‘Everything just started going downhill’: Unable to regain momentum, Titans fall to Bluejays

CARTHAGE, Ill. — The first four minutes of Tuesday’s Class 2A Illini West Regional semifinal game against Petersburg PORTA were everything West Hancock junior forward Jadyn Climer and the Titans girls basketball team could have asked for.

“The energy was up,” Climer said. “We were like, ‘This is going to be a good game.’”

Then PORTA zapped that energy. After West Hancock opened the game on a 7-0 run, the Bluejays erased that deficit over the next seven minutes and never looked back in a 47-31 victory at the Illini West High School gym.

“Slowly everything just started going downhill,” Climer said.  

West Hancock scored nine points combined between the second and third quarters while the Bluejays scored 25.

“When they started scoring more and we started scoring less, the energy just kept going down,” Climer said. “They would get a shot off, and we wouldn’t, then they would get another shot off.”

PORTA took its first lead at 13-11 on an Allison Vogel putback layup with 6:32 left in the second quarter and did not surrender that lead.

Bluejays coach Derek Schnapp said patience was a virtue for his team.

“Maybe it’s some nerves, too,” Schnapp said. “I get it. It’s the postseason. The bottom line is you just have to get moving. That’s what I told the girls, ‘You just have to get moving. Don’t think so much, just play the game.’”

The Bluejays held Climer, the Titans’ leading scorer averaging 15.2 points entering Tuesday’s contest, without a field goal and to just three points after the first quarter.

“We knew they were going to take Climer away from us, so that meant somebody on our team had to step up and shoot the ball,” Titans coach Jerry Jerome said. “(Second-leading scorer) Grace (Grothaus) was kind of sick. She wasn’t herself. Not making that as an excuse, but we just don’t have that third, fourth, fifth scorer.”

Jerome said the Bluejays’ zone defense gave the Titans some fits.

“Our halfcourt zone offense is stagnant,” Jerome said. “Our halfcourt man-to-man offense is very good. We like to get to the rim, get it to Climer inside, but they forced us to do something we don’t like, and that was shoot the basketball. I’m a coach that wants you to shoot. If you’re open, you shoot the basketball. Otherwise, you’re going to sit on the bench.”

Even after a season-ending loss, Jerome commended his team for their efforts this season, which included a regional quarterfinal win over Beardstown and an appearance in the Beardstown Lady Tiger Classic championship game as a No. 10 seed. However, the Titans (19-12) lost four of their final five regular season games.

“It was a great year,” Jerome said. “We had some great wins. We beat Carrollton, we beat A-Town, Palmyra. We did a lot of good things. We peaked at Christmas, and that wasn’t good. We struggled coming down the stretch, we really did.”

The fourth-seeded Bluejays (25-6) advance to the the regional title game to face top-seeded Central-Southeastern at 7 p.m. Friday.

“These girls know a lot of those girls over there, and we know CSE is one of the state’s best,” Schnapp said. “The bottom line is we wanted a shot, and we’ve got that shot. Come Friday night, let’s see what we can do.”