Trusting process carries Central-Southeastern past Pleasant Plains and to sectional title

BEARDSTOWN, Ill. — There were quite a few blue T-shirts with white lettering scattered across the Central-Southeastern stands Thursday night.

The message the shirts carried was a simple one: “Trust the Process.”

CSE girls basketball coach Matt Long’s explanation of that phrase was not particularly complicated, but still rather poignant — even more so following the Panthers’ 43-37 Class 2A sectional championship victory over Pleasant Plains before a crowd of about 850 at Beardstown High School. 

The Long-standing CSE doctrine has been for the players to trust what the coaching staff tells them, even if they might not always agree.

“Just trust the process,” said the 57-year-old Long, who is in the midst of his 31st season at the Camp Point school.

Judging by their latest victory — the Panthers’ 21st in a row — it’s a message those Central-Southeastern girls take to heart.

“Our girls don’t run from the storm, they run toward it and through it,” Long said.

Such was the case against Pleasant Plains.

CSE (29-2) scored 11 of the game’s final 13 points to win its first sectional title since 2017. 

The Panthers’ late run came after the Cardinals (25-8) looked to have CSE on the ropes, having built a 35-32 lead with 3 minutes, 37 seconds remaining and the Panthers having not scored for 4 1/2 minutes.

During the Panthers’ comeback and gradual pullaway, they benefited from an apparent missed traveling call against Brilyn Lantz (who looked to have taken an extra step), plus a technical foul charged to the Pleasant Plains coaching staff for calling a timeout the Cardinals no longer possessed.

Lauren Miller scored seven of her game-leading 21 points in the final quarter and Karly Peters made three key free throws down the stretch. Peters had five pivotal fourth-quarter free throws in Tuesday’s 56-50 win over Staunton in the sectional semifinals.

“We stay grounded, no matter what,” Miller said. “We trust one another.”

And the process.

That will need to be the case at 7 p.m. Monday when Central-Southeastern faces Nashville (31-3) in the Class 2A Vandalia Super-Sectional. The Hornettes defeated Breese Central 46-34 in the Nashville Sectional title game.

The Panthers are now one victory shy of matching the school record (30) reached in the 2016-17 season when they finished fourth in the state tournament.

“Obviously, this was a great win, and we knew it would come down to the very end,” said Miller, who has scored 20 or more points in three of four postseason games and is averaging 17 points. 

Peters, a junior forward, gave considerable credit to her club’s overall defensive effort. For the 21st time this season, CSE held an opponent below 40 points.

“There were moments out there tonight when this might have been our best (effort) of the year,” said Peters, a junior, who finished with 12 points.

CSE and Pleasant Plains traded momentum swings and runs over the first three quarters. The Cardinals led at the first two breaks 10-8 and 22-20, but Central Southeastern managed to forge a 32-27 advantage heading into the fourth quarter, setting the stage for what became a frantic final eight minutes.

“This is just amazing,” said Parker Crim, a senior forward who missed a portion of the season with injury problems but has rounded back into form and is once again an important element.

Crim, who led the Panthers with seven rebounds, said there is an intangible tied to CSE’s ongoing success.

“It’s always important for us to remain focused out there,” she said.

Crim’s postseason playing time has increased with each game, and she is now the team’s second-leading rebounder in the postseason. Crim has 21 boards in four games, trailing only Miller’s 23. 

Pleasant Plains center Amy Weber scored 18 points and led all rebounders with 14.

“Plains has a great young team and should be really good next season,” Long said.

The same could be said about three of the four clubs in this week’s sectional. CSE, Pleasant Plains and Staunton will return a combined 14 of their 15 starters next season.