Lady Indians face Mendon for title today
By JEFF LAMPE
For The Weekly Post
Regional titles never get old, not even in Brimfield, where the girls basketball team celebrated its 20th championship last Friday following a 67-39 victory over Annawan at Woodhull.
After a tight first quarter, Brimfield (28-4) took control with a 26-13 run in the second quarter that basically did away with the 21-11 Lincoln Trail Conference champions.
“We started feeling pretty comfortable in the second quarter and they just didn’t recover after that,” Brimfield Coach Maribeth Dura said. “Our press was pretty effective and it has been for a few games.”
The celebration was not a long one, though. Not for the No. 1 team in Class 1A. No, the goal since day one of this season has been bigger than a regional.
Tuesday evening offered another step toward that larger accomplishment, as Brimfield gutted past No. 5 Mount Sterling Brown County (27-6), 63-49.
Playing on its home floor for the sectional, Brimfield again looked comfortable early against a Brown County team that had thrashed Havana, 58-29, in its regional final. Brimfield jumped to a 17-4 lead with two minutes left in the first quarter and appeared poised to blow Brown County out of the gym. Instead, the game provided the Lady Indian’s bench a chance to step up and show some grit.
Foul trouble to senior stars Ella Lune and Ellyn Peterson, injuries to Jaclyn Fabry and Elly Doe’s lost contact all conspired to force Dura deeper into her bench than usual. At various points in the second half, Brimfield was playing without three starters on the floor. Yet the Lady Indians maintained at least a 12-point lead, despite an unusual number of turnovers while Peterson sat after picking up a fourth foul in the third quarter.
“If it wasn’t for everyone, we wouldn’t be here. They did a great job,” Dura said. “Honestly, that’s as gutsy as I’ve ever seen this team because we had to face some adversity. And Brown County is a great team. They play a lot like us. To get through that with what we had tonight, it was great.”
Despite sitting the last four minutes of the second quarter, Lune led with 20 points and Peterson had 16 in spite of her foul trouble.
Helping pick up the slack was Doe, who had 12 points and three 3-pointers and Maddie Hessing, who scored 8 off the bench.
With the victory, Brimfield advances to face Mendon Unity Thursday at 7 p.m. for the Brimfield Sectional title.
The Lady Indians have won five sectionals, with the most recent in 2015-16. Brimfield’s lone trip to state came in 2008-09 when the team placed fourth overall.
While Tuesday’s game with Brown County pitted Brimfield against a relatively new foe, the Lady Indians had already beaten Annawan by 49 points.
The margin was closer this time, but after its strong second quarter, Brimfield was in control.
Eastern Illinois recruit Lune scored 22 points and had 8 rebounds and 6 assists, but also had plenty of support from fellow seniors Peterson (15 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals) and Sophie Bedell (18 points, 8 rebounds).
“Sophie was just all over the place, diving on the ground and getting after balls. It was good to see,” Dura said. “And our all-purpose player Jaclyn Fabry, she drew the toughest defensive assignment.”
Fabry limited center Annawan’s Cassidy Miller to 13 points and earned praise from Dura for keeping Miller from backing to the basket for layups.
First regional crown for Lady Trojans
By JEFF LAMPE
For The Weekly Post
“We’re going up there,” junior Liv Meyers said, pointing to the banners above her in the Elmwood gymnasium last Friday. “We’re going up there.”
Moments later, Meyers and her Elmwood teammates took turns posing with a regional championship plaque – the first time a Lady Trojans basketball team has experienced that joy.
After starting “a little tight” on its home floor according to Coach Gregg Meyers, the Elmwood girls showed just how far they’ve come this season. Having split with Illini Bluffs in the regular season, Elmwood (25-6) took control down the stretch of its 44-30 win.
The Lady Trojans hit 15 of 21 free throws against IB (20-13) and used a 13-4 run in the fourth to advance to Tuesday’s sectional semifinal at Brimfield. That Elmwood lost that game to No. 7-ranked Mendon Unity (28-5), 49-29, takes little away from a memorable season.
“To go [25-6] you have to pretty much show up every night and play hard,” Coach Gregg Meyers said. “There’s been nights we haven’t made shots and nights the ball didn’t bounce our way, but I felt they played hard the whole time.”
That was true against IB, which beat Elmwood on Dec. 18 (36-29) and narrowly lost to the Lady Trojans on Jan. 12 (36-33).
Elmwood led 13-7 after one quarter last Friday as junior Melody Glenn drained two 3-pointers and sophomore reserve Lauren Rushing tallied all five of her points. From there, the middle quarters were a battle, and IB closed the gap to five (31-26) heading into the fourth quarter.
That’s when Elmwood showed its improvement, holding IB to just two baskets and outscoring the visitors 13-4. Sophomore Mae Herman had 7 of her 11 points in the fourth and was 5-for-6 on free throws, Glenn hit both free throws in the final quarter for a team-high 16 points and junior Liv Meyers scored 4 of her 12 points.
“They’ve got some good basketball players, so to hold them to 30 points was good,” Meyers said. “It was only 17-12 at halftime. Defensively we were doing a good job, but offensively there were some things where we were trying to do too much.
“Obviously we got a little better flow going in the second half.”
Elmwood shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half after making just 27 percent in the first half.
Herman and Liv Meyers finished with seven rebounds each, Rushing grabbed five boards, junior Bre Turner led Elmwood with four steals and junior Ainsley Faulkner paced the Trojans with three assists.
In the sectional, Elmwood struggled to contain the pick-and-roll, allowing Unity to make layup after layup. Up 16-14 early in the second quarter, Unity went on an 18-3 run to take a 34-17 halftime lead. The Trojans got within 12 on a trey by Herman in the third, but could come no closer.
“With the type of defense we play its got to be team defense and I think we got away from that in the first half,” said Coach Meyers, who did not consider switching to a zone. “My philosophy is to play a zone you’ve got to be really good at man-to-man and we’re just getting there.”
Herman led Elmwood with 16 points and had 10 of 12 for the Trojans in the second half.
“Being here was huge for us, especially going forward with the juniors and sophomores we have coming back next year,” Coach Meyers said.
