BLOOMINGTON – Entering the State Farm Bloomington-Normal Holiday Tournament, University High’s girls’ basketball team was looking to learn, in the words of their coach, Laura Sellers, “if we could hang with the state’s best teams.”
After the four day session they have had, resulting in getting to the Large School Bracket title game, a basketball observer would say the Pioneers can, indeed, hang with those opponents. And they can say that even though they dropped a close 41-39 decision to Springfield High at the Shirk Center on the Illinois Wesleyan University campus on Monday. The loss was just the first for Sellers’ crew on the season.
U-High (11-1) jumped out to a fast 4-2 lead on two straight baskets by senior center Emma Stroyan. From there, Springfield (15-0) went on a 6-0 run which included two free throws by junior guard Kierra Weir and back-to-back unanswered deuces by junior guard Courtney Pence and senior forward Anika Webster. That stretched the Senators’ lead, 8-4, with 3:45 left in the first quarter. Although Stroyan hit a deuce with 3:19 left to cut that lead to 8-6, a trey by Senators senior guard Julia Rosen at the 2:37 mark gave Springfield an 11-8 lead. The Senators still held an 11-10 lead going into the second quarter, following a Pioneers bucket by senior guard Chante Wilson.
The second quarter was a shootout of sorts, pitting U-High’s Stroyan against three Springfield players with pinpoint accuracy when it came to three-point shots. Webster, Rosen, and Weir combined to score a trey each for Springfield, while Stroyan hit four baskets, including one trey and Wilson added a trey during the period, for U-High, resulting in the Pioneers owning a 27-22 halftime lead.
U-High sophomore guard Chantel Stonewall landing a deuce and sinking a subsequent foul shot to open the third quarter helped push U-High’s lead, 30-22, as did another bucket by Stroyan giving the Pioneers a six point lead, 32-26 midway through the third quarter. A basket by Webster, and a free throw by Pence sliced U-High’s lead to three, 32-29 going into the fourth quarter.
Another Webster basket starting the final stanza would cut U-High’s lead down to one, 32-31 just 18 seconds into the fourth quarter. U-High held a 37-35 lead until 2:59 when Webster hit a deuce tying the game at 37-all. Stroyan hit a jumper with 2:21 remaining, putting U-High up, 39-37. Springfield’s Weir would tie the game again, 39-all, after stealing the ball on defense and hitting a layup.
The two teams each took a timeout before Rosen hit a jumper for Springfield, putting the Senators up, 41-39, with 5.1 seconds left. In the game’s remaining seconds, each side would call one more timeout. With just one chance to get a quick shot, U-High senior guard Tori Doubet passed the ball in-bounds to Ramsey who stood at left wing near the basket. Ramsey caught and fired the ball toward the basket, only to have it fly straight up and land short as the final buzzer sounded.
Pioneers Go 3-1 At The Classic: U-High was riding high coming into the tournament, owning a 7-0 record against their first “Classic” opponent, Plainfield South, winning in a 68-60 decision, advancing into the championship bracket. December 27, the Pioneers defeated Chicago Morgan Park, 53-48, to reach a semifinal battle against Morton. In that contest on Dec. 30 following the tourney’s Sunday off, Stonewall’s buzzer beating shot allowed the Pioneers to advance to Monday’s title game against the Senators.
Defensively in the championship game, Springfield forced U-High into committing 26 turnovers during the contest. It was a fact Senators head coach Brad Scheffler pointed to with some pride. “I thought our defense could do that tonight,” he said. “Offensively for us, by this, our fourth game, it was just a grind for us. But it was the defense getting stops on their offense that helped us win the game.
“I thought our pressure wore them down, although we didn’t put in as many subs as we have in the past,” Scheffler added. He said not doing that as often was partly the result of the girls playing on a college length floor, slightly longer territory to cover than a game played in a high school gym.
“Offensively, U-High is so big that it made it hard to get shots inside,” Scheffler said. “As a result, we had to change things up a little bit offensively in the second half. We got the ball inside a little more in the second half than we did the first half.”
U-High head coach Laura Sellers said she thought her team was “ahead for most of the game and we put ourselves at a point to get beat. I thought we should have made some shots early. And those are shots we make 95 percent of the time, but that’s basketball for you.”
“Springfield kept chasing us, kept chasing us, kept chasing us and got the ball, tied the score and executed a good play and scored,” Sellers said, summing up how her team found themselves taking home a second place trophy after the final horn sounded. “We were a little short on layups, and a little bit high on turnovers.
“So, yeah, we’re disappointed, but we’re not going to hang our heads,” Sellers said, reminding reporters her Pioneers squad will meet up with Springfield on the road in February.
About missing layups, Sellers said she wasn’t sure what caused her team to miss some of those shots, adding her team would have liked to have some of those shots back.