Nashville Blues: Hornettes’ defensive length overwhelms Central-Southeastern in super-sectional

VANDALIA, Ill. — The southern half of the state already has learned. The rest of the state will find out this weekend.

The Nashville girls basketball team is exceptionally good and a state championship threat — now and for the next three years.

The Hornettes, ranked No. 3 in the Class 2A state poll, field a starting lineup with three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior — all of whom are 5-foot-9 or taller. That length frustrated Central-Southeastern into 2-for-18 shooting from the field in the second half as Nashville won 41-32 in the Class 2A super-sectional Monday night at Vandalia High School.

The Hornettes (32-3) advance to the state tournament on Thursday at CEFCU Arena in Normal and will play unranked Robinson, which defeated Peotone 45-36 at the super-sectional at Tolono. Top-ranked Peoria Notre Dame (32-4) and Regina Dominican (25-9) will play in the other Class 2A semifinal.

Central-Southeastern ends its season with a record of 29-3 as its 21-game winning streak was snapped.

The only lead the Panthers held was at 3-0 when Lauren Miller converted an old-fashioned three-point play on the game’s first possession. Central-Southeastern didn’t score again from the field in the first quarter and trailed 11-5.

Scoring never got any easier for the Panthers, but they remarkably only trailed 36-32 with 3:51 remaining in the fourth quarter. However, CSE never scored after that point.

“They gave us some troubles,” Panthers coach Matt Long said. “(Nashville is) an awful good ballclub. I’m not going to take anything away from them. Our kids are a good ballclub too. It just wasn’t our night. Things didn’t go our way in certain situations. They were really physical and beat us on the boards pretty good. We had a hard time at times running offense because of their physicality.”

Not only did CSE not shoot well, but it also was outrebounded 18-5 in the first half when Nashville led by as many as 11 points. Two baskets by Miller in the final two minutes of the second quarter helped the Panthers get within 24-17 at halftime.

“They were just bigger. They’re longer,” Miller said. “We just didn’t execute like we were supposed to, but you’ve got to give them credit. They’re a big strong team. It’s hard to beat that team.”

Central-Southeastern had its chances to chip away at Nashville’s lead.

The Hornettes turned the ball over on their first five possessions of the third quarter. However, the Panthers had four turnovers and missed three out of four free throws on their first six possession of the third quarter. Despite turning the ball over eight times in the quarter, Nashville eventually built its lead to 36-25. A 3-pointer and a free throw by Carly Peters got CSE back to within seven points with eight minutes to play.

“I thought in the first half we did a good job of handling the ball,” Nashville coach Dempsey Witte said. “In the second half towards the end, we did not. You’ve got to credit (the Panthers) for turning it up. They were realizing that they had to do a little bit more trapping than the normal, so they came up with a lot of heat, and we didn’t handle as well as I would have liked.”

CSE’s defensive pressure forced five consecutive Nashville turnovers to start the fourth quarter. However, the Panthers missed their first six shots of the quarter and made just one free throw in the first four minutes, missing more opportunities to close the gap.

“I wasn’t worried in the first half, but when (CSE) brought it, I was kind of worried a little bit,” freshman Summer Brinkman said. “But I’ve got my team behind me.”

Two golden chances to turn the tide were missed by CSE. Brilyn Lantz stole the ball at midcourt but missed a layup thanks to the defensive play of Brinkman. Moments later, Peters had a wide-open 3-pointer from the right wing that missed. The Panthers missed 12 of their 13 3-point shots.

Miller made two free throws with 3:51 left to play, finally getting CSE within 36-32. Makayla Gajewski split a pair of free throws with 2:56 to play, but CSE had a chance to get within one possession.

The Panthers recorded several come-from-behind victories this season, and Long thought his team was in position to do it again.

“We cut it to five and had possession, and I thought, ‘All right. Here we go,’” Long said. “We’re going to hit a shot here, and we’re going to have the mojo on our side. We’re going to get our energy back, and we’ll be all right.”

Instead, Miller turned the ball over with 2:25 left. Samantha Brinkman then split a pair of free throws with 2:04 remaining, and Miller missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key on the next possession.

After two more missed shots and a turnover by CSE, Nashville ran out the final 72 seconds.

Miller finished with 16 points for the Panthers, who missed 28 of 37 shots in the game.

“This isn’t a good feeling, for sure,” Miller said. “It’s going to be hard to get over this one.”

Five of the seven players Long used in Monday’s game return next year. However, he knows Nashville could again be in CSE’s path to Normal.

“I think it’s pretty obvious with Nashville’s youth that you’re going to have to go through them,” Long said. “That’s why I told the kids chances are if we get this far next year, (the Hornettes are) going to be waiting for us. We’re going to have to get better, get a better game plan together and find a way to get by them.”