LAPORTE — Do they have your attention now?

Heading into Saturday’s regional tournament at LaPorte, the Northridge girls basketball team boasted its second-ever sectional title, back-to-back conference championships, the state’s No. 7 ranking in class 4-A and a 26-1 record. But, somehow, that was not catching the attention of many people outside of Middlebury. But after picking up the school’s first-ever, boys or girls, regional basketball title with a 55-45 defeat of Merrillville, the Raiders are demanding the state’s attention.

“We’re motivated by being that team,” admitted Northridge senior Kelsey Brickner. “We’re definitely overlooked. Coming into this year people didn’t give us a chance after we lost three great seniors last year. But we knew we had to show everyone what we still had. I think people are finally starting to realize what we’ve got. We had an awesome crowd today, everyone is coming out to support what we’re trying to do.”

Brickner gave Raider Nation plenty to cheer for during Saturday’s title tilt. The senior had a stellar performance, scoring a team-high 21 points. That number has been one of significance for the Raiders this postseason.

“She (Brickner) had 21 today,” explained Raider head coach Doug Springer. “Brooke (McKinley) had 21 in the Penn game, Marci (Miller) had 21 in the Warsaw game. 21 is a good number.”

Merrillville’s Jasmine Wright was the only scorers to total more than Brickner as she had a game-high 23 points.

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Brickner scored the first eight points for Northridge on the night and had 12 of the team’s 16 points in the first quarter. She was a force to be reckoned with and she continued to punish Merrillville all night. Brickner’s biggest moment came, arguably, in the fourth quarter.

The Raiders started the final quarter out red hot as Juliane Miller sank a three, she finished her night with 10 points, that shot was followed up by two buckets from Brickner. Northridge had a 7-2 going to start the frame, forcing a Merrillville timeout. The stoppage was surely used to cal the Pirates down, but things only got worse.

Out of the timeout Merrillville immediately turned the ball over, giving possession back to the Raiders and a fired up Brickner. The senior found herself alone at the top of the key and drained a three. With 5:02 left to play the Raiders held a 43-31 lead. There was still plenty of basketball to be played, but Brickner’s three seemed to be the defining moment of the regional championship.

“That was big,” Springer said of Brickner’s triple. “How huge was she tonight? She carried us tonight. She scored our first eight or nine points, she put us on her back. That’s what you want from your seniors. This team is so unselfish. Tonight it was Kelsey Brickner, that three was humongous.”

“I think it gave us a lot of momentum and confidence,” remarked Brickner when asked about the shot. “We know once we get up, once we get excited, we can just keep building off of it. We all have confidence in each other, that’s so important. Momentum was a big thing for us tonight.”

Brickner’s three was rivaled by one other shot in the quarter. While the three from Brickner was the proverbial warning shot to Merrillville, McKinley had the joy of delivering the symbolic dagger. With 2:50 left to play, the Raiders were playing keep away and nursing a 45-38 lead. The Pirates were making the Raiders work for every pass, but a breakdown left McKinley wide open on the wing. The shot was ill-advised, given the situation, but McKinley brought the crowd to its feet by draining the rainmaker and sucking most of the remaining energy from Merrillville’s sideline.

The Raiders will have their 28-1 record put to the test this Saturday as they take on No. 2 Homestead (26-2) at  Crown Point in the semistate. The game will begin at approximately 3 p.m. (ET), following the Class 3-A semistate contest at 1 p.m. pitting Heritage Christian versus South Bend St. Joseph.

But that’s another challenge that the Raiders are more than ready to accept.

“We’ve done it all year,” Springer explained. “We’ll come back on Tuesday and start talking Homestead. We’re going to celebrate up until Monday, no practice Monday like normal, we’ll keep it like a normal week. It’s just another game, yes it’s the final four, yes it’s semi-state. But, like I’ve told the girls, it doesn’t matter what the outcome is, they’re all winners for everything they’ve done for our community and our school.”

“Coach always has us ready to go,” Brickner said of her team’s upcoming hurdle. “We take everything game by game and practice by practice. We just have to be confident and know that we can do anything because nobody thought we were going to do all of this. It feels good.”