Defensive switch helps ALAH girls win LPC tourney consolation title

By Editor | January 27, 2026 |

By Mike Monahan

SULLIVAN – Basketball is a strange game.

The Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond Knights and Argenta-Oreana Bombers found that out Saturday in the consolation championship of the Lincoln Prairie Conference Tournament.

Arthur was struggling shooting through three quarters as they were 2-of-20 (.100) and 3-of-27 (.111) in the first 28 minutes. Despite that the game deadlocked at 18 with 3:58 remaining.

The reason was a switch from a 1-2-2 zone defense to a man-to-man midway through the second quarter. The Knights defense held Argenta to just 2-of-10 shooting in the second half.

Argenta was 6-of-26 in the first half from the field and led by seven on three different occasions with the last one being at the half, 13-6.

Arthur topped Okaw Valley 42-26 to reach the consolation semifinals after cruising to a 46-9 win over Blue Ridge/DeLand-Weldon. The Knights, who lost its first seven games, have gone 9-6 since then for an overall record of 9-13. They entered Monday’s regular season LPC game on a three-game winning streak. ALAH will travel to Decatur to face Unity Christian Thursday in another conference game.

“Of course you always want to play in the championship game,” said ALAH coach Hannah Morfey. “We were seated seventh and we didn’t have expectations to do anything. No one expected you to win fifth. We will take it. We are playing with minimum numbers (nine players with one injured). Anybody I have talked to says,”Oh, I wish you had more out.’ I answer “we are rolling with what we have got.’ We are solid and it is nice to see them come out and get what I think they deserved.”

Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 29,
Argenta-Oreana 21

Argenta made 4-of-9 (.444) during a span of 5:51 of the opening quarter against the Knights 2-3 zone. The Bombers led 9-2 after a three-pointer by Emelyn Roberts. There was not much scoring in the second quarter as Argenta had four and Arthur 2. The two teams didn’t score in the final 4:30 and were a combined 2-for-22 (.091) from the field.

“We switched up our defense,” said Morfey. “We went to a lock down man-to-man defense about halfway through the second quarter. We had our best defender on their best player (Roberts) and just kind of took her out of the game a little bit. At halftime I told the girls,” hey, our shots are not falling. We have to find another way to score whether that is getting to the rim, more midrange, getting into the paint or whatever we have to do we have to be more aggressive doing it.”

ALAH outscored A-O 8-2 in the third, making it a one-point game heading into the fourth. The Knights took the lead for good midway through the fourth on a three-pointer by Sophie Monts for a 21-18 advantage. It was the start of an 11-3 run to close the game and give

ALAH an eight-point win. The Knights scored eight of the final nine in the last 3:13, including a putback by Monts.

“We were not shooting well in the first half,” said Morfey. “It is super important that we tried to do something different and that is what they did. I ended up taking my guard (Monts) and pulled her outside and she looked to attack for me. She kind of got some momentum going for us. We are all naturally guards. It was crazy to see who shifted and filled the other roles that we needed on the floor. They just played super well together in the second half. I felt like we got on the same page and played like a team.”

Argenta fell to 9-12 and were just 2-of-17 (.118) in the final 20:30.

Monts had a team-high 10 points and nine rebounds as the Knights outrebounded Argenta 29-22.

The game featured 50 turnovers, including 28 by Argenta. Arthur had just eight in the second half to help to victory.

“We made some mental adjustments trying to get ourselves out of bad situations,” said Morfey. “We tried to keep the ball out of the corner where we were getting trapped”

Free throws helped ALAH as they were 16-of-24 compared to 3-of-5 for Argenta.

Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 42,
Okaw Valley 26

Okaw Valley, 8-10, led at the half 17-16. The Knights used a strong third quarter to take the lead for good, 33-24 and went on to win

Arthur finished with three players in double digits. They were led by Monts with 15 points, while Morgan Casteel had 12 and Anna Rawlins had 11.

Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 46,
Blue Ridge/DeLand-Weldon 9

ALAH had their biggest margin of victory this season outscoring Blue Ridge 20-4 in the opening quarter and leading 32-6 at the half. Arthur never trailed, scoring the first 10 points of the game.

Casteel led Arthur with 16 points and the defense held Blue Ridge, 3-10, to just 4-of-34 (.118) shooting from the field, including 1-for-10 from three-point range.

Saturday Lincoln Prairie Conference Tournament at Sullivan
ALAH 4 2 8 15–29
A-O 9 4 2 6–21

ARTHUR LOVINGTON ATWOOD HAMMOND: Vanausdoll 0-1-1, Casteel 1-5-7, Monts 3-3-10, Reel 0-0-0, Rawlins 1-1-3, Ward 1-4-6, Ponder 0-0-0, Totals 6-16-29

3-point goals: ALAH 1-11 .091 (Monts 1), Argenta-Oreana 2-12 .167 (Armstrong 1, Roberts 1). Total field goals: ALAH 6-33 .182 Argenta-Oreana 8-36 .222 Free throws: ALAH 16-26 .615 Argenta-Oreana 3-6 .500. Rebounds: ALAH 29 (Monts 9), Argenta-Oreana 22 (Armstrong, Rood 5). Turnovers: ALAH 22, Argenta-Oreana 28

Thursday Lincoln Prairie Conference Tournament at Sullivan
ALAH 7 9 17 9–42
Okaw Valley 7 10 7 2–26

ARTHUR LOVINGTON ATWOOD HAMMOND: Vanausdoll 0-0-0, Casteel 5-1-12, Monts 6-3-15, Reel 1-2-6, Rawlins 4-2-11, Ward 0-0-0, Totals 16-8-42

3-point goals: ALAH 2 (Rawlins 1, Casteel 1), Okaw Valley 2 (Dennis 1,Totten 1). Free throws: ALAH 8-16 .500 Okaw Valley 4-12 .333.

Wednesday Lincoln Prairie Conference Tournament at Sullivan
ALAH 20 12 7 7–46
BR/D-W 4 2 3 0– 9

ARTHUR LOVINGTON ATWOOD HAMMOND: Vanausdoll 2-0-5, Casteel 7-1-16, Monts 2-2-8, Reel 0-0-0. Rawlins 1-2-5, Ward 2-0-4, Ponder 1-0-2, Gregory 3-0-6, Totals 18-5-46

3-point goals: ALAH 4 (Monts 2, Casteel 1, Vanausdoll 1) Blue Ridge/DeLand-Weldon 1 (Fenten 1). Free throws: ALAH 5-5 1.000; Blue Ridge/DeLand-Weldon 0-4 .000

Seventh annual Lincoln Prairie Conference Tournament
(Seeds and records through 1/15/26 in parentheses)

January 17 games

Decatur Unity Christian/Decatur Christian (8, 6-11) 55, Blue Ridge/Deland-Weldon (8, 3-9) 7

Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond (7, 5-12) 28, Arcola (10, 0-18) 24

Argenta-Oreana (6, 8-10) 48, Villa Grove (11,0-10) 8

Jan. 19 games at Sullivan

Sullivan (1,12-6) 67, Decatur Unity Christian/Decatur Christian 29

Cerro Gordo/Bement (4, 7-13), 33, Okaw Valley (5, 8-8) 28

Tri-County (2, 12-2) 42, Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 26

Heritage/Champaign Academy High (3,16-4) 51, Argenta-Oreana 39

Jan. 21 games at Sullivan

Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 46, Blue Ridge/Deland-Weldon 9