Girls basketball: Eastland dominates offensive glass, hits late free throws to beat Morrison in Class 1A regional semifinal

LANARK – The Eastland girls basketball team knocked off Morrison 50-39 Tuesday night in Lanark to advance to the Class 1A Eastland Regional final against Galena on Thursday night.

The Cougars got the upper hand early in the contest, building a seven-point halftime lead, before closing the door on a comeback with a 13-3 fourth-quarter scoring advantage.

Eastland got momentum on its side in the first quarter with a 7-0 scoring run midway through. Annika Myre Myre got off to a hot start for the second game in a row, hitting three 3-pointers and scoring all 11 of her points in the first half.

Eastland coach Nicole Brinker said Myre’s fast start opened up the floor for her teammates.

“She’s been shooting the ball well, so it was nice to see her come out and get into a little bit of a rhythm against that zone. And then they had to focus on her and it allowed some of our other kids to do things,” she said. “So if we get can Annika off that’s great, and she’s been really looking to score here a little bit more the last couple of games. And we just need to have her keep doing that.”

Myre started things off with a right-wing 3 off a high-post pass from Addie Burkholder with 3:54 to play, pulling the Cougars ahead 7-4. With 3:01 to go, Burkholder hit a pull-up mid-range jumper for a 9-4 lead.

About 30 seconds later, Chloe Sweitzer knocked down a deep mid-range jumper off a Delana Erbsen offensive rebound and pass, and Eastland went up 11-4.

Morrison shook off the slow start shortly after, using a 6-2 run in the final 2:30 to cut the margin to 13-10 at the end of the first. Jordan Eads and Camryn Veltrop scored back-to-back baskets in the final minute to complete the run.

Early in the second quarter, the Fillies continued to apply pressure. About 35 seconds in, Diana Robbins drove from the right wing into the right side of the lane, looping around a crowd on her way to a layup. That shot made it a one-point game at 13-12.

Eastland was able to widen its lead to 18-12 following a Myre 3-pointer, but Morrison fought its way back within 18-16 with a Robbins give-and-go layup in the middle of lane, assisted by Shelby Veltrop, and then a 21-18 deficit after two Shelby Veltrop free throws.

In the last 1:01 of the first half, the Cougars stretched their lead to seven points, pulling ahead 25-20 on an Erbsen putback, then 27-20 after a pair of Sweitzer free throws with 7.3 seconds left.

Offensive rebounding was a major factor for Eastland in the first half. The Cougars grabbed seven offensive boards before the break; four of those belonged to Erbsen.

“She was huge. She played exceptionally well defensively and then rebounding-wise. And even got some looks against their big girls and got some second-shot opportunities,” Brinker said. “She might’ve got swatted the first time, but then she went right back up for the offensive rebound and scored it. ‘D’ had a great effort tonight, and that’s what we needed. We needed some sort of physicality, and Delana brought it.”

In the third quarter, Morrison chipped away at its deficit until it captured a 33-32 lead with about 2:20 to play. Eads hit a top-of-the-key 3 with about three minutes left to pull within 32-31.

Shelby Veltrop got a steal moments later, the Fillies set up their half-court offense, and Camryn Veltrop scored the go-ahead bucket off the glass from the left side of the lane.

“In the first half, our defense was probably killing us the most,” Shelby Veltrop said. “They had two girls that were hurting us pretty bad, so we switched our defense and we got our defense a little bit better. And then we ran our offense better, too, so I think that helped.”

Eastland was able to get the lead back at 37-34 by the end of the third, but Morrison wasn’t backing down.

For most of the fourth quarter, the game was tightly contested. The Cougars got some energy around the 3:50 mark when Sweitzer intercepted a pass at mid-court and went the distance for a layup, extending the lead to 41-34. But Morrison answered quickly.

With 3:33 remaining, Robbins hit a free throw and Shelby Veltrop put back the missed second shot, drew a foul, and completed the three-point play to bring the game back within four points at 41-37.

Over the final two minutes, however, the Fillies got in foul trouble and gave up two back-breaking offensive rebounds.

Burkholder gave Eastland’s offense two resets during that stretch, Sweitzer made four free throws, and Paige Joiner went 5-for-6 from the foul line to put the game out of reach.

Joiner’s first free throws put the Cougars up 44-37 at the 1:51 mark, and her second pair stretched the lead to 47-37 with 49.2 seconds left, essentially icing the game.

She hit one more free throw with 18.1 seconds left to push the lead to 11 points.

“Paige Joiner was a rock star. She didn’t play very much, really; she just kind of played those last couple of minutes because Annika got in foul trouble,” Brinker said. “So we needed to pull Annika, in case we needed to put her back in. And Paige went up and hit, what, 5-for-6 free throws? Huge. To come off the bench cold like that, Paige did a heck of a job to be able to do that, and I’m super proud of her.”

“It was awesome,” Myre said. “We do a lot of free-throw shooting in practice, and we work on it a lot, but she stepped up big-time. And she’s a junior, so I’m proud of her for it.”

Sweitzer finished the day with a team-leading 16 points and three steals for Eastland, Myre tallied 11 points, four rebounds and two steals, Erbsen had 10 points and seven rebounds, and Burkholder chipped in six points, six rebounds and three assists. Joiner scored all five of her points in the final two minutes.

As a team, the Cougars finished with 14 offensive rebounds.

Morrison was led by Shelby Veltrop with 13 points, three rebounds, three blocks and three assists, and Eads with 11 points and two rebounds. Robbins tallied eight points for the Fillies, while Camryn Veltrop pitched in six points and six rebounds.

For the Fillies, it was a tough way to end the season, but coach Kerry Grim feels they’ve got a lot to build on next year.

“I think we hurt ourselves with some turnovers, but we played hard. It’s really tough to go out like this when it really didn’t feel like we got beat by a better team tonight. There were some other factors besides just Eastland as a basketball team that came into play in this game that normally should not come into play in a regional game,” Grim said. “We had a really good season. Best we’ve had for a long time. We have almost everybody back next year. We lose one of our starters, but this one hurts a lot and we’re not going to forget it.

“And we’re going to use it for motivation next year.”