NORMAL, Ill. - The Alton Lady Redbirds took to CEFCU Arena Friday morning, March 7, 2025, taking part in their first-ever girls basketball state tournament.
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They took on the top-ranked team in Illinois according to the final Associated Press rankings and lost 61-55. Kenwood Academy of Chicago got out to a 10-2 lead and led the entire game.
Alton had to play uphill for 32 minutes.
“Typically we lead with our defense, and we weren’t really focusing hard enough on that so we dug ourselves a really deep hole,” Alton head coach Deserea Howard said. “And then the battle back was intense. The battle back made me kind of feel like we had a chance, we had a shot, but when you get to this stage, you can’t let yourself get down that far.”
Alton did indeed battle back to within one point twice in the third quarter, but never took control.
Ariella Henigan scored the game’s first basket followed by a three-pointer from Danielle Brooks. Alton’s Jarius Powers answered with a basket before another three from Diann Jackson and a basket from London Walker-George to grab a 10-2 lead. Alton rallied back to make it 14-9 heading into a media timeout with 3:45 left in the first quarter.
Out of the timeout, Kenwood went on a seven-point run with two baskets from Walker-George and an and-one basket from Brooks to make it 21-9. Kenwood opened up to their biggest lead at 25-11 before a three-pointer from Kiyoko Proctor and a basket from Powers made it 25-16 after the first quarter.
The Redbirds gained some ground in the second, outsourcing Kenwood 14-10, closing the half on a 7-2 run thanks to a three-pointer from Madeline Ducey, a single free throw from Jarius Powers, and a basket from Talia Norman to make it 35-30 at halftime.
“I felt like five points was definitely within reach,” Howard said. “At halftime, going in, I kind of thought we’d be up 10, but then when I saw how deep that hole got for us, battling back to get it down by five, I knew we were in striking distance for the third quarter.”
Norman scored back-to-back baskets to open the second half and make it a one-point game at 35-34, but Alton never got over the hump to grab a lead.
Powers drilled a three to bring it within one again at 40-39 before a five-point run from the Broncos, thanks to another three from Brooks, made it 45-39. Alton outscored Kenwood 15-14 in the third quarter but still trailed 49-45.
Straight baskets from Icesis Thomas and Jackson increased the lead to 53-45 before Powers hit two free throws and Ducey nailed a triple to make it 53-50 as Alton called a full timeout with 5:19 left in the game.
Henigan sank a couple foul shots to make it 55-50 heading into a media timeout with 3:52 left. A basket from Brooks out of the timeout pretty well sealed the deal at 57-50 with under two minutes left.
Powers sank two more foul shots to make it 59-55 with 44 seconds left. Another free two made it 59-55 with 22 seconds left, but it was too late for the Redbirds.
“Good job to [Kenwood], they switched defenses on us a lot,” Howard said. “We never really got into a true offensive rhythm. . .We pulled close, we pulled close a couple of times. I kept looking up like, this play will get it done, but then we may have a turnover, or they adjusted the defense to a different way. It just affected us more than usual."
Before the game even tipped off, Alton went down a player. Aryanna Anthony went down with an injury in warm ups and had to sit the bench for the entire game. A key defensive role-player off the bench, it was definitely a blow for the Redbirds.
“She went up for a rebound and came down on the side of her foot, popped her ankle right in the warmup,” Howard confirmed. “Obviously, you’re trying to stay cool, you’re trying not to think about last year and how these things happen to us. Our defensive lineups, and what we had prepared for Aryanna [Anthony] to be a help for us tonight, all went out the window.”
A shocking injury is what helped end Alton’s season a year ago in the Bloomington Super-Sectional when Kiyoko Proctor went down with a torn ACL against Waubonsie Valley.
Howard couldn’t believe it.
“I just kind of chuckled,” she said. “Like how does this happen in the warmup of all things? But, I went to her before the game and I told her, don’t cry the entire game. We’re still going to pull this through, we’re a deep team and we just tried to keep battling without her.”
Alton, not one to be beaten in a foot race, was constantly trying to catch up with the Broncos. Kenwood’s two leading scorers, Henigan and Brooks, were a nuisance wherever they were on the floor.
Henigan led the Broncos with 18 points while Brooks had 17. Jackson finished with nine points and Thomas had five.
“It was definitely a fast-paced game, a physical game,” Howard said. “We were expecting that. I thought that we battled, obviously you want to battle harder when you get to this moment, but we played hard.”
Kenwood is just Alton’s third loss of the season, finishing a 33-3 campaign. The Broncos were the only team in Illinois to take down Alton. The Redbirds lost their season-opener on the road at Lutheran St. Charles and a highly anticipated game against Incarnate Word Academy, two of Missouri’s best offerings.
Kenwood was arguably the best from Illinois.
“A lot of people asked me what I thought about Kenwood, and I was like, it’s the first team that actually matches up with Alton from the guards all the way through to the bigs,” Howard said. “We didn’t have the [height] advantage that we usually have. I just thought that one-on-one we might be able to be little bit tougher, we might be able to pull through.”
Alton’s typical dynamic duo of Norman and Powers was matched up by Hamilton-Gill and Jackson, both standing a tad over six-feet tall.
That didn’t stop Powers from leading all scorers with 19 points. Norman and Proctor each had 12, Ducey had six, and Justice Haynes had two.
Kenwood (34-3) advances to its first state title game against the winner of Loyola Academy (34-2) and Fremd (29-5) on Saturday, March 8 at 8 p.m.
Alton will play the loser for third place at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
“It’s a bad feeling,” Proctor said on the semifinal loss, “but I’m glad we were able to make it here. We’ve wanted this moment so bad. Even though we came up short, overall, I’m happy to be here with my team.”
“Dog fight. First thing that came to mind,” Kenwood head coach Andre Lewis said about the game.
“It was about midway through the third quarter and the action was physical, it was extremely competitive. It was contentious on both ends, both teams didn’t want to lose. I have a ton of respect for that program because coach [Howard] is actually a friend of mine, we talk all the time. . .But I have a lot of respect for them, the way they play, how they go about their business,” Lewis said.
Down 14 points, it was the largest deficit Alton had faced all season. They were down 13 against Incarnate Word right after halftime. A lot of times Alton can go on a run to either catch up or bury most teams.
That was not the case Friday.
“It was just that big Alton punch that we usually give, that we didn’t have today,” Howard said.
More photos to be added soon.
A special thanks to our sponsor Carrollton Bank for supporting Riverbender.com’s coverage of Alton Redbirds and Carrollton Hawks girls basketball.
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