Central-Southeastern girls clamp down defensively in fourth quarter to fend off Brown County

CAMP POINT, Ill. — This was not pretty by any stretch of the basketball imagination.

“But we found a way to win when things were not going well,” Matt Long said. “I’ll compliment our girls for being able to do that.”

Long, beginning his 31st year as Central-Southeastern girls coach, saw his club pull out a 37-35 victory against Brown County on Monday night inside the North Gym.

And not only was it not pretty, it wasn’t easy either.

Ragged play was evident on both sides — can you say a combined 56 turnovers? — and there was no safe place on the floor to avoid inadvertent elbows, hip checks and sliding bodies, which led Brown County coach Dave Phelps to point to an intangible as one of the deciding factors.

“Coming in, we were concerned about Central’s physical play, and Central was definitely more physical than we were,” said Phelps, whose club led 30-28 entering the final quarter.

CSE’s suffocating defense, especially in the closing minutes, wound up being the difference. Brown County, now 4-2, did not score in the final 3 1/2 minutes. 

The Hornets led 35-34 with 3 minutes, 28 seconds remaining, but the only points scored down the stretch came on a field goal by CSE’s Brilyn Lantz and a free throw from teammate Claire Huston. Brown County had the ball in the closing seconds, but did not get close enough to the basket to get off a shot.

“We’re having some growing pains,” Phelps said.

That was expected from the Hornets, who have seven freshmen on their varsity roster, including 6-foot Kenzie Kassing, who led all scorers with 23 points. She is averaging 24.8 points per game.

Kassing may have been the best overall player on the floor. She could break a press with her ball-handling ability and was equally adept dropping mid-range jumpers as she was patrolling the baseline.

Other than Kassing, Brown County’s offense was inconsistent at best. Maggi Henry, another freshman, was second in scoring with six points, all in the first half. Ashlee Markert, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, did not score but had a game-leading 10 rebounds.

“We were missing Hope Ingram (a 5-foot-11 freshman), who was out with a sprained knee,” Phelps said. “She’s averaging 11 points a game.”

Central-Southeastern, now 2-0, also struggled at the offensive end with a bevy of missed layups and assorted other close-in attempts.

Lauren Miller, a 5-foot-10 junior coming off a break-out sophomore season, led CSE with 14 points before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Miller is also serving as more of a playmaker this season, according to Long.

“Our main goal right now is developing other scorers to complement Miller,” Long said.

Brilyn Lantz (8) and Kayli Bockhold (6) backed up Miller in the scoring column. At the moment, Miller is arguably both CSE’s top outside and inside threat.

“We’re not very close right now to where we want to be,” Long said. “I thought we’d be a lot farther along at this point. Our basketball IQ is not where it should be … but everything will get better.”

Prior to Monday night, CSE had dropped four of its last five meetings with Brown County. The two schools could meet again in the Central-Southeastern holiday tournament in early January.