ALAH girls survive Arcola in LPC tournament opener

By Mike Monahan

ARTHUR – The two teams that played for the Route 133 Showdown trophy for the second time in five days with Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond topping Arcola 33-22 on January 12 in a Lincoln Prairie Conference game. Saturday the two teams played each other again this time in the conference tournament. The Knights held off Arcola 28-24 to advance. ALAH, 6-12, played Tri-County Monday in the tournament and if they lost the Knights would play Wednesday at 5 p.m. against Blue Ridge/Deland-Weldon at Sullivan. It was the closest the Lady Riders have been to a victory this season.

Arcola plays the loser of the Argenta-Oreana vs. Heritage/Academy High Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Sullivan.

“It is hard to beat a team twice,” said ALAH coach Hannah Morfey. “Arcola played a 1-2-2 against us the entire time. We didn’t have another game after the first time we played them. So, we had four practices to kind of prepare for this game. The 1-2-2 is very good against stopping dribble penetration. So, we had to come up with a couple of set plays to figure out how we were going to get the ball inside.”

ALAH scored the first seven points of the game on a putback by Anna Rawlins, two free throws by Morgan Casteel and a bucket by Annabelle Vanausdoll. Arcola ended the scoring in the first eight minutes with a three-pointer by Megan Miller.

The Knights led 9-5 when they outscored Arcola 10-3 in the final 6:11 of the half. The run started with a three-pointer by Vanausdoll and ended with a basket by Casteel for an 11-point advantage at the half, 19-8.

The ALAH defense held Arcola to just 2-for-15 (.133) from the field, including 1-of-8 (.125) from beyond the three-point line. The Knights offense was 6-of-13 (.462) in the final 11:02 of the half to help them take the 11-point lead, which would be the largest of the game.

“We put a sub in and she executed in the first half and gave us better looks than the first time we played them,” said Morfey of Annelise Ponder.

Arcola fought to within two points, 21-19 with 1:02 left in the third after a 9-o run, which included a three-pointer by Ema Simpson, a basket by Olivia Gisinger, a free throw by Averi Kutz and a three-pointer by Miller.

Casteel sank a three-pointer as the third quarter came to an end with a 24-19 ALAH lead.

“That was super big,” said Morfey. “They (her other three-pointer was in the second quarter to make it 17-7) are big momentum changers. When other teams go on runs we are thinking how can we get the energy back and hitting shots like that is super key to getting momentum back.”

Arcola coach Greg Gisinger said, “The biggest shot of the game was a three that Casteel hit at the end of the third quarter. We contested it. It was a great shot. They hit some big shots. Hats off to them, but I like where we are headed the next month of the season.”

Arcola trailed 28-22 after Vanausdoll sank two free throws, but closed the gap to four on a basket by Thomas. Arcola had two shots in the final 19.8 seconds, but neither fell.

“We are starting to trust the 1-2-2 and fly around and be in the right spots and rebound out of it better,” said Gisinger. “It takes effort to play the kind of zone we are running. I thought they did a good job for the most part defensively. We need our defense to trade offense for us and I think we did in the second half. In the second half our basketball movement was better and our spacing was a lot better. They are just not quite trusting to relax on offense and keep the floor spaced to create space for them to make a play. They are just trying to create it on their own at the wrong times. I am not sure we had a terrible possession in the second half and that is why we were able to make a run. We keep making steps in the right direction.”

Miller led Arcola with eight points, while the Knights were led in scoring by Vanausdoll and Casteel with 10 points each.

Arcola 3 5 11 5–24
ALAH 7 12 5 4–28

ARCOLA: Gisinger 1-0-2, Megan Miller 3-0-8, Kutz 2-3-7, Thomas 1-2-4, Simpson 1-0-3, Condarco 0-0-0, Arizpe 0-0-0, Totals 7-5-24

ARTHUR LOVINGTON ATWOOD HAMMOND: Vanausdoll 3-3-10, Casteel 3-3-10, Ward 1-0-2, Reel 0-0-0, Rawlins 2-0-4, Ponder 1-0-2, Totals 10-5-28

3-point goals: Arcola 3-9 .333 (Megan Miller 2, Simpson 1), Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 3-19 .158 (Casteel 2, Vanausdoll 1). Field goals: Arcola 7-38 .184, Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 10-35 .286. Free throws: Arcola 5-11 .455; Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 5-7 .714. Rebounds; Arcola 27 (Kutz 12), Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 27 (Rawlins 7). Turnovers: Arcola 14, Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond 21

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

Monday’s games at Sullivan
Game 4: Decatur Unity Christian/Decatur Christian vs. Sullivan (1,12-6), 6 p.m.
Game 5: Okaw Valley (5, 8-8) vs. Cerro Gordo/Bement (4, 7-13), 7:30 p.m.
Game 6: Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond vs. Tri-County (2, 12-2), 6 p.m. Middle school gym
Game 7: Argenta-Oreana vs. Heritage/Champaign Academy High (3,16-4), 7:30 p.m. middle school gym

Wednesday’s games at Sullivan
Game 8: Blue Ridge/Deland-Weldon vs. Loser of game 6, 5 p.m.
Game 9: Arcola vs. Loser of game 7, 6:30 p.m.
Game 10: Villa Grove vs. Loser of game 4, 8 p.m.

Thursday’s games at Sullivan
Game 11: Winner of game 4 vs. Winner of game 5, 6 p.m.
Game 12: Winner of game 6 vs. Winner of game 7, 7:30 pm.
Game 13: Winner of game 8 vs. Loser of game 5, 6 p.m. Middle school gym
Game 14: Winner of game 8 vs. Winner of game 10, 7:30 p.m. middle school gym

Saturday’s games at Sullivan
Game 15: Winner of game 13 vs. Winner of game 14, 4 p.m. consolation championship
Game 16: Loser of game 11 vs. Loser of game 12, 5:30 p.m. third place
Game 17: Winner of game 11 vs. Winner of game 12, 7 p.m. championship

Sullivan is defending champion

The 11 teams in the LPC had a combined record of 77-103 .428 through January 16