Hammond Central junior Ciyah Thomas doesn’t take kindly to losing.

The 5-foot-8 guard is all about winning. So although Thomas appreciates the Wolves’ first sectional title since the school opened in 2021, she isn’t satisfied.

“It feels good, but we’re not finished,” Thomas said. “I just do what I can to help us win. It’s not an individual thing. My goal is to win state as a team. I just want to win a state championship.”

The next step along that path for Hammond Central (20-3) arrives Saturday with a Class 4A LaPorte Regional championship game against Valparaiso (18-7), a matchup between the area’s two best teams this season. The Wolves topped the Vikings 49-46 on Dec. 21.

In fact, Hammond Central has not lost to a Region team this season.

Among the opponents was Lake Central, whose recent run of dominance included an appearance in the 4A state championship game last year. The Wolves’ postseason has included second victories against Lake Central, Crown Point and city rival Morton.

Okeisha Howard, who has been Hammond Central’s girls basketball coach in each of the team’s four seasons, understands the significance of the sectional title. It’s the first won by a Hammond public school in girls basketball since Gavit did it in 3A in 2010. Hammond, the school’s forerunner, won its fourth straight 3A sectional title in 2008.

“That’s big,” she said. “The program has been progressing, and to top it off with a sectional championship in this area, it gave the girls hope and belief that anything is accomplishable. The people that usually win it, the Lake Centrals and the Crown Points, they have great programs. So for us to compete against great programs like that is big. It lets us know we can be great as well.”

Thomas has played great in her first season at Hammond Central after transferring from Illinois power Bolingbrook. She’s averaging 14.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, a team-high 3.5 assists and a whopping 6.4 steals, a figure that ranks second in the state, according to MaxPreps.

“I try to hold players down,” Thomas said. “On the defensive end, I try to make people struggle. On offense, I try my best to get people open and score.”

Howard, who was a standout at Old Dominion and played professionally overseas for a decade, typically tasks Thomas with guarding the opponent’s top player.

“She brings defense like no other,” Howard said. “She wants to play at the collegiate level, and I told her, ‘For you to get there, you have to play 94 feet. You have to be a guard who plays 94 feet.’ And that’s what she’s been doing for us. She’s been playing the best players.“Sometimes she sacrifices points. She has no problem taking all of her energy and shutting down players. That’s what we need her to do. When she’s able to score, she does.”

Thomas’ commitment to the team impresses Howard.

“She’s a plus, not only with her talent in sports, but she’s a humble person,” Howard said. “She’s very humble. She’s very coachable. She has a loving spirit. That’s a plus all around the board.

“She’s a great teammate. She’s a leader. She doesn’t like to lose. She brings a lot with her, which is a great thing.”

It didn’t take long for junior guard/forward Valencia Miller, who transferred from Culver Academies, to get a sense of what Thomas is about. Thomas, Miller and star junior guard/forward Indiah Hutchinson are the team’s captains.

“Ciyah has played a big role just motivating everybody to get better,” Miller said. “Her first day, we were scrimmaging, and she was very competitive. I love competing. She really brought that fire to just really get us going.

“I appreciate that about her game. You need that. You need somebody who’s going to get on you and push you, like, ‘You need to work on this, you need to work on that, so we can all get better together.’ Only teammates who care about you would do that.”

Thomas is by no means a stranger to success. She contributed to two outstanding seasons at Bolingbrook, which reached a Class 4A supersectional in 2023.

Thomas also excels in track. She was part of the 400-meter and 800-meter relay teams that qualified for the Class 3A state meet last year.

At various points, Thomas has also participated in football — both tackle and flag — baseball and gymnastics, flourishing in all of them.

“It’s always been something,” she said. “I love competition. I love intensity.”

Thomas brings that intensity to Hammond Central, which is making history.

“I saw it coming from the beginning,” she said. “We just had to put the pieces together and get on the same page.”

Howard saw it coming too.

“It’s been growing,” she said. “Each season, we’ve progressed. It’s growing and growing and growing and growing. I have a vision. The goal is to have the girls be successful on and off the court. The same way you have that drive on the court, you have to have it in the classroom. Because not everybody might play collegiate sports.

“The ultimate goal is to get these girls to be very successful in whatever they do, and they have to have that drive. So the program is definitely growing. Not only are they great athletes, but they’re great students. It helps them out when you push them in every aspect of life. It helps with basketball.”