Unity girls pick, roll into sectional championship where No. 1 Brimfield awaits

BRIMFIELD, Ill. — Unity’s masterful execution of one of basketball’s simplest plays proved to be too much for Elmwood in the Class 1A girls sectional at Brimfield High School.

The Mustangs used the pick-and-roll to perfection in a 49-29 victory on Tuesday night and advanced to the sectional championship game on Thursday against the host school and the No. 1-ranked Class 1A team in Illinois.

Unity scored the first six points of the game, with two baskets by Ashlynn Arnsman coming on pick-and-roll plays, and never trailed. When Elmwood got within two points in the second quarter, the Mustangs found Kylee Barry twice and Brooklyn Stiefel once on the same play to push their lead into double digits.

“In our scouting, we saw how (the Trojans) were switching screens, and we wanted to be patient. We knew we were going to get a mismatch somewhere,” Unity coach Brad Begeman said. “We were going to get Arnsman on a guard, or one of their tall posts on one of our quick guards.

“Barry did a great job sealing. She’s good about getting the screen, holding it and then releasing. Then we had guards making great passes, leading her right to the basket where she could catch and finish.”

“(Elmwood) never really figured it out,” Barry said. “We had a lot of confidence, and we just kept doing it after we knew they couldn’t figure it out. So we just kept doing it. All I had to do was just basically seal really, really hard, and then the guards just threw me a nice lob passes for a basket.”

Unity dissected Elmwood’s man-to-man defense in the first half, making 15 of 21 shots to lead 34-17 at halftime. 

As efficient as Unity’s offense was in the first half, its defense dominated the second half. Elmwood scored just 12 points in the final 16 minutes, missing 14 of 18 shots. Unity also forced 21 turnovers.

Sophomore guard Mae Herman gave the Trojans life by making two 3-pointers to help close the score to 38-25 with a little more than four minutes left in the third quarter.

However, Elmwood missed 12 of its next 13 shots as 3-point shooting threat Melody Glenn and post player Liv Meyers never could get on track. Unity pushed its lead to 43-25 by the end of the third quarter and never was threatened in the fourth quarter.

“We went straight man (on defense) and talked about locking down on who their shooters were with (Caroline) Knox and Sophie (Shaffer), then taking away their posts with Arnsman,” Begeman said. “(Kyra) Carothers and Barry are two super athletic girls who are long, can jump and are quick. We knew (Herman) wanted to dribble drive and kick, so we made Carothers and Barry guard her. We’ve made them guard the toughest girls all year. When we play Brown County, they guard the Flynn twins. When we play (Quincy) Notre Dame, they guard (Abbey) Schreacke.”

“We just had to get into (Herman’s) head and basically played lockdown defense,” Barry said. “It all went pretty smooth from there. When some of us were trying to trap, she was getting really frustrated. That just made it kind of go downhill from there.”

Arnsman led the Mustangs with 17 points, while Stiefel added nine. Four other players chipped in at least five points. Herman had 16 for the Trojans, who won the first regional in school history last week. Only three other players scored for Elmwood, which finished its season with a 25-6 record.

The opportunity to win a sectional and knock off the top-ranked team in the Class 1A state poll on Thursday seemed to excite the Mustangs (28-5), who have lost four games to teams ranked in the top five of the Class 2A state poll. 

“I’m not nervous at all,” Barry said. “We just have to come out, play with confidence and play like we did tonight, and I think we’ll come out on top.”

“This team reminds me so much of our state team (which placed second in Class 1A in 2017),” Begeman said. “We have a way tougher route to go through than we did five years ago, but that’s fine. 

“Elmwood lost to Brimfield by three, and I looked up at that scoreboard tonight, so we’re not afraid of anybody. Playing (Class) 2A schools all year long has been our thing. We have yet to lose to a 1A school. That doesn’t mean we won’t, but taking our losses against 2A schools has been a big help.”