OXFORD ― Rensselaer Central point guard Courtney Mathew knew there was another gear she needed to tap into during the IHSAA Class 2A sectional championship against Benton Central.
Benton Central had been the more physical team at that point.
Mathew was getting bumped and pushed while Benton Central’s man to man defense helped push the lead to 20-12 with under three minutes of the third quarter.
“I just didn’t want my season to end with these girls,” Mathew said. “We just had to motivate each other.”
Mathew took the initiative to act and slowly dig Rensselaer Central out of the deficit in front of a hostile crowd that chanted ‘overrated’ repeatedly to the Illinois State commit.
The captain slashed against two defenders and scored through a foul before the buzzer sounded at the end of the third quarter while the Bombers’ road faithful thrilled and screamed at the layup after tying the score at 20-20.
Mathew finished with 20 points, including 5 of 5 from the free throw line, to guide Rensselaer Central past Benton Central 33-25 Saturday, Feb. 7, and capture the IHSAA 2A sectional championship for the second straight season.
“We needed some motivation and we needed to get going,” Mathew said. “My mindset was to go get us one and that’s what happened.”
Southern Connecticut signee Kamri Rowland finished with five points and eight rebounds to avoid an upset to help Rensselaer Central (21-3) to victory.
“We were told that if we don’t start picking it up that this was it for us,” Rowland said. “That was enough motivation for everyone.”
Benton Central (18-6) put the scare into Rensselaer Central.
Its man-to-man defense forced Rowland and Mathew into traps and Rensselaer Central shot 21.7% in the first half.
Junior McKenna Yadon scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds, and center Azlee Reynolds scored nine points with eight boards.
Benton Central struggled with Rensselaer Central’s full court press and turned the ball over 18 times.
“I’m very proud of our effort, and I’m disappointed that we didn’t come out victorious,” Benton Central coach David Baxter said. “I thought our game plan was spot on. We did a great job of controlling the tempo. We had some opportunities that we left on the floor. We have to capitalize on those bunnies. We were able to execute our offense against their different zone defenses. We just didn’t execute when we had that lead.”
The Bison will return all 16 members of their varsity team.
“We are going to use this as motivation to help push us forward,” Baxter said. “We had a great season. We didn’t come out the way we wanted to against Rensselaer. But we’ll be working hard and hopefully we’ll be cutting some nets down soon.”
Six hit double figures in McCutcheon 3-peat
A slow first quarter for McCutcheon did little to shift the momentum and confidence.
McCutcheon sped away from Harrison in the second quarter and six players finished in double figures to capture the program’s third consecutive IHSAA sectional title with an 82-37 win Saturday, Feb. 7.
Senior Trinity Wilburn scored 14 points, junior Keara Lipscomb-Allen scored 12 points, senior Chloe Finney led with 16 points, junior Lillie Graves added 15 points, junior Ameria Gibson added 11 points and senior Braelyn Williams added 14 points.
McCutcheon (21-5) had its offense flourish a night after overcoming a 33-point performance by Lafayette Jeff guard Maya Layton in the semifinals.
“We were a little uptight from last night’s win,” Knoy said. “We were tired and the Harrison kids battled like crazy. They attacked our zone really well. Credit to coach Rush McColley. They were scrappy the entire time.”
Ethan Hanson is the sports reporter for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette. He can be reached at ehanson@jconline.com, on Twitter at EthanAHanson and Instagram at ethan_a_hanson
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Benton Central, McCutcheon girls basketball claim sectional titles
Reporting by Ethan Hanson, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
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