LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
GERMANTOWN HILLS, Ill.—In sports and life, the journeys worth taking are often the most difficult. The Mayo Middle School eighth-grade girls basketball team faced a long and arduous trek to the IESA 8-3A State Championship, but a 33-27 title game victory and a perfect 29-0 record were certainly worth the struggle.
“We had tough games. I mean, in our regional championship game, we won by two. We beat the defending state champs on their home court in sectionals. So we had a tough road,” Mayo head coach Adam Vilk told a Prairie Press reporter, later adding, “Our kids weren't afraid of the moment, and (I) just couldn't be more proud of them. It's just awesome.”
Thursday’s state title game was a defensive slog in the opening minutes. Coach Vilk and the Redbirds, who entered the game allowing 30 points or less in each of their prior contests, threw a variety of defensive schemes at their opponents: a Eureka Hornets team that enjoyed a height advantage at nearly every position. Mayo relied on their speedy, scrappy backcourt to generate turnovers.
“We were just going to try to mix things up. We started out in man; I liked our matchups guard-wise,” Vilk said, adding, “We kind of found a new … secret the last six or seven games. We started playing a little bit more 1-3-1 (zone), and we rode that all postseason.”
Meanwhile, Eureka’s coach decided to pack the lane with a 2-3 zone to start the game, taking advantage of his team’s size and length.
It took time for both teams to adjust to the contrasting styles of defense on display, with the Hornets finally breaking the stalemate at the three-minute mark. On the following possession, Mayo’s Adalee Morris responded in kind, bruising through the paint for a bucket. Moments later, Ava Tarr dialed up a three-pointer to give the Redbirds a 5-2 lead. After giving up a three on the other end, Mayo was tied with the Hornets 5-5 six minutes into the game.
History repeated itself in the second quarter when Tarr buried another three near the same spot on the left wing, the second of her three first-half triples. Maddox Adams joined in on the fun, finding the bottom of the net on Mayo’s third straight three-pointer.
Although the Redbirds were finding success on the perimeter, things were messy in the paint. Mayo’s Leah Sanders checked into the game early in the second quarter to bolster the Redbird’s interior defense, but Eureka’s post players were relentless, drawing fouls and scrapping their way to a tie at 11-11.
As they’ve done in all 29 of their victories this season, the Redbirds maintained composure.
“It doesn't matter if it's a Monday night, road conference game or, you know, a state championship game. I pretty much get the same focus (and) type of intensity from them every night,” Vilk said.
He credited his team’s continued focus and success to their coachability.
“The kids are coachable … They don't mind being coached, being yelled at, constructively, of course,” Vilk explained. “They're always focused. They're always ready to go.”
Hellie Barrett drew a foul underneath the basket to take a trip to the line. Barrett split the free throws, but Morris promptly scooped up the board and earned her own trip to the charity stripe in a momentum-swinging play. She nailed both shots to put her team ahead 14-11 with less than a minute and a half to play before halftime.
Not to be outdone, Tarr reminded the crowd who had the hot hand, sinking her third three of the night to send her team into the break with a 17-11 advantage.
Eureka took the court with a vengeance in the second half, pounding the ball inside to score four straight. Adams responded with another three shortly before Morris earned a quick bucket off a nifty post-entry pass from Tarr.
Morris’ lay-in was the last Mayo field goal for a significant stretch of the second half. Both teams were keen on attacking the rim and finding high-percentage shots, but turnovers and physical defense hampered the Hornets and Redbirds alike.
Both teams shifted between defensive schemes, but all-out effort remained a constant for the Redbirds.
“Our kids, they grinded it out on defense, and they rode that 1-3-1 like I was saying. Defensively, we've just been great,” Vilk said.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the scoring picked up again. The Hornets embarked on a 10-2 run to seize its first lead since the first quarter. Half of the gym was painted with Eureka fans, who enjoyed a brief commute to Germantown Hills compared to the Redbird faithful seated on the opposite side of the facility.
“We have a three-hour drive; they have a 20-minute drive. It was kind of a home-court advantage for them,” Vilk said.
That advantage was never more apparent than when the Hornets briefly secured the lead on a breakaway layup.
The green wave erupted in bone-rattling and ear-deafening celebration. Still, if the Redbirds were phased at all, they didn’t show it. Mayo calmly broke Eureka’s freshly implemented press, and Adams took a dribble inside the arc before launching a deep two-point jumper. Adams connected, and Vilk wisely spent a timeout to refocus his troops. The score was 28-27.
The timeout paid dividends. Morris and Barrett found gaps in the Eureka defense, which was stretched thin thanks to Mayo’s first-half sharpshooting, to score a pair of quick lay-ins. Excitement grew among the portion of the crowd clad in black and red, but with more than a minute to play, a golden season was anything but certain.
That’s when Sloan Vilk took control. The eighth-grader handled the ball and danced between Hornet defenders, attempting to foul her as the clock ticked away. When Eureka finally caught up with Vilk, she went one for two at the free-throw line and extended the lead to six. A botched offensive possession from Eureka gave the Redbirds the ball once more. The Hornets fouled with seconds remaining to stop the bleed of precious regulation time, but it was too little, too late. Subs entered the game for both teams—the outcome was sealed.
The victory was extra sweet for Mayo’s core of eighth-graders, who previously fell in the seventh-grade state championship in their sixth-grade season and lost to the eventual state champs, Teutopolis, in the regional championship last year.
“This eighth-grade group is special,” Adam Vilk said. “They've been to state as sixth graders playing seventh grade, and we got our butts kicked in the state championship, so they've been here before. They've been to state in volleyball, softball, a bunch of them went to state in track, so I knew they wouldn't be scared of the moment. I knew they'd be ready to go, and they were.”
Sloan Vilk hurled the ball into the air as time expired and the Redbirds rushed the court in celebration before congratulating their opponents on a competitive game. The final buzzer marked a quintessential “mountain-top” moment for the Redbirds—a fairytale ending to a season many athletes only dream of.
“This year, we didn't even talk about goals. It was just understood that this (game) was it,” Coach Vilk explained, later adding, “I can't think of a better way to go out … I couldn't be more proud, couldn’t be more happy for them.”
The Redbirds hit the Hornets from all angles on Thursday. Ava Tarr and Maddox Adams led the scoring with nine points apiece. Tarr also contributed three rebounds, two assists and a steal, while Adams chipped in a steal and rebound of her own.
On defense, Adams drew a tough assignment: Eureka guard Emma Sweeney. Adams held her to eight points on the night.
Adalee Morris battled the Hornets’ towering frontcourt and emerged victorious, scoring eight points to accompany two steals and a rebound. Hellie Barrett played a physical game, recording five points, a steal and an assist. Barrett hauled in a team-high five rebounds on the night.
Leah Sanders contributed her own rebound in her time on the floor.
Finally, Sloan Vilk rounded out the scoring with two points, but that was far from her only contribution to the Redbird’s championship victory. Vilk filled the role of floor general for most of the game, controlling the pace of the action with calm and poise. Vilk’s fingerprints were all over the championship win and the stat sheet, finishing with a game-high seven assists and three steals. Vilk tallied a total of 21 assists during Mayo’s three-game tournament run.
The Lady Redbirds will be honored during tonight’s Paris Cooperative High School varsity boys basketball game. The JV game is set to tip off at 6 p.m.