hile the victory was by far the sweetest of his coaching career, head coach Willie Grubb felt his players deserved the credit for the victory and the season.
"It’s just a great feeling," Gruhb explained. "It’s got to fulfill their dreams of playing basketball. When these seniors came into high school, they had just come off a second-place finish in the Class L grade school state tournament.
"They were in school when the boys went to Champaign those two years and it had to be in their minds that they might be able to get there some day," Grubb added.
The Lady Foxes rode the crest of that motivation to their second victory of the season over Sandoval, and neither of the wins were easy ones. The Lady Foxes overcame some poor field-goal shooting in the contest by doing what they needed to, when they needed to do it.
Much of the early heroism fell on the hands of Tina Thomas as the junior proved she has revived from a mid-season shooting slump. The 5-10 forward for the Lady Foxes had all eight first-quarter points for her squad and kept them in control early in the contest.
The eight points were the first eight of the contest as the girls in green built an 8-0 lead. But like the earlier meeting, the Lady Foxes were never able to put the Blackhawks away in this one.
"I thought that Kerri, Sharon and Lori were putting up shots that just were not going down," Grubb said of his squad’s poor shooting in the contest. “If we were a one-man ball club, we would be at home right now. When one isn’t getting it done, another one is.”
With her senior teammates firing blanks, Thomas carried the club offensively through much of the early going and ended the game with 17 points.
But as many efforts have been this season it was a team game all the way. With the Lady Blackhawks continuing to pack a tight zone into the paint, a wideopen Denise Bowers kept the pressure on as she hit two straight jumpers from 15 feet.
The Lady Foxes used the combined effort to take a 20-13 lead into the halftime locker room. Put things began to slowly go downhill after the intermission.
The offense had not recovered at the break and Sandoval began to chip into the lead. With it down to four, the Lady Foxes gave indications of hrenking out as Lori Kirsch drove the length of the court and went right down the middle for two quick ones.
Bowers added to the lead with an assist from Kirsch for two more under the hoop. Hut the 25-11 lead would be the largest of the half.
Three-straight buckets by Sandoval cut the lead to two points with time running out in the third peirod. A set play round Kirsch open on the baseline for two long ones and the lend was 29-25 after three.
Six-straight free throws by Kim Sherhart surrounded a bucket by Thomas and the Lady Hawks were within one point at 31-30. They would never get over the hump.
Following a timeout, Sharon Bowman canned a long baseline jumper for a three-point lead. Thomas had a chance to make it five, but missed the front end of a one-and-one situation. Sherhart’s final two free throws cut It to one again.
With less than two minutes remaining, the Lady Foxes went into the perimeter passing game to pull Sandoval out of the tight zone which had plugged the middle all night.
Kerri Grubb showed no ill effects from a poor shooting night at the line as she canned both ends of a one-and-one with 35 seconds left. Sherhart could not keep the magic alive as she finally missed a free throw.
The Lady Foxes avoided the inevitable foul and passed the ball down court as Grubb hit Thomas for the final bucket of the game. It was typical of the game and the season as Grubb was alone as well on the play and took the assist instead of the bucket.
"We just didn’t play very well," Grubb said. "They kept their heads up. We Just kept preaching defense at them and they responded."
Grubb said he felt the defense was the key to his club’s success in this one.
They definitely were not failing as the Lady Foxes hit only 17-50 from the field for 34 percent, hut returned the favor on defense as Sandoval was held to 12-33 for 37 percent.
Grubb and Thomas dominated the boards as the two combined for 19 rebounds with Thomas collecting 10.
The leader for Sandoval was Sherhart with seven as 6-0 Stacy Basola added six.
The Lady Foxes now take their first trip to Champaign with an impressive 26-2 record while Sandoval drops by the wayside at 25-3.
