Flip the switch: Halftime adjustments, resilient attitude carry Hornets into sectional title game

ABINGDON, Ill. — No one actually reached for the panic button.

“We kind of hovered over it a little bit,” Brown County girls basketball coach Dave Phelps said.

What kept the Hornets from hitting it is what made Tuesday night’s second-half rally possible.

They never lost faith in each other.

A nine-minute scoring drought in which they missed 13 consecutive field-goal attempts saddled the Hornets with a 12-point deficit midway through the second quarter of the Class 1A Abingdon Sectional semifinal against Elmwood. A six-point run to end the first half stemmed the tide, and scoring the first eight points of the third quarter shifted the momentum for good.

Buoyed by a switch to a 1-3-1 zone defense, Brown County outscored Elmwood 19-5 in the third quarter and used the burst to secure a 47-35 victory.

“We had a talk after the game that good teams figure out a way to succeed when other teams take away your strengths,” Phelps said. “We kept switching things and working on different offenses. We made a big switch on defense in the second half that changed things for us.

“Good teams figure out a way to do that, and I told them how proud I was of their resiliency. They just kept finding a way to get the job done.”

It’ll take the same sort of resiliency to win the program’s first sectional title since 1987.

Brown County (31-3) will face Havana (31-4) at 7 p.m. Thursday in the sectional championship game. The Ducks beat Annawan 58-30 in the other sectional semifinal, but they lost their previous two meetings with the Hornets.

Brown County won 50-29 in the semifinals of the Beardstown Lady Tiger Classic on December 28 and 58-29 in the regional championship in 2022.

“They shoot it well, execute it well, really good passing team,” Phelps said of Havana. “They’ll want a little revenge, so you know they’ll come ready to play.”

The winner advances to the super-sectional, which will be played in Mount Sterling next Monday.

“We don’t want to look ahead,” Phelps said. “We can’t. We know we have to take care of business on Thursday night for that to happen. I’m excited for that chance. I’m excited for these girls to have this opportunity.”

The likelihood of it happening seemed fleeting as the first half unfolded.

Katey Flynn’s jumper in the lane with 5:01 remaining in the first quarter gave the Hornets a 6-5 lead, but it was the last field goal they’d score for the next nine minutes. Brown County missed 13 straight shots, committed nine turnovers and fell behind 18-6 before calling timeout with 3:59 remaining in the half.

Gracie Hedden’s putback on the ensuing possession ended the drought, leading to six straight points by Brown County as Elmwood went scoreless on its final six possessions of the half.

“I was going to switch to the 1-3-1 (defense) at that point, but I didn’t want to give them time to prepare for the 1-3-1,” Phelps said. “So I just wanted to survive. We scored six straight and cut their lead in half. I thought, ‘I’ll live with this going into halftime.’ 

“We talked about how positive it was we were only down six, and all we needed was a couple possessions and we were right back in it.”

Held to four points in the first half, Flynn took control in the second half. She scored 11 straight points in the third quarter, made 12 free throws in the second half and finished with a game-high 26 points.

More importantly, she fed off the play of her teammates. Hedden had eight points, including a tip-in at the third quarter buzzer for a 31-23 lead. And Melanie Loehr attacked the baseline with consistency and conviction, forcing Elmwood’s defense to collapse and opening up the high post.

“We were telling Melanie the whole game, ‘Just be a threat,'” Phelps said. “She had a couple nice head fakes and attacked the basket. I thought she did a really good job in the second half of making them guard her. She did such a good job in the second half and it was a pivotal point for us to have her decided, ‘Hey, I’m going to be an offensive threat.’

“Even if she doesn’t score, making someone guard her is key. She did a great job. You might not see it in the scorebook, but a fantastic job. So proud of her.”