BETHALTO – Wednesday night’s matchup inside Civic Memorial’s gym was hyped up to be a good one. The Eagles, ranked No. 5 in IHSA Class 3A according to the latest Associated Press rankings, hosted the No. 1 team in Class 2A, Breese Central.
The game was back-and-forth and close in the beginning, but the Cougars outlasted CM and won by a score of 59-43.
Central improves to 13-1 on the season, it’s lone loss to Alton in the championship of the Mascoutah Holiday Invitational. Alton is ranked No. 4 in Class 4A.
Meanwhile, it marks back-to-back losses for the Eagles who fell 60-54 to Mount Vernon in the championship game of the Benton Christmas Tournament. The Rams are ranked No. 3 in Class 3A.
The Eagles are now 15-2.
“We talked about it; we weren’t going to go undefeated this year,” CM head coach Jeff Durbin said after Wednesday’s loss. “And I said you know what, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this won’t be our last loss of the year either.”
CM did enough to keep the game tied up at 11 after the first quarter, and briefly had the lead in the second quarter. Marley Ogden and Allie Truetzschler scored back-to-back baskets to open the frame and take a 15-11 lead and then remained in the lead at 17-13.
But the Cougars rallied with a seven-point run, five of which points came from Taylor Trame, to take a 20-17 lead, forcing CM into a timeout with 3:16 left in the half. Central would go on to lead 24-19 at halftime.
Trame had 15 points in the first half. She would go on to finish with 32 as she took control of the game.
“Obviously, coming in this game we knew she was good. We knew we had to focus on her,” Durbin said on Trame. “I knew she could shoot the three but the two or three games I got on film from her, she shot some threes but hadn’t made two or three in a game, and then she went 6-for-7 against us tonight.”
“I told the girls in there; I take the blame on that,” Durbin said. “I’ve got to adjust a bit better to that. But they’re ranked number one in Class 2A for a reason.”
To go along with Trame, Cece Toennies added 13 points for the Cougars. Lily Butler and Claire Albers each chipped in five.
While Trame went 6-for-7 from three, CM as a whole shot 3-for-12.
“That’s not our game, especially against a team like that,” Durbin said. “If we’re not hitting threes, we’re in trouble. We haven’t really shot the three great this year in a game yet. We had one game where we made 10, but we’ll have a breakout shooting game here before long.”
Ogden ended the night with a team-high 15 points and Truetzschler had 12. Birthday girl Avery Huddleston had eight, Isabelle Edwards had six, and Marlee Durbin had two.
Durbin is CM’s leading scorer, averaging 10.1 points per game, but was held without a field goal on Wednesday in an all around defensive clinic from Central.
“I think we are a team that has a lot of ability to play physical in the paint,” Central head coach Nathan Ruter said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say it was our main focus, but we needed to win the paint if we wanted to win the game, and I thought we did a pretty nice job of that.”
CM isn’t typically a team to be out-classed physically, but the Cougars dominated rebounds all night and were doing a much better job of boxing out than the Eagles.
Central kept CM at bay leading 41-29 after three quarters and outscoring the Eagles 18-14 in the fourth for the win.
The Cougars opened the season on a 12-game win streak before the loss to Alton. They responded and opened the new year with a 61-41 win over Mount Vernon last Saturday.
“Certainly our schedule is going to have us battle-tested and ready for the end of the season,” Ruter said. “I thought our kids responded pretty well. Down in Mount Vernon, we had one bad quarter and then today we didn’t come out and play defensively the way I’d like us to, but at the end of the day, we did enough. So, you’ve got to be thankful to get a big road win against a really high-quality opponent.”
Central has beaten other state-ranked teams like Nashville and Carlye as well as other traditional power houses like Okawville and Mater Dei. Central will join CM in the jam-packed Highland tournament later this month that consists of five state-ranked teams and three Class 4A schools.
“We want to make sure we’re challenging ourselves every opportunity that we can,” Ruter said. “I don’t think us going out and playing people we’re just going to blowout is going to do us any good for the end of the year. So any chance we get to play a quality opponent like this, we really relish that opportunity.”
As does CM, who hadn’t played since that championship game against Mount Vernon on Dec. 30.
“I look at it both ways, is it rust or is it rest,” Durbin asked regarding the break. “Sometimes you don’t know. I’m not going to blame it on that. We had a very good practice yesterday, felt confident coming into this game. They were tougher and shot better than us tonight. I told the girls we could play [Breese Central] 20 more times and I don’t know how many times we could beat them, they’re good.”
The Eagles second half of the season is just as difficult as the first, if not more so. They jump back into Mississippi Valley Conference action on the road at Mascoutah this Friday before a trip North to Chatham Glenwood next Wednesday.. CM will be back at home Friday, Jan. 17 against Jerseyville.
“We’ve got a gauntlet coming up, but it’s good for us,” Durbin said. “We need that competition. It’s only going to make us better.”
