Lady Foxes Capture Third
At Champaign
by Don Hill
(Reprinted McLeansboro Times-Leader March 5, 1987)
SHAKING FREE - Senior Sharon Bowman tries to get free from her defender in quarter-final action at Champaign. The Lady Foxes stunned Luther North 52-46 in the game. |
Like the month of March this year, the Lady Foxes of McLeansboro entered the basketball season of I986-1987 like Lions.
But departing from tradition, the lady Foxes went out like Lions as well as they used a full-court trapping defense to dismantle Hume-Shiloh 59-38 to capture the third-place trophy in the Class A girls state tournament.
It was the capper to an almost perfect season for coach Willie Grubb and his squad as they did what they had done all season long. Apply their quickness and strength on the glass with a balanced scoring attack.
The win also ended the careers of three seniors, Kerri Grubb, Lori Kirsch, and Sharon Bowman, on a familiar note as the three combined for 42 points in the championship contest. After dropping their semi-final contest to Carthage Hancock-Central, the pressure was off somewhat in the third-place game and the talent of the Lady Foxes proved to be too much for the Lady Raiders.
The Lady Foxes built a 12-9 lead at the end of one period, but doubled the score on Shiloh in the second and coasted to a 32-17 halftime lead on the way to the win.
"I thought our kids did a good job coming back today," Grubb said after the contest. "The three seniors wanted that third-place trophy."
THIS IS IT - The Lady Foxes went into their familiar huddle at center court for the final time Saturday afternoon and emerged victorious. |
Grubb commented later that he felt the Lady Foxes could handle Shiloh well enough to allow the bench some valuable playing time at Assembly Hall.
"We went right into our press and tried to get to them early," Grubb commented. "We wanted the opportunity to get our bench kids in. They were chomping at the bit and we hoped the game wouldn't be in jeopardy later so they could get in."
It was also a typical performance by the Lady Foxes with the fact that they were able to make Shiloh come to them instead of altering their own effort in the contest.
We don't change a lot of things," Grubb added. "When they ran that 1-3-1 zone, we moved Kerri to the outside. That was about the only change."
"We are very disciplined and don't need to make a lot of adjustments."
One big key in the contest was the board work by the Lady Foxes. Though they only out rebounded Shiloh 37-33, they used that effort to build the lead midway through the game as they dominated the glass for a 16-minute period in the contest. Both coaches felt that the board work was very physical.
"We got into our ‘run and jump’," Grubb said. "The board work was physical at both ends. We were going over their backs and they were going over ours.
"Kirsch is a lot quicker than most people think and she used that to help us inside."
Coach Bobbi Mattingly of Shiloh felt her squad just didn’t do what it needed to in the contest.
"We just didn’t get good position on the boards," Mattingly said. "And when we did, we just couldn’t get hold of the ball."
With the lead firmly in their favor midway through the contest, the Lady Foxes went into a familiar offense and ran some special plays. Tile tactic worked like a charm as the lend allowed Grubb to use his bench.
"Up here, we called it out because they didn't know what we mean't," Grubb said as he referred to the signaling in of special plays from the bench. "We called 'Benton' three or four times in the game and got back doors on every one of them."
We did it against Luther North and again today and it worked time and time again."
"For a long time, we did a good job," Mattingly commented on her squad’s effort against the tactic, "We kept over-playing instead of sagging when we got behind."
Kirsch remained phenomenal in the tournament’s final game for the Lady Foxes as she scored 24 points and ended the three day event as the second leading scorer of the tournament behind Cindy Kaufmann of Seneca. Kirsch scored 62 points during the three games for a 20.7 average. She hit 57 percent of her shots from the field while canning 67 percent of her free-throw attempts.
Grubb also had a fine game as she scored 11 points in the contest and ended up on the scoring list in seventh place with 31 points. Sharon Bowman also made the top 20 scoring list with seven in the final contest and 20 points overall.
"That’s that senior leadership which has been so valuable to us all year," Grubb said. "That will be tough to replace."
But for Grubb and the Lady Foxes, the well is hardly going dry as Tina Thomas leads a group of quality underclassman back for a shot at repeating next season.
"(Holly) Sloan, (Tina) Thomas, (Wendy) Wingo, (Denise Bowers, all did a good job for us." Grubb added. "I wanted to get Wendy quite a bit of playing time to get her ready for next year."
The win marked the highwater point for the Lady Foxes program in its 11-year history and provided a guide for which all future Lady Foxes clubs will be judged.
The win was the 28th of the year for the Lady Foxes against only three losses while Shiloh ends the season with an identical 28-3 mark. The Lady Foxes were in the third-place game due to a hard-fought 47-39 loss to Hancock Central in the semifinals after downing Chicago Luther North 52-46 in a super effort Thursday night.
Reprinted by permission from McLeansboro Times-Leader - June 17, 1999 by Ryan Nelson
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