Troeckler second-half outburst leads Eagles past Centralia girls
BETHALTO – Warning to future opponents of Civic Memorial's girls basketball team:
Don't make Allie Troeckler angry.
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You won't like her when she's angry.
Troeckler had to leave Saturday afternoon's Eagles game against Centralia after picking up a pair of fouls early in the first quarter. Troeckler was inserted back into the lineup late in the first half and then took out her frustrations on the Orphan Annies, leading CM with 19 points and 10 rebounds as they went on to a 55-38 win to put their record to 6-5 heading into the holiday break.
“That's one of those things where she wants to be on the floor every minute,” said CM coach Jonathan Denney, “and when she's sitting, she's probably boiling the whole time here. I think you saw in that first possession (after returning to the game), she just grabbed that ball and just took it, like, 'all right, it's my time to take over'.
“She just gives us we can score at any time kind-of feeling and I think it relaxes the other girls too.”
Still, without Troeckler on the floor, the Eagles had to pick up the slack, and they did that just fine in Denney's eyes. “I think what you saw is what can happen sometimes when your best player, your All-Stater, goes into foul trouble and doesn't get to play much in the first half,” Denney said. “Kids had to step up and I thought our kids who played in that first half did a really nice job of playing without her and holding the lead.
“We got her back in the second quarter, got it going a little bit. I thought it was a great performance by our post players; I thought we took advantage of the inside, the advantage of what we had, handled their pressure for the most part. We had some silly turnovers, but at the same time, I thought we got it to where we needed to go, and that was inside. We did a nice job of that.”
“She (Troeckler) is just a tough match-up for us,” said Annie coach Roger Steig. “We put somebody big on her, she goes outside, and if we put somebody small on her, she goes inside. That's what they did today; they took advantage of their match-ups that they had advantages on and I thought they shot the ball pretty well; when they hit those outside shots, they put double-pressure on us to try to keep up with them.”
The Eagles held only a 9-6 lead at quarter time and a 20-14 lead at the half before Troeckler came in and put CM on her back; she kept driving to the basket and taking shots both inside and outside, hitting a good portion of them. She wasn't alone, though; Katelyn Turbyfill and Kaylee Eaton also hit key shots at key times to help the Eagles maintain a comfortable lead. The Annies missed several big shots as well, thanks to some stiff CM defense.
It was Troeckler, though, that had big scores that helped the Eagles grow their lead to comfortable levels and never giving Centralia a serious chance to get back in it.
Turbyfill had nine points and seven rebounds for the Eagles, with Eaton getting eight and Izzy Buckley seven. Nikita Maines led the Annies with 10 points, with Niayr Maines adding seven.
CM's next game comes in the Jersey Holiday Tournament Dec. 28, when they take on the host Panthers at 3 p.m.; the Eagles also face Granite City at 7:30 p.m. to wrap up the opening day of play and conclude group play at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 29 against Hardin-Calhoun.
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