GREENFIELD, Ill. – After splitting their January regular season contests, the Carrollton Hawks once again met up with the Jacksonville Routt Catholic Rockets, this time in the Class 1A Regional Finals.
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It was the Rockets who walked out of Greenfield High’s gym Friday night with the regional plaque after a 46-34 win over the Hawks in a game that was really close until it suddenly wasn’t.
The teams traded blows in the first half and it was Routt who led 17-14 headed into the locker rooms.
Coming back onto the court the Rockets made four three-pointers in the third to help them outscore Carrollton 17-4 in that quarter. Just like that Routt was up 34-20 after three, its biggest lead of the night.
Carrollton made it a 34-26 ball game at one point but could never fully play catch up.
“It’s like we’d take one step forward then two steps back,” Carrollton head coach Blaine Hartwick about his team’s play in the second half.
The Hawks closed the gap to as little as six when they trailed 36-30 with just over three minutes to go but a couple of free throws and another three pushed Routt’s lead back to 41-30 with 2:19 remaining.
Down by that much with that little time left the Hawks had no other choice but to foul. Routt put the game to bed at the free-throw line.
Carrollton knew that the Rockets could shoot the ball, but according to coach Hartwick, his team just couldn’t defend it.
“We didn’t rotate out, close out well the whole game,” he said.
He also said that his team had opportunities, but they didn’t make the most of them.
“We still got decent looks inside, we just didn’t finish,” Hartwick said. “Part of the game plan did not get executed and that’s credit to the other team. We had our chances, and we didn’t execute on them.”
The Hawks end their season with a 20-7 season but still fell short of the main goal.
“It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth when you don’t win the regional,” Hartwick said.
Routt had two girls in double-digit scoring. Cameron Hurt led all scorers with 16 points while Jaymee Vollmer scored 10. Paige Creviston scored eight while Lily Geirnaeirt and Jaden Reardon each finished with six.
Routt made seven three-pointers to Carrollton’s none on the night.
Paige Henson led the Hawks with eight points. Ella Stumpf, Sophie Pohlman, and Lauren Flowers each finished with six points. Darci Albrecht scored four and Lauren Walker had two.
The No. 5 seeded Rockets now move on to the Sectional Semifinals which they get the pleasure of hosting. They will take on the Rockets of Okawville High School, the No. 1 seed in their respected sub-sectional on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 6 p.m.
The other semifinal will be at 7:30 p.m. at Routt between No. 1 seeded Hardin-Calhoun and No. 3 Carlyle.
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