JERSEYVILLE - While the rain beat down on the roof of Jersey Community High School’s gymnasium, a storm was brewing inside on the basketball court.
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After a long week of Christmas festivities, eight girls basketball teams have come together to compete in Jersey’s annual Holiday Tournament.
In the day’s third game, the Civic Memorial High School Lady Eagles battled it out with the Panthers. JCHS head coach Kevin Strebel noted as one of the most important games of the tournament.
Unfortunately for his team, the Panthers could not quite pull the trigger on the day’s matchup. The Eagles ultimately defeated the tournament’s hosts 52-37 at the final buzzer.
“We lost our toughness,” Coach Strebel said after his team’s loss against the Lady Eagles. “For 26 minutes, we play like a team that can’t be beat. Then, all of a sudden, we let the press break.”
Junior Allie Troeckler truthfully carried head coach Jonathan Denney’s team from Civic Memorial to victory, especially after a rough second half.
“[Troeckler] is a special talent,” CM head coach Jonathan Denney said after the game. “We’ve got to get a better effort from the team, but I can’t question Allie. She is who she is and she put us on her back in the second half and took us home to a victory. There has to be three or four other girls coming off the bench to give us some better effort out there.”
Junior Mackenzie Thurston kicked off the game by landing a basket for the Panthers. Civic Memorial senior Katelyn Turbyfill quickly tied the score at two with the her shot. Senior Lauren Davis quickly rebuttled for Jersey. Troeckler brought her first of many baskets in this afternoon’s game to tie the score again at four. Sophomore Kaylee Eaton led the Lady Eagles to lead from a basket and a successful free throw shot after a foul on her play occurred Troecker landed another basket to bring the Eagles’ score to 9.
Thurston, recognizing that the lead was stretching a bit too far, scored two more, bringing the Panthers’ score to 6. She made another basket to bring the score to 8, but not before Troeckler landed the Eagles’ 11th point. From there, the 5’10” junior brought in two more points for her team and her teammate Turbyfill landed two free throw points to bring the Eagles to 15. Jersey junior Bethany Muenstermann swooshed in a flawless three-point shot and with the help of Thurston’s two successful free throws brought the score to 13. At the end of the period, The Panthers trailed the Lady Eagles by two with a score of 15-13.
From a defensive standpoint, the second period was a difficult time for both teams. Each team showed some difficulty getting it into the basket, but more than anything, Civic Memorial had quite a few more turnovers than they are used to handing out.
Junior Caroline Crawford landed the first two points in the period to tie the score at 15 each. Troeckler rebutted scoring two more for the Eagles and her teammate Turbyfill landed a successful free throw to bring the score to 18-15 in their team’s favor. Taking the lead for her team, Thurston brought in two baskets in a row for the Panthers, The Panthers held a brief and small lead by one point at 19-18 before Troeckler scored yet again for the Lady Eagles, keeping them in the lead on the board. Her teammate, sophomore Izzy Buckley got on the board for the first time in the afternoon game by her successful basket to bring the score to 22-19. When Troeckler landed yet another basket, JCHS’s Thurston came back with another two-point shot. Senior Ally Schroeder landed the final two points in the period for the Panthers. Troeckler scored the 26th point of the game for the Eagles before the end of the second, bringing the score to 26-23 at the buzzer.
To begin the third, one would think that Jersey would make the all-push for dominance with the first two scoring plays of the period by Davis and Muenstermann. Unfortunately, even Davis’ swooshed basket and yet another three-pointer by Muenstermann wasn’t enough for the Panthers to stay in control at 28-26. Senior Kalyn Troxell tied the game up at 28 after her ball landed flawlessly into the hoop. Sophomore Alaria Tyus towered over her competitors and scored two more for the team. After Thurston knocked in a basket to tie the score at 30 each, Troeckler went on a streak of scoring plays. Between five three-throw points and two successful baskets, she brought in nine points in this period alone. JCHS’s Davis closed out the period by adding two more to the scoreboard, ending the period with a score of 39-32 in the Lady Eagles’ favor.
In the fourth and final period of the game, Thurston and Schroeder could only muster five more points for the Panthers. After Thurston landed a clean basket, Schroeder made what could be called a comeback play for her team as she nailed a three-pointer. Unfortunately for the Panthers, the offense from Troeckler was too strong. Landing four back-to-back two-point shots, Troeckler’s offensive push was only broken by a foul committed against Eaton which earned her one point from free throws. After Troeckler lands four more points in two shots for the Eagles, her team let the buzzer run out. The Lady Eagles defeated the Panthers 52-37 in their first games in the JCHS Holiday Tournament.
Southwestern High School kicked off the day by celebrating its 66-22 victory over the Freeburg High School Midgets.
In the second game of the tournament, a battle between Lady Warriors took place. Calhoun High School was victorious over Granite City with a score of 65-39.
Calhoun was led with a 26-point performance by Kassidy Klocke. She nailed four 3-pointers in the contest against Granite City. The Warriors’ Grace Baalman led all scorers with 31 points.
Southwestern topped Collinsville 50-38 in its other tourney game. Maddie Greeling led Southwestern with 17 points against Collinsville. Karlie Green and Greeling had 12 points each to lead Southwestern against Freeburg.
Freeburg ran past Carrollton 59-35 in another game on Monday. Carrollton was led with 16 points from hot-handed freshman Hannah Krumwiede in that contest.
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