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Steeleville wins first regional in program history

Posted February 12, 2015 10:00 pm

By Pete Spitler The Herald Tribune

CAMPBELL HILL -- It's always fun being the first.

Chloe Gerlach and Mackenzie Pim combined for 27 points, and Steeleville (12-15) won its first regional title in program history with a 48-35 win over Elverado on Thursday in the championship game of the Class 1A Trico Regional.

"This is all on the girls," said first-year Steeleville coach Brad Copelin. "I told them what to do, but all the stuff we had to do to get here, it was them showing up every day and working hard.

"They had a great game. I've been telling them all year they've got to play a game 100 percent and (Thursday), they showed up and did it."

Five 3-pointers in the first half, four of which came from Gerlach, helped give Steeleville a commanding 27-16 advantage. The Lady Warriors stretched their lead to 35-18 on two free throws from Pim with 4:09 left in the third quarter.

"I knew it was going to be a tough game, mental-wise, physical-wise and you've got to hand it to the girls," Copelin said. "They put their minds to it when they left here with what our goal was at the beginning of the year.

"I didn't care about winning the Du Quoin tournament right now, I wanted to hold up the plaque at the end of the year and thanks to (the players), I get to."

Steeleville went 1-4 at the season-opening Du Quoin Lady Indian Tip-Off Classic in November and the school didn't offer girls basketball as a sport until 2010. Gerlach had 15 points for the Lady Warriors and Pim had 12.

Allanah Renner added eight points for the Lady Warriors, while Lexi Middendorf (4), Lindsay Hammel (3), Bailey Gale (2), Kaylee Wagner (2) and Sydney Hood (2) also scored.

Renner and Hammel are the lone seniors for Steeleville and this is Renner's first year of playing high school basketball.

"I've been asked to play for the last three years," Renner said. "This is my first year and I really regret not playing the last three years because this was a blast.

"We just made Steeleville history. This is the same team we won regionals with my eighth grade year with a couple more and a couple less (players), but all-in-all it's the same feeling and it feels great."

Steeleville jumped out to a 7-2 lead early in the first quarter before Elverado rallied to tie the game at 9 on a free throw by Cheyenne Abbadusky with 21 seconds left in the frame.

Abbadusky finished with a team-high 10 points for Elverado.

But Gerlach hit a 3-pointer as time expired to spark an 8-0 run by Steeleville that gave the Lady Warriors a 17-9 lead with 6:32 left before halftime. The Lady Warriors were never in serious danger of losing the advantage for the rest of the game.

Copelin also praised the defensive work of Gale, who got the tough assignment of guarding Abbadusky all game.

"The gameplan coming in was to shut (Abbadusky) down because she was their best player," Gale said. "If she shot 100 percent from the field, we weren't going to win the game, so we just had to put somebody on her."

Steeleville advanced to face Gallatin County at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the semifinals of the Gallatin County Sectional. The sectional championship will take place Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.

Steeleville 46, Trico 37: Mackenzie Pim scored 20 points and Chloe Gerlach added eight as Steeleville held off No. 1 seed Trico to advance to the championship game.

Jessica Prange scored a game-high 22 points for Trico, including 10 of the Pioneers' first 15 points.

Kelly Hamilton and Hailey Nagel combined for 15 points for Trico in the loss.

Steeleville 65, Shawnee 18: Lindsey Hammela and Mackenzie Pim combined for 21 points to lead Steeleville past Shawnee in the play-in game of the Class 1A Trico Regional.

Steeleville led 21-3 after one quarter and 36-5 at halftime.

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