Tags
100th win, Girls Hoops, High School Basketball, High School Hoops, IHSA Girls Basketball, M-R Titans, Mon-Rose Titans, Monmouth-Roseville
By Barry McNamara, For Wheat on the Prairie
MONMOUTH — No Monmouth-Roseville or Monmouth High School girls basketball team ever won more games than the squad that completed its season last week at the Taylor Ridge Sectional, finishing 26-7.
And no M-R girls hoops team ever won a bigger game than the Titans’ 65-53 victory over Princeton to capture the Manlius Regional title, the first-ever postseason title for the program. The last regional championship for the Monmouth-based high school was in 2002, when the team played as the Zipperettes.
Throw in the fact that the regional title game also marked coach Scott Weber’s 100th victory leading the varsity girls, and it was a very special night.
“I vividly remember standing out there on the ‘T’ at midcourt and looking up at that banner and saying to the girls, ‘What do you want up there?’” said Weber of a speech he gave at the start of the season. “They all said they wanted a regional championship. To set that as a goal and to get there through all the adversity we went through this year, what a proud moment as a coach. This team battled every day, and never once did they think we couldn’t do it.”
The adversity included a series of injuries and illnesses that disrupted the Titans’ starting lineup and rotation, especially during the second half of the season.
Weber only played his regular starting lineup twice after Dec. 27. For the regional victory and M-R’s season-ending 64-50 loss to Deer-Creek Mackinaw in the sectional semifinal, the squad was without talented sophomore Bri Woodard, who suffered a hand injury late in the season.
“We didn’t have anyone who could handle (Dalia) DeJesus,” said Weber of Dee-Mack’s 5-foot-11 freshman star, who helped lead the Chiefs to the sectional title before the team fell to defending state champion Quincy Notre Dame in the supersectional. “Bri would’ve been that player for us.”
The game before, Princeton could have made a similar statement about their inability to handle M-R’s Carmyn Huston. The junior post scored 25 points to go with 15 rebounds. New starter Malia Killey added 10.
The teams played an even first quarter, which ended in a 20-20 tie thanks to a last-second heave by senior Mattie Gillen from beyond mid-court.
“That really sparked us,” said Weber.
Also fueling Weber’s squad was a great turnout from M-R’s fans.
“Titan Nation was awesome,” said Weber. “They really showed up. From administrators, to students, to family and friends. It was loud in that place. We were yelling from the sidelines just to make sure the girls could hear us. Our fans had to travel an hour-and-a-half and Princeton’s only 15 miles, but our crowd was every bit as loud.”
The Titans then celebrated their victory three times that night – at the sound of the final buzzer, when Mariah Reading and Gillen hoisted the championship plaque, and at Weber’s house after the trip back from Bureau Valley High School.
“We had a big pizza party at my house,” said Weber. “A lot of good memories. Some of them didn’t clear out until after midnight, and they were right back for a practice at 9:30 Saturday morning. This is a very close-knit group.”
It’s a group that will lose some major contributors to graduation, but the cupboard will be far from bare when next November rolls around and the Titans return to action. Huston and Woodard will be back to patrol the paint, and the third returning starter will be point guard Tatianna Talivaa. Between them, the post players evenly split around 25 points per game, while Talivaa averaged nearly nine.
The silver lining of the team having to use extra players over the second half of the season is that many gained valuable experience. A perfect example, said Weber, is junior Meyah Hunter, who was on the court for every minute of the Titans’ impressive 33-29 victory against Illini West on MLK Day.
“Meyah never came out of the game,” said Weber. “Our bench has been very, very good for us. We thought coming into the season that we were deep, and that’s been the case. They’ve been awesome.”
In addition to Gillen (11 points per game), Reading and Killey, other seniors on the squad were Chloe Allen, Lexi Finnicum, Yoselim Hernandez, McKinley Rexroat and Chevelle Wolf.
Weber said the motto for this year’s squad was #neversatisfied. Perhaps that sentiment can take a quick breather for the Titans to look back with a high level of satisfaction on a record-breaking year.
But you can believe that throughout this summer and the fall weeks leading into the season, the experienced Titans will be hard at it, looking to improve upon their 26 victories and to advance even further than a sectional semifinal.
Want to help pay for some gas? Venmo: @Matthew-Wheaton-10 or PayPal: @wheat76 Want to shoot an email? matthewlwheaton@gmail.com