PBL’s Baylee Cosgrove (5) and Lillie Frichtl, right, dive on the floor for a loose ball.
WATSEKA — The Paxton-Buckley-Loda varsity girls basketball team’s bid for a second consecutive Sangamon Valley Conference Tournament championship was denied on Saturday.
Watseka defeated PBL 36-25 in Saturday’s SVC Tourney championship game.
“Unfortunately, it just wasn’t meant to be,” PBL head coach Nathan Lawler said. “Sometimes, that’s life.”
The Panthers finished its 2021 season with a record of 9-4, and Lawler told his team after the game it should be pruod of its season.
“I told them don’t hang their heads,” Lawler said. “They have nothing to be ashamed about and everything to be proud of.”
Meanwhile, Watseka, which also won the SVC regular-season championship, ends its season with a record of 17-1.
“They’re very experienced,” Lawler said. “They’re 17-1 for a reason. They’re more than one player. They have a lot of good kids.”
The Panthers are saying goodbye to seven seniors — Baylee Cosgrove, Brooke Walder, Kayla Adwell, Mallorie Ecker, Hannah Schwarz, Abbi Williamson and Makynlie Hewerdine.
“It was fun to play 13 games with them,” said Lawler, who was in his fourth year as PBL’s head coach. “It was fun to see them grow as not only athletes, but as young women. I appreciate the opportunity to get to coach them for the last four years. They’ve kind of set the standard within our program on how to practice, how to show up to games and how to be a Lady Panther.”
Schwarz and Ecker did not play against Watseka on Saturday.
“It’s just tough to replace that, but our kids played hard,” Lawler said. “Mentally and physically, we were just a little fried tonight. It’s tough. We had some younger girls who got thrusted into some roles.”
The Panthers started the game on a 7-0 run as Makenna Ecker scored a go-ahead bucket and Brooke Walder added a basket before Adwell drained a 3-pointer.
Kennedy McTaggart made a basket for Watseka to end PBL’s run before a bucket by Sydney McTaggart cut the Warriors’ deficit to 7-4.
Those would be the only points scored by Watseka in the first quarter as Lorena Arnett made two free throws after drawing Kinzie Parsons’ second foul with 1:54 left in the opening quarter to extend PBL’s lead to 9-4. After Losa Suaava made a basket, Arnett scored on a buzzer-beating jumper to extend the Panthers’ advantage to 13-4 at the end of the first quarter.
“In the first half, we executed,” Lawler said. “We played really good defense. I was very pleased with our defense. We held a team that usually scores in the 50s to 36 points. The defense was there. We just didn’t hit shots.”
The Warriors’ Natalie Schroeder started the second-quarter scoring with a basket. Set up by a Kennedy McTaggart blocked shot, Sydney McTaggart scored on a transition layup to cut Watseka’s deficit to 13-8.
Baskets by Arnett and Makenna Ecker extended PBL’s lead to 17-8.
Kennedy McTaggart made a basket before a free throw by Walder made the score 18-10 with 4:56 left in the second quarter. An offensive-rebound putback by Suaava extended the Panthers’ advantage to 20-10.
Allie Hoy drained a 3-pointer with about 1 1/2 minutes left in the second quarter before Kennedy McTaggart scored on a putback to cut Watseka’s deficit to 20-15 by halftime.
After Parsons made a basket and Kennedy McTaggart scored on another putback to further cut the Warriors’ deficit to 20-19 with less than five minutes left in the third quarter, Suaava made a free throw with 4:20 remaining in the quarter to make the score 21-19. That would be the only point PBL would score in the third quarter as the Panthers were held ot five points in the second half.
“We got a little sloppy in the second half,” Lawler said. “We got a little turnover-happy in the second half. That’s what cost us and led to some easy buckets. We played so well against their 1-3-1 zone defense at the start, and then we just kind of let that zone defense get the best of us.”
Teagan Cawthon made a free throw for Watseka with 3:39 left in the third quarter. Twelve seconds later, Hoy made two more shots form the charity stripe to give the Warriors their first lead of the game at 22-21.
Parson made a basket with 2:42 left in the third quarter and Sydney McTaggart scored two points off an assist from Cawthon to extend Watseka’s lead to 26-21 before the end of the third quarter.
The two teams would be held scoreless for more than three minutes to start the fourth quarter before Arnett made a basket with 4:50 remaining in the game to cut PBL’s deficit to 26-23.
Kennedy McTaggart then scored two points off an assist from Schroeder with 3:50 left in the game. Makenna Ecker made a basket with 3:32 remaining to cut PBL’s deficit to 28-25.
The Warriors would end the game on an 8-0 run, starting with a pair of free throws by Schroeder that extended Watseka’s lead to 30-25. After Emily Robidoux missed a 3-point shot attempt with less than three minutes left in the game, Parsons scored while being fouled to extend her team’s advantage to 32-25 with 2:49 remaining.
After recording a steal, Schroeder missed a free throw with 2:26 left in the game.
Parsons then made a pair of free throws with 1:44 remaining to extend Watseka’s led to 34-25. After recording a steal with 1:05 left in the game, Parsons made two more shots from the charity stripe one second later to conclude the game’s scoring at 36-25.
“They were the better team in the second half,” Lawler said. “They made the adjustments and executed. Unfortunately, we just didn’t execute enough.”
Arnett would finish with eight points for PBL while Makenna Ecker had six points, Suaava had five points and Walder and Adwell each had three points.
“Our seniors played extremely hard tonight. The whole group did,” Lawler said. “I’m very proud.”
For Watseka, Kennedy McTaggart and Parsons led with 10 points apiece. Schroeder, who finished with four points, reached the 1,000-point career milestone during Saturday’s game.
Watseka 36, PBL 25
PBL 13 7 1 4 — 25
WAT 4 11 11 10 — 36
PBL (9-4)
Brooke Walder 1-1-3, Emily Robidoux 0-0-0, Baylee Cosgrove 0-0-0, Losa Suaava 2-1-5, Lorena Arnett 3-2-8, Lillie Frichtl 0-0-0, Trixie Johnson 0-0-0, Kayla Adwell 1-0-3, Abbi Williamson 0-0-0, Makenna Ecker 3-0-6. Totals 10-4-25.
Watseka (17-1)
Natalie Schroeder 1-2-4, Baylor Cluver 0-0-0, Allie Hoy 1-2-5, Sydney McTaggart 3-0-6, Teagan Cawthon 0-1-1, Kennedy McTaggart 5-0-10, Kinzie Parsons 3-4-10. Totals 13-9-36.
3-pointers — PBL (Adwell). Watseka (Hoy).
