Sweet 16 loss won’t define this Morton season
EAST PEORIA — The scoreboard spoke volumes about the Lincoln Railsplitters on Thursday, but said nothing about who the Morton Potters were despite a one-sided title game at the Class 3A East Peoria Sectional.
The Potters, ranked No. 2 among girls basketball teams in the Class 3A poll, took a beating, 61-30, from No. 1-ranked and undefeated Lincoln.
Lincoln moves on to play Dixon on Monday in a supersectional at LaSallePeru. Morton moves on to next season, without terrific senior guard Addy Engel, who will play at Illinois Central College.
“That scoreboard does not define who we are,” Morton coach Bob Becker told his team in the quiet aftermath.
Later on, Becker said his team “embraced that all year. We scheduled strong teams to help our team develop, and this team has handled every challenge thrown at it this year. This loss hurts, but our kids have handled that and more, and this doesn’t take away from the pride I have in them.”
Lincoln shot well early on, and the game widened in a second quarter in which Morton was held to two points, had a scoreless run carry over from the first quarter of 6:34, and faced a 30-16 halftime deficit.
It was just too big a hole for the Potters — who had 13 turnovers — to recover from against a Lincoln team that beat them 66-50 in November to win the Morton Thanksgiving Tournament.
Engel tried, pouring in a team-best 19 points on 7-of-11 from the field, including three 3s. But Lincoln had Colorado State signee and 2023 Illinois Ms. Basketball runner-up senior guard Kloe Froebe on the other side, filling the net for a game-high 20 points.
“We were excited to have a chance to play them again,” Engel said. “They don’t make mistakes. There is no shame in losing to that team.”
Lincoln got 10 points from guard Taryn Stoltzenburg and 10 from guard Jenna Bowman, while guard/forward Tori Geriets added nine. The Railers made six 3s, including three from Stoltzenberg.
20,000 shots and an old wound
Addy Engel will play at ICC next season. She was part of a Potters team that absorbed a 30-point loss to Notre Dame in the regional semifinals last season.
The Potters never forgot that. When Engel started preparing for the season 2023-24 season, she started shooting
The Morton Potters hold their composure as they watch the Lincoln Railsplitters accept their Class 3A girls basketball sectional championship plaque on Thursday.
on July 1 and kept on shooting until the season started in October.
By then, she and teammate Ellie VanMeenen had each made 20,000 shots.
Not attempted. Made.
“I decided to leave it all on the floor this season, and that’s what I did,” Engel said. “We’d borrow coach’s keys and let ourselves in the gym and take shots whenever we could.
“I have no regrets. When I look back at my high school career, I’ll see a team that had success. A great team culture. I loved playing with my teammates.”
Same story on the Lincoln side, where the dominating Froebe said her team was motivated by a state runnerup finish last season.
“Coming up just short like that, we want to finish it,” she said. “We’re a driven team. It’s a surreal feeling to win the section and get closer again like this.”
How driven? The 35-0 Railsplitters held a 48-24 lead with 5:40 left in the game Thursday. Coach Taylor Rohrer called a timeout and spent it chewing out her team in the huddle.
“They were keeping us going,” Froebe said. “They told us the game wasn’t over, we had to keep playing. Morton is a good team, they had the capability to come back on us.”
How these Potters will be remembered
Engel and Becker talked about the culture of the team inherited from past champions, and deepened with the leadership on the current team.
The Potters will reload for next season, losing seniors Engel, Emelia Miller, Magda Lopko and Isabella Hutchinson.
“This senior group were the COVID season kids,” Becker said. “The stuff they’ve been through … they bought in. Addy Engel grew as a leader, and she is an all-state player to my mind, a straight-A student, just a special kid. She made an impact on her teammates and on me.
“She’s the whole package.” Engel stripped the ball from Froebe with just over two minutes left, then made her final high school basket, a layup, with 1:14 left to pull Morton within 57-30.
Her curtain-call exit came with 30.9 seconds remaining. She scored 19 of the team’s 30 points. Morton, which had won sectional titles in eight of its previous 10 seasons, finished its campaign 26-6, with the Mid-Illini Conference championship in hand.
On to college. And what will she do to prepare for ICC? “I’ve got 20,000 shots to make,” Engel said.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.