SPRINGFIELD – Civic Memorial's girls basketball team battled. Fought. Scrapped.
They held the lead most of the way in Monday night's IHSA Class 3A Illinois-Springfield Super-Sectional over Rochester.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
But then came an eight-minute span between the third and fourth quarters where Allie Troeckler had to go to the bench with four fouls.
The Rockets took advantage of Troeckler's absence and went on a run that eventually put them in the lead after Angela Perry hit a pair of free throws with three minutes left and Madison Faulkner connected on a jumper with 2:21 to go. And with that, CM's state tournament dreams came to a end as the Rockets eliminated the Eagles 44-39.
Rochester advances to Friday's semifinals at Normal's Redbird Arena against Chicago Marshall, 55-48 winners over Antioch in the Concordia University Supersectional in River Forest Monday at 12:45 p.m. with a 31-3 record; the Eagles were eliminated with a 31-3 record for the season.
CM had held a lead on the Rockets most of the night, but when Troeckler was called for her fourth foul with 4:15 left in the third period, things seemed to change. “Obviously we had that nine-point lead with five minutes left in the third quarter,” said Eagle coach Jonathan Denney. “Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction and the thing that got Allie in trouble the first few games of the postseason kind of snuck up there. She had a couple of ill-advised fouls; we wanted to dig in and dig down on Perry; she put it on the floor a lot when she made her post moves.
“She put it on the floor; I don't know what she was thinking about when (Troeckler) dove (for her fourth foul). But you know what, I'm not here to criticize her; she's the greatest player who ever played for us. I don't know what her stat line was (26 points and 10 rebounds) – she was incredible.”
“What was big about that (Troeckler going to the bench) was that Lyric Boone was in foul trouble for us as well,” said Rocket coach J.R. Boudouris. “When she comes off the floor, it's, 'OK, we don't have a great matchup for her,' my assistant, Lindsay Howard said, 'why don't you go with (Nicole) Robinson', who's our probably our best on-the-ball perimeter defender and just let Angela help if she drives to the block.
“I thought Troeckler was doing most of her damage off the dribble early, so that was a great call by my assistant to go to that. They did try to take advantage of it, but Perry did a great job of getting backside help anytime they did try to post us up.”
Troeckler did provide a challenge to the Rockets. “She's fun to watch, I guess, if you're not in the opposing coach's box,” Boudouris said. “What a motor that kid has; even down to the very end, when they're down five or six with about a minute left, she's pushing it up the floor as hard as she can against Robinson and (Havilyn) Dulin, who are super-super quick guards; I have a ton of respect for her.”
Troeckler's 26 points led the Eagles, but Tori Pfiefer and Alaria Tyus each had four points, Kaylee Eaton had three and Kourtland Tyus had two. “What made us great was that we'd have two, three girls in double figures all season long,” Denney said. “Then I looked up at the scoreboard, and we had a bunch of threes and fours and twos and sixes and then Allie with 26; other kids have to step up in big games.
“I can't fault them; our effort was there. We had some defensive breakdowns late, and that kind of hurt us, but that was when the momentum was sliding. They grabbed the momentum and ran with it; full credit to them. They made some big plays and some big defensive plays; they did everything right and we were kind of on our heels a bit until we got Allie back in the game.
“We still had our chances; it just wasn't meant to be.”
Faulkner and Perry led the Rockets with 11 points each, with Aubrey Mago and Dulin scoring eight each, Boone four and Robinson two.
