.

"We haven't figured out that she (Zolman) shoots 94 percent from the line. But we're working on that," said CP coach Tom May. "But other than a few breakdowns on defense, we played well. Everything out there was hard-fought and the tournament-like atmosphere can only help us."