GILLESPIE – In the 2021-22 season, the Staunton Bulldogs finished a 21-8 campaign with no postseason accolades to show for it.
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They had never won a regional title in girls basketball history.
Then they did in 2022-23. Then they did again, and as of Friday night in Gillespie; make that a three-peat.
Staunton, who entered the top half of the Waverly Sectional as the No. 2 seed, beat fifth-seeded Marquette Catholic on Friday in the Gillespie regional championship by a score of 43-28.
“That’s absolutely huge considering they’ve never won a regional until three years ago in basketball history for girls,” Staunton head coach Corrie Allan said. “I’m just so proud of them for coming through.”
Marquette’s Delaney Ortmann opened the game with a three-pointer before Staunton countered with a 10-point run to make it 10-3.
Ele Feldman started the run with a basket followed by two free throws from Lilly Bandy. Sam Anderson and Feldman then hit back-to-back threes to take a seven-point lead.
Kel’c Robinson nailed a triple to make it 12-10, but Anderson nailed another three to make it 15-10 Staunton after the first quarter.
The teams kept pace with one another during a 6-6 second quarter, making it 21-16 at halftime.
The third was when Staunton made its move. The Bulldogs outscored Marquette 11-3 in the third quarter to increase the lead to double digits for the first time at 32-19.
“Our offense wasn’t great, and that’s pretty much what killed us,” Marquette head coach Whitney Sykes-Rogers said. “We missed a lot of shots, and I think we let it affect us. We were a little stagnant. We worked on things, and we didn’t execute them today. We worked on their 1-2-2 press, and it seems like we were just in slow motion.”
Staunton turned defense into offense, and in the final quarter, the Bulldogs got to the foul line. They made 11 free throws in the fourth as they outscored the Explorers 11-9 down the stretch.
Staunton outscored Marquette 22-11 in the second half, stepping up the defense when it mattered.
“Defense. We really stress a lot on defense, and I thought everyone did a great job tonight,” Allan said.
Marquette came into Friday’s matchup having won four of the last five against Staunton, including a game earlier this season in the second round of the 50th Annual Carrollton Lady Hawk Invite by a score of 40-33.
That game didn’t have an effect on the Bulldogs mentally.
“No, our girls don’t think like that,” Allan said. “We don’t have any clue on games or stats or anything like that. We stress that we’re just going out there to play. That was a completely different game [in Carrollton]. [Marquette’s] a great team and they were a good opponent tonight.”
“We really didn’t think much of it,” Feldmann said. “We just said it was another game. We have to come out and play hard against any team, anytime. We really didn’t do anything different; we pressured the ball and came out and played.”
Feldmann led all scorers with 19 points while Anderson chipped in 12 points and Bandy had eight.
Those three, along with Lillyan Troeckler make up a majority of Staunton’s starting five. They were all sophomores when Staunton won its first-ever regional, defeating the Explorers 44-31.
“The four seniors that are out here have done absolutely fantastic,” Allan said. “They’ve worked hard, they stepped up tonight, played like seniors, they handled the basketball, and they just wanted it. You could tell.”
“It’s awesome,” Feldmann said. “We don’t really talk about stats much. We knew it would be the third regional we’d won. I just love playing with these girls and it’s going to be so hard leaving them.”
Meanwhile, it was an off night offensively for Marquette. Robinson, Marquette’s only senior, is her team’s leading scorer, however, was held to three points, the game’s opening three-pointer to take the Explorers’ only lead.
Ortman led with 10 points, Laila Davis had six, Allie Wiener had four, Chayse Strickland had three, and Jami Jones had two.
“We were kind of doing things uncharacteristically,” Sykes-Rogers said. “I’m not quite sure what was going on in some of their heads, because I’m like, you haven’t done that all year, but that happens sometimes in these big games when you’re not used to it. [Staunton’s] been here, done that for three years where this is new to all of our kids on the court right now with the exception of one. That’s what experience does.”
But the Explorers gained some postseason exposure this year and will use it for next season when they return all but one player.
“I told them. I said listen, ‘You guys had nine wins last year, 80 percent of you had nine wins, and now you have 21.’ So you can see that progress can be made,” Sykes-Rogers said.
“Kel’c [Robinson] is a big loss, she’s our point guard, she’s our leader but you know what, somebody else has to step up, but the core is still here so we just have to move on from that.”
The Explorers end a 21-11 campaign having won 10 of their last 12 games of the season.
The Bulldogs improved to 27-5 on the season and will move on to Tuesday’s sectional semifinal.
It’s a third straight regional title, and for the third straight time, a sectional semifinal against top-seeded Camp Point Central-Southeastern (28-3).
The Bulldogs and Panthers will play in the first IHSA Class 2A Waverly Sectional semifinal on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 6 p.m.
Top-seeded Carlinville and No. 2-seeded Pleasant Plains meet in the other semifinal at 7:30 p.m. The sectional championship is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 27 at 6:30 p.m. from Waverly.
The winner of the Waverly Sectional will take on the winner of the Trenton (Wesclin) Sectional on Monday, March 3 at 6 p.m. in Vandalia with the winner of that then making the state tournament.
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