By CHARLES PENDELL
charles.pendell@mcleansborotimesleader.com
INA — Hamilton County Junior High’s girls basketball team accomplished everything it set out to do except one thing — pick up a trophy in the state tournament.
In the Class L state tournament quarterfinal game Saturday at Rend Lake College, defending Class L state champion Carlyle used its quickness, strength and size inside to beat the Junior Lady Foxes 56-37 and end their postseason run.
“We ran into a buzzsaw,” Hamilton County coach Robert Crow said of Carlyle. “I’ve watched them a couple of times ... but I’d never seen them shoot the ball as well as they did today. They certainly showed everyone that they are the team that they said they were.”
The Junior Lady Foxes ran into trouble early, picking up three straight steals at one point in the opening quarter, then turning the ball back over to the Lady Indians each time. Carlyle reeled off 12 points in a row to end the first quarter on top 18-3.
Carlyle led by as many as 21 in the second quarter before settling for a 29-12 lead at the halftime break.
To start the third quarter, the Lady Foxes shrugged off their first-half jitters and began to make a run. Jordan Scrivner found Alicia York backdoor with a nice pass for two, Lucendia Adams found her touch behind the arc for a trey, and York passed inside to Erin Bonner for two, trimming the margin to 33-19.
But the Lady Indians reasserted themselves with a 7-1 run for a 42-20 lead and led 48-25 going into the final stanza.
Leading the Junior Lady Foxes one last time were Scrivner and York with eight points each. Adams added seven, Katlyn Campbell five, Dana rubenacker and Megan Rubenacker three each, Bonner two and Leah Haeuber one.
“We came out a little bit flat and we had a couple of breaks go the other way,” Crow said. “It’s not that we didn’t play hard; when it came down to it in the first half, we couldn’t put the ball in the hole and we got into a little bit of foul trouble.
“Today they had more bullets in their gun than we did,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. They are a very good team.”
Crow said he was “very proud” of his players.
“They went 38-3 over the last two years, 22-2 this year, and making it to the state tournament is a great accomplishment,” he said. “They are a fantastic group of kids, and they never gave up. We kept battling, even being down 22 points, and I am very proud of them.”
