The St. John’s Lady Redbirds eighth grade team took home the second place trophy at State on Thursday, Dec. 19 after a stellar season that took them all the way to the State Championship. They finished the season with a record of 21-6. Members of the team are, front row, left to right: Kinze Whitlock, Riley Whitlock, Reese McMurtrie, Kenna Brannan, Rylee York, Brooklyn Steinacher, Olivia Varble and Maisy Wolfley. Back row: Coach Kelli Ross, Coach Lisa Schnettgoecke, Maggie Stumpf, Hannah Hoaglin, Ada Albrecht, Hadley Lake, Lexi Ross, Leah Schnettgoecke, Kyla Sibley and Coach Terra Lake. (Submitted photo)
By Carmen Ensinger
Not many schools in the area, or even the state for that matter, can lay claim to the fact that both their seventh and eighth grade teams have taken home second place in the State basketball tournaments. No one but the Carrollton St. John’s Redbirds that is.
One week after watching their younger teammates take home the second-place hardware, the eighth grade found themselves in the same place.
Actually, their route to the State final was a rather easy one. In the first round, they drew Cissna Park with an impressive 21-2 record. They easily defeated them 30-13.
Next up was Peoria Limestone Walters in the semi-finals. Peoria narrowly defeated Lasalle Trinity Catholic in the first round 23-21. They were no match for St John’s, however, who defeated them 35-11 to move into the finals.
In the final, St. John was tasked with playing an undefeated Lincoln West Lincoln-Broadwell team with a 30-0 record.
The ladies put up a good fight for four quarters, but Lincoln showed just how they came to have that 30-0 record, outscoring the Lady Redbirds in every quarter except the third when they both tied at 3 points each.
The first quarter saw Lincoln take a 10-4 lead and at half time they took a 23-10 lead into the locker room.
The Lady Redbirds held Lincoln to just 12 points in the second half, but scored only seven for a total of 17 with the final score being 35-17, thus ending the Lady Redbird’s season with a record of 21-6.
High scorer for St. John’s was Reese McMurtrie with seven points with Leah Schnettgoecke and Hadley Lake each scoring four and Rylee York chipping in two.