Jersey rides a positive wave after third-place win over Calhoun in Jersey Holiday Tourney
JERSEYVILLE - Jersey’s girls basketball team is riding on a positive wave after defeating rival Calhoun 66-63 for third place on Thursday night in the Jersey Holiday Tournament.
Makenzie Thurston led Jersey with 18 points. Three other teammates also scored in double figures. The Panthers’ Bethany Muenstermann had 12 points, Kiara Chapman added 11 and Ashleigh Trochuck 10 points for Jersey. Brianna Schroeder also contributed nine points for the Panthers.
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Jersey coach Kevin Strebel beamed with pride in an interview after the game with the Panthers’ 3-1 mark in the tourney.
“I can remember us on our own floor in this tourney losing about three games by 30 three years ago,” Strebel said. “To go 3-1 in the tournament shows a lot of growth of our seniors. We have had some tough times.
“We did just a walk thru this morning and the girls put that type of defensive effort in the game. It was a team defensive effort and the girls shared the ball so well on the offensive end.”
Grace Baalman topped the 2,000-point mark in the game and also broke the school record for all-time scoring of 1,989 points held by Christi Longnecker. Baalman broke the school record in the second quarter of the contest. Baalman finished the game against Jersey with 26 points. Junie Zirkelbach had 19 points for the Warriors.
Jersey had a 34-24 halftime lead over Calhoun. The Panthers led 50-44 at the end of three, so the Warriors closed the gap.
Zirkelbach nailed a three-pointer to bring the game to 64-63 with 3 seconds to play. Thurston sealed the game with two free throws at the line to make the final score 66-63.
Warriors’ coach Aaron Baalman was happy to get all the competition in the tournament and said he believes it will only make his team better.
“It is tough to beat a hot-handed team like Jersey was tonight,” he said. “I thought we did a lot better job in the second half tonight, but it was Jersey’s night. We tried to recover and put forth a good effort trying to recover. We were one of the smallest teams in the field and competed well. We will take a lot of lessons from this and work on these next week in practice.”
The 10-player all-tourney team consisted of Calhoun’s Grace Baalman and Junie Zirkelbach, Jersey’s Mackenzie Thurston, Brussels’ Madison Willman, Carrollton’s Hannah Krumwiede, Civic Memorial’s Allie Troeckler and Alaina Tyus, North’s Konti Collins and Eriyana Simmons.
The Panthers are now 10-5 overall, while Calhoun drops to 11-3 with two losses in the tournament.
Madelaine Gerard also contributed to this story.
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Madelaine Gerard also contributed to this story
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