Game 102
(2/26/10)
Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City vs. Jacksonville Routt (Girl's Basketball)
IHSA Class 1A Semifinal
My alarm was set for 8:00 a.m. I fell asleep between midnight and 1:00 a.m. the night before watching some movie on Showtime. No, it wasn't one of those movies! When I awoke, I wanted to sleep just a bit longer after a long Thursday. I tossed and turned for about 10 minutes and decided I had enough work to do to keep me plenty busy before heading over to Redbird Arena.
I powered on the computer, and started to gather my notes for today's Class 1A games. I filled my scorebook out and tallied all the stats and studied the game one rosters, between the Hornets and Rockets.
One thing is for certain, I am a terrible planner. I need to hire a personal planner...one that works for free. I figured since I am staying at a hotel, they would have the basics. No shampoo, and a bar of soap that had chunks of something in it that lightly scratched my body. The shower head was also the worst shower head of any hotel I have stayed in. Normally I leave the hotel jealous of the strength of the water pressure. Not so here!
After getting ready and packed up, I headed out to have Garmin lead me the way. I am fairly unfamiliar with Bloomington/Normal, despite spending many, many weekends here during college. That's probably why I don't remember my way around!
I typed in Redbird Arena, and it showed nothing, so I simply put it Illinois State University, and I could certainly find my way around once getting close. I arrived at Redbird shortly about 10:30, and parked in the media lot.
Walking in, I was one of the first media members inside. IHSA media relations director Matt Troha directed me to my seat which was a great spot, right at the top of the key on the west side (maybe) of the gym. Fortunately, he had me down for two spots, since I needed that much area for my equipment.
Jim O'Boye, the man in charge of KOST, the company that produces the IHSA-TV programs walked up and spoke to me about the quest for 100 games. He jokingly asked me what was special about broadcasting 100 games, and I replied it was just a number that I wanted to reach. It's not a record by any means, just a nice round number that many broadcasters don't reach in one basketball season, as well as blogging about each broadcast.
Jim turned to Tom, who I believe broadcasts the state finals for IHSA radio, and said, "hey Tom, how many basketball games have you broadcasted this basketball season?" Tom took a second and said, "oh about 75." Jim said something to the effect of, "Geez Tom, this guy's done 100, you're slacking, I thought you have done 200!" Jim wanted to talk with me to have Lee Hall (the man with the bright blue sports coat) interview me, or at least talk about the quest for 100 broadcasts during one of the games this weekend.
I had plenty of time before the game, so I made sure my notes were all accurate, and went over pronunciations. My next job was to fill out the 2A scoresheets, to save me time in the afternoon. That's when I discovered that my scorebook ended after the second Class 1A game. Looks like a trip to Dick's Sporting Goods to pick up a 5th scorebook. That doesn't make sense....5 scorebooks, and only 103 (to this point) games.....more on that to come in the next blog.
Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City was a team I was actually familiar with. Not too many people were. The Hornets, not to be confused with the 2A qualifying Hornettes (Nashville) come from three small communities of Cowden, Herrick, and Beecher City, all well less than 1,000 in population each. Despite the small number, it looked like every member of those three communities came to Bloomington-Normal to support the Hornets, well outnumbering the Routt Rocket fans at Redbird.
Coach Carolyn Wendte was one of a handful of coaches who consistently provided me with updates and box scores on her team. To be honest, I knew absolutely nothing about the school, towns, opponents, anything, until Wendte started emailing me the scores. The team started the season (6-4), but then rolled off 20 consecutive wins heading into the state finals. As they kept picking up wins, I took notice. I cautiously waited, but kept them in the ear on the Illinoishighschoolsports.com message boards, as well as kept including them in my weekly coaches poll notes for the IHSSN coaches poll we ran the second half of the season.
C-H/BC is a very young team, with just one senior in the starting lineup (Hillary Shelton), while starting a junior (Monica Gardner), a pair of sophomores (Faith Wendte & Bailey Doty), and a freshman (Micah Jones). Meanwhile, Jacksonville Routt had the upperclass advantage with four seniors and a junior in the starting five.
Not only was the upperclassmen advantage on Routt's side, the Rockets also had state finals experience, appearing in their third state finals in the last four seasons. Meanwhile, Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City won the school's first-ever Sectional title in ANY sport this year.
In the first quarter, the teams matched up well with freshman Micah Jones scoring four points, and Routt's Erika White coming off the bench to score seven points. Routt led 13-11 heading into the second quarter. That's when it ended for the Hornets. Routt rolled off a 22-10 advantage in the second quarter to lead 35-21 at halftime, after Micah Jones got into foul trouble midway through that frame.
With Jones out of the mix, the Hornets looked completely lost. Routt really took CHBC out of their game, and forced many turnovers. To start the third quarter, Jones was back in the fold, and came up with a rebound and basket on the Hornets first posession. Things looked up...for a brief moment in the second half, before it fell back to Earth.
The Rockets outscored the Hornets 12-7 in that third quarter extending their lead. It was more of the same in the fourth quarter. Three Rockets hit double digits, with Morgan Eilering having a 12 point, 10 rebound day. Erika White also scored 12 points, and Samantha Heimgartner added 11 points. The Hornets got 12 points from Hillary Shelton. Routt would prevail 56-36 in a runaway to advance to the Class 1A state championship game.
Between games was the Country Insurance 3-point shootout. I took a few minutes off and the Regional Radio crew out of Kewanee showed up. Bob McKee and Russ Hughes would be calling the Ridgewood/Hinckley-Big Rock game, and spoke with them. Russ also brought me back a Pepsi out of the "hospitality room"...a room that is not so hospitable, with some chips, popcorn, and soda....not even water....not good IHSA....not good! At least put some water in there!!!
Other media members I talked to during the game was Cody Cutter from the Sterling/Rock Falls area. He runs the Northern Illinois Sports Beat website. Check them out at www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com.
The Quest File Notes
Game 102
Date: 2/26/10
Result: Jacksonville Routt's experience takes out Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City 56-36
Miles: 10
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