Bloomfield, a small rural town in Southern Indiana, has one of everything: one fast food restaurant, one post office and one public school.

It also has one basketball star.

Lindsay Secrest, a 6-foot sharpshooting swing player from Bloomfield High School, used to let her offensive game run free on the basketball court. A year and 300 miles later, Secrest got a reality check as she stepped onto the court with the NIU women’s basketball team.

Having to learn the college game and understand NIU coach Carol Hammerle’s defensive system meant her days of running free had ended. Secrest brought with her an ability to score, currently averaging 9.2 points per game, but her most important development would be at defense.

Before college, countless hours in the gym and thousands of shots made her one of the Hoosier state’s premier scorers at the prep level. The second leading prep scorer in Indiana in 2000, Secrest pumped in 28.9 points per game during her senior year.

Playing basketball longer than she can remember, Secrest spent her summers shooting hoops in Bloomfield’s gym. She spent as many as seven hours a day shooting during the summer, often going up against boys. She said playing against boys helped improve her speed and physical play. In her youth, she would play pickup games with her father’s friends from the National Guard.

“They would always make me stay out and shoot threes because they were afraid that I would get hurt because I was so little,” Secrest said. “When I’d shoot, it was the best feeling because it was like ‘Oh, that little girl scored on you!'”

As a prep player, Paula Fettig, Secrest’s high school coach, said she never left the game, except when in foul trouble. Secrest wanted to be in every minute, so much that she even trained herself to shoot with her left hand, in case she ever broke her right. As her skills developed, her confidence soared.

She raised her expectations of herself and looked at the college game as the next challenge.

However, when preseason conditioning at NIU started last fall, she found just how tough that challenge would be. The freshman tried playing with a focus on offense and aggressively attacking the basket — the only way she knew how to play the game. But returning players told her otherwise. Secrest no longer dominated the court, and her high school game would soon have to change.

“I think I had a lot more confidence. It was almost to the point of being cocky,” Secrest said. “Before the game, I could go out there and nobody’s going to stop me — even if I was having a bad game. I don’t have a lot of confidence [at NIU]. I do with my shot, but with the rest of my game, I feel like I have a lot of work to do.”

Secrest struggled defensively at the start of the season and said she felt lost at times. She also played inconsistently offensively. Secrest opened the season with a 26-point performance against Illinois State, then failed to score when NIU took on North Carolina State.

“I think she was frustrated,” Hammerle said. “All freshmen went through that, but Lindsay had been so successful in high school. Because she didn’t get it right away, it frustrated her and affected her performance.”

At NIU, she needed to learn how to share minutes with equally talented players and about the concept of team play, especially when playing Hammerle’s man-to-man defense. Secrest struggled with picking her spots, which if not executed, could weaken the team.

“She’s been the top scorer in high school, so I think she placed a higher premium on scoring,” Hammerle said. “She learned here we placed more emphasis on defense and that we wanted defense to be our identity.”

Sophomore Kristan Knake, who played the same wing forward position as Secrest, guided Secrest from the start. Knake shared the same experience of learning the defense last year. Knake and Kim Boeding helped Secrest and the rest of the NIU freshmen learn the system. Hammerle said Secrest’s struggles defensively have affected the rest of her game and has led her to be tentative with her ball-handling and drive to the basket. But one skill has never left her.

Through Saturday, Secrest drained a team-leading 46 3-point baskets for the season, the 6th best season total in NIU history. She connected on 39 percent of her attempts, also a team best. She still has her scoring touch, as she torched Marshall University for 26 points Jan. 6 and tallied 9 rebounds and 6 steals.

“I think she adds a little spark off the bench — whether she gets the steal or hits the three,” Knake said. “I think at times we feed off her.”

After months struggling defensively, Hammerle said that Secrest finally has started to pick it up. Secrest uses her size and quickness to force turnovers, and currently, she leads the team in steals with 57.

“I think she’s picked [the defense] up well,” Knake said. “With a little more work, she could be one of our best defensive players.”