Calhoun captures Alton Tipoff Classic title over Breese Mater Dei
GODFREY – Like any good basketball team in the early part of the season, Hardin-Calhoun girls coach Aaron Baalman knows there's still work that needs to be done on the practice floor.
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Still, Baalman and his Warriors were pretty happy with a tournament championship under their belts, in this case, a 51-32 win over Breese Mater Dei to take the Alton Tipoff Classic championship Saturday night at Alton High School's gym.
“We're extremely happy with coming down here getting a tournament championship to start the season off,” Baalman said, “but there are a lot of things that we definitely need to work on. It's always a grind to start the season, but I just don't think we're bringing the defensive intensity we need to do. That's why we stretched to full-court (defense) in the third quarter, to pick up the intensity on the defensive end.”
That's not to say Baalman didn't find any positives from the win. “I thought we did a good job finding Grace (Baalman) with passes in the post and limited some of our bad passes,” Baalman said.
The Warriors certainly made an impression on Knight coach Dave Kohnen. “They're a very good team,” Kohnen said. “They're excellent; they've got inside-outside, they play good defense – they had a lot of blocked shots tonight.
“We're a very young team and I was happy with the way our kids played. The results weren't always there but they're making strides to get better, and that's what we're after.”
Given what he has to work with, Kohnen was very happy with a 2-1 record after the tournament. “You're talking about a team here that's probably going to play for a (IHSA Class) 1A state championship, and I lost all the starters from last year and I have a brand-new group,” Kohnen said. “We're going to have growing pains, I don't care who you are.”
Grace Baalman certainly led the way for the Warriors, scoring a game-high 18 points on her way to being named tournament MVP. Kassidy Klocke added 12 points for Calhoun (3-0) and Emma Baalman 10. For the Knights, Kelsie Gerdes led the way with 12 points.
Emma Baalman, Alton's LaJarvia Brown, Klocke, Gerdes and Springfield Lanphier's Jeniay Griffin were named to the All-Tournament first team, while Jersey's Bethany Muenstermann, Cahokia's Raynesha Lewis, Mater Dei's Logan Braundemeier, Alton's Ayonna Clanton and Lanpher's Maria Cline were named to the second team.
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