More pictures from both the state semifinal and third-place game to be posted on Riverbender.com soon.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
NORMAL, Ill. - It wasn’t the dream the Alton Lady Redbirds had envisioned many years ago, but Saturday morning was still a nice way to go out.
Alton took on last season’s state champions, Loyola Academy, for third place at the IHSA Class 4A girls basketball state tournament and won by a score of 54-44 Saturday morning, March 8 at Illinois State University’s CEFCU Arena.
The third-place trophy is Alton’s first of any kind at the state tournament.
“It meant al lot,” Alton head coach Deserea Howard said. “We’ve been chasing this moment for a really long time. At first, the biggest battle was getting in the gym and after that we said we’d treat it like any other tournament. So, this morning we decided we were going to end out on a win, and that’s what we did.”
The Redbirds wanted to make sure they played ‘Alton Basketball’ Saturday morning, and they did just that.
Alton started hot and jumped out to a 9-1 lead, four points from Talia Norman, a basket from Jarius Powers, and a three-pointer from Justice Haynes. The Redbirds led 14-4 after the first quarter and would go on to lead the entire game.
“Yesterday, we just talked about the pace of the game and how it was really physical and really fast,” Howard said. “And that’s how we play, we realize how tough it is to play against that style, so we decided today we were going to come out and play ‘Alton Basketball’ because now we know what it feels like, and it’s not real fun. And that’s what we did in the first quarter.”
Alton grew to its biggest lead of 16 points midway through the third quarter at 32-16. After that Loyola went on a 7-0 run to make it a nine-point game at 32-23. Still, the Ramblers were never really a threat to Alton. The Redbirds led 38-28 after three quarters.
A three from Loyola’s Aubrey Galvan drew the game to within seven points at 46-39 late in the fourth, but from there Alton closed the game outshooting Loyola 8-5.
Alton ends one of its hardest schedules with a mark of 34-3, beating the single-season win record that it set last season at 32-3. It was undoubtedly another historic season.
“I just didn’t want them to go home sad,” Howard said. “So, it meant a lot. When I woke up this morning, I didn’t care who we were playing, Loyola was the state champs last year, so I just put it in my head all year that we might be playing them for the championship, so we played Loyola for the championship today.”
Sometimes teams go into the third-place game without a care in the world of what happens after a tough defeat the day prior, but that was not the case for the Redbirds.
“We were still playing for a win today, so the mindset shift wasn’t too difficult,” Howard said. “We knew we wanted to end our season on a high, we wanted to end our season on a win. So, the locker room talk wasn’t about any sadness, it was moving on to the next thing, and the next thing on our goal [list] was to make sure that we walked out of here with a trophy that we were proud of. And third in the state is a really good thing.”
“It means a lot,” Powers said. “Just because I know how hard we’ve worked all four years, even the people that have only been here for maybe three or two [years], we worked really hard and I definitely feel like we deserve it. So, I’m just so proud that we executed and did what we did.”
Powers, one of three seniors, alongside Norman and Kiyoko Proctor leave Alton having a record of 117-15 over their four years.
Those three led Alton in scoring in the third-place game, like they have so often before.
Powers led all scorers with 16 points. Proctor had 11 and Norman and Ja’Kayla Steen each had 10.
The Ramblers lost a double-overtime heartbreaker to Fremd (30-5) by a score of 80-74 on Friday, sending them to the third-place game.
Galvan and Marycait Mackie led Loyola with 11 points apiece while Emily Naraky had 10 against Alton. The Ramblers finish with a 34-4 record.
The Redbirds lost their season-opener but then rattled off 24 straight wins before losing to nationally–ranked Incarnate Word Academy. They then won another nine straight before Friday’s semifinal loss to Kenwood.
“This season, everything that we’ve done has been about challenging ourselves and being able to play different styles of basketball because you don’t know what you’ll see at the state championship,” Howard said.
“So, it was really special to be able to get our captains in here, three seniors that have led the way, but also the rest of the team that has been a part of this journey and fought hard every single day at practice to make sure that we were able to get to this moment.”
A special thanks to our sponsor Carrollton Bank for supporting Riverbender.com’s coverage of Alton Redbirds and Carrollton Hawks girls basketball.
More like this:
