LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
CHAMPAIGN—After a stellar showing during the regular season and regional tournament, the Crestwood eighth-grade girls basketball team fell 44-27 to Champaign St. Matthew in their IESA Class 8-1A sectional championship on Wednesday, Dec. 11.
The loss ended the season for head coach Danielle Colvin and the Lady Eagles, who finished with a record of 18-4. Colvin said Wednesday’s game was not the Eagle’s best showing.
“Overall, we did not play our best basketball. (We had) too many missed lay-ups, poor offensive rebounding without second-attempt putbacks, (a) high number of second-half turnovers and not getting our fastbreak points that we count on,” she said.
Nevertheless, Colvin expressed a deep pride in her team’s resilience and attitude, not just against St. Matthew, but all season long.
“We fought until the end and the girls consistently had each other's back. All season long, the girls have played good team basketball and have been extremely coachable,” Colvin explained. “I will deeply miss this group.”
Crestwood struggled to get rolling offensively, falling behind 13-2 in the first quarter. Early foul trouble hindered the Eagles inside. Meanwhile, St. Matthew structured its defensive schemes around taking the Eagles’ leading scorer, Lexi Crippes, out of the game.
“Early foul trouble for our posts, Kyndal Fuqua and Ashi Hansel, brought in a bit of action from our bench. Unfortunately, without the height of Fuqua and Hansel we had a difficult time matching up to a tall St. Matthew's team,” Colvin told a Prairie Press reporter. “They were prepared for our strong offensive threat in Lexi Crippes and had number 23 face-guarding her, which caused a bit of chaos in our offense.”
Despite the slow start, the Lady Eagles outscored St. Matthew 10-6 in the second quarter to cut the lead to four points, 19-15, at halftime. Crestwood even retook the lead briefly in the third quarter, but continued foul trouble for Fuqua sent her to the bench, allowing St. Matthew to strike at the heart of Crestwood’s defense once again.
St. Matthew outscored Crestwood 25-12 in the second half to take the victory and earn a trip to the IESA State Tournament this weekend.
Lexi Crippes led the scoring for Crestwood with 13 points, hitting one three, two buckets and six of six free throws. Carsten Haddix and Bayah Good each added five points. Gigi Bradley and Ashlyn Hansel scored two points apiece.