Monmouth College Girl's Basketball Shootout
Day One (@ Huff Athletic Center)
6/25/10
With 25 teams in tow, the Huff Athletic Center at Monmouth College is a busy place this weekend for girl's basketball. This is the 6th season for the girl's basketball shootout here. There was plenty of parking out front, when I pulled into campus at about 4:15. The first games were scheduled to begin at 4:30.
Parking is almost always a problem at Monmouth College, with limited spaces. It really fills up fast when several teams descend upon the school for tournaments or shootouts. There are a few teams I am interested in seeing this weekend. A couple schools from the northwest tip of the state (Stockton, Freeport Aquin, Lanark Eastland, and Forreston). They all had nice seasons in 2009-10. The Blackhawks from Stockton made the Elite Eight, falling to Hinckley-Big Rock in the Supersectionals.
There are some teams I want to see, just out of excitement for the talent that returns (Havana, B-PC/A, and Wethersfield). Then, there are the teams that were stacked last season, but graduated many seniors (Ridgewood, Monmouth-Roseville, Jacksonville Routt, Sherrard).
When I walked into the Huff Athletic Center, Monmouth College head women's basketball coach Melissa Bittner and her assistant Gary Martin were standing there. I told Coach Bittner I may track her down later to get a quick interview on her basketball camp for girls (8-14), that will be held this week.
I checked out the Glennie Gymnasium first, the main court at Monmouth College. It was split into two courts, and there just didn't seem to be a good vantage point for my video taking, so I would wait to see teams on the Huff courts. I have found it easier to just film on the Huff courts, since there are four games going on at once, and they are all within view. I learned at the Lakis Shootout a few weeks back, that if I get caught up talking in Glennie with someone, I tend to lose track of the action.
The first person I ran into was Ridgewood Spartans head coach Bryan Brooks. He led his team to the IHSA State Finals this past year, and they brought home a 3rd place trophy in Class 1A. Ella Teel is the lone starter back, and Annie Gelaude saw some action as a sophomore. He told me that he has just 11 players tonight, and six of them are freshman and sophomores. Ridgewood will be young and inexperienced. I asked him about some of the teams he has seen this summer, and he mentioned United has been looking good, as well as B-PC/A.
First up, I saw Illini Central facing Lanark Eastland. Eastland jumped out to a, 9-1 lead, and led 11-3 at one point. The final score was, 20-18, with Eastland winning (I think!). In the next court over, Wethersfield was matching up with Ottawa Marquette. Marquette just graduated Bailie Bongartz, but has Cordy Murphy. The Flying Geese (Wethersfield) have been pretty young, and have some talent, led by 1,000 point scorer, Shelby Steger.
Ridgewood was facing Jacksonville Routt's Purple squad. Routt was divided up into a pair of teams (Purple & Gold). Lake Villa Lakes also had two teams (Blue & White). The Spartans held off Routt for the win, 36-31. The Routt Gold team was playing Pekin on the far court.
I headed over to the Glennie Gymnasium and ran into Coach Bittner. She said she would head back down in a few minutes for the interview. I figured she got caught up, so I took off for the Huff courts again, knowing I could find her at some point in the evening. As the second session was drawing to a close, she came over and apologized. She said she had got caught up with the scores, and then had to grab shirts, and said she actually had just gone to her office to email me an apology. She did a google search, looking for my email and my Twitter account came up. Since I was tweeting at the same time, she knew I was still in the building. Have to love technology!
Havana was playing Forreston, in a game I was looking forward to catching. Since the 2009-10 season ended, I have decided that the Ducks from Havana will be my preseason #1 team in Class 1A for 2010-11. By the way, I have a blog entry in mind regarding preseason rankings that I will post at some point in the next few days. Anyways, Havana returns eight of their top nine players, and the team has reached the Elite Eight (Supersectional) in each of the past two seasons, and forced overtimes in both of those games. I had the pleasure of broadcasting the first of the two, right here at Monmouth College two seasons ago. Havana forced double overtime with Brimfield, but the Indians prevailed and would win a 4th place trophy in Class 1A during the 2008-09 season. That game was one of my top five favorite broadcasts in my career.
Looking over at the Havana bench, there was one person missing, head coach Jerry Wilson. My guess is that he missed out due to the 25 contact days over the summer. At first, I didn't see Sam Ellsworth or Kelsie Eakle, but later noticed Ellsworth playing. The Ducks were solid, and posted an easy, 37-15 win over the Cardinals of Forreston.
Sherrard beat Oregon, 37-29, and Wethersfield beat Lake Villa Lakes "White", 32-30. I spent quite a bit of time watching the United Red Storm take on Freeport Aquin. I wanted to watch the Aquin Bulldogs, as they had a good season last year, and have a super sophomore (to be) in Sophie Brunner. The Red Storm looked pretty good. Gina Long is a sick athlete, probably the most athletic player in this whole shootout. She has the ability to take over a game. The team looked vastly improved over the last couple years. United has seen a crazy amount of success in volleyball and softball over the past three years, but that just hasn't transferred over to basketball. Brooke Armstrong came up with a nice steal, and a couple baskets. She made a deep run in the 3-point shootout this past winter. Megan Patterson hit some outside shots, and I was impressed with the athleticism of another post, Sadie VanNorman.
The B-PC/A vs. Lanark Eastland game went into overtime, tied at 37-37 after regulation. It was an exciting end. Kendra Pierce nailed a three-pointer to tie the game with about 0:30 to play. She had also just nailed a three a posession earlier. Eventually, Eastland would win in OT, 42-39.
I had a lengthy conversation with Monmouth College women's coach Melissa Bittner after our interview on her basketball camp that will be held next week. We talked about the teams in this weekend's shootout, along with the teams in the area. She mentioned that she is really excited about her incoming freshman class. Among the players coming into the Fighting Scots program are; Emily Kauzlarich (Moline), Kirsten Cagle (Pekin), Marla Willard (Pittsfield), and a couple of transfers (Haley Jones --Illinois Central College via Knoxville HS and Maddie Neukirk -- Illinois Central College via Peoria Richwoods). Tonight would also be the first time the incoming class would get to scrimmage against the rest of the squad. Bittner asked, is it October 15th, yet?
Coach Dennis Mann of the United Red Storm was walking around. I caught up with him for a few minutes. He will be retiring after this upcoming season. He has a pretty positive outlook for his team, and has been pretty pleased so far this summer. We discussed area basketball, and how many talented seniors graduated, along with the 2010-11 Lincoln Trail Conference race. It could be pretty wide open, but Princeville, Annawan, and Stark County look to be the favorites.
With all of the talking with Bittner and Mann, I didn't take in to much action during the last session of the night. Forreston rolled past Monmouth-Roseville, 33-10. The Titans really had troubles, offensively. They graduated all five starters from last year's team. Lake Villa Lakes "Blue" downed Ottawa Marquette, 27-23.
B-PC/A likes to play exciting basketball. After taking Eastland to overtime, they played an in-your-face game against Stockton. Some great defensive battles between the guards in the end. The Spartans (BPCA) held off the Blackhawks, 34-29. Another exciting finish was Sherrard/Aquin. The Tigers (Sherrard) tied the game up at, 23-23 late in the game. Aquin went downfloor, and pulled off a shot at the buzzer by Sophie Brunner to win, 25-23.
There was one last game of the night, an 8:30 game between Burlington (IA) and United. I stayed for most of the first half. When I was walking out, the Red Storm held a, 15-12 lead after a Megan Patterson three-pointer.
Pool play continues tomorrow, beginning at 9:30 a.m. The single elimination tournament starts at 1:00.
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