WLB wins 8th grade state championship 43-33 over Pana Sacred Heart

[December 15, 2017] 

Don’t let the final score fool you in this one. The Lady Wolverines basketball team had to earn the state title in a dramatic come-from-behind win over Pana Sacred Heart Thursday night in Lexington at the Class 8-1A IESA State Tournament.

The tables were turned on the Lady Wolverines the first half of the state championship game with Pana Sacred Heart. The St. Pats were the home team and they controlled the first half from the tip-off. A quick bucket less than ten seconds into the game by Pana and it was the St. Pats off and running.

St. Pats quickly ran out to a 7-0 lead over WLB and for a change it was a situation where the baskets just weren’t falling for WLB. Asia Sales looked like she would score the first points for the Lady Wolverines but her shot from behind the arc circled in and out of the basket as the crowd let out a big exhale in disbelief.

Kloe Froebe from the free throw line. The 6th grader led WLB with 21 points Thursday night.

Finally Kloe Froebe reached the free throw line with 3:41 showing on the clock but she missed the first shot. Luckily her second shot went in to put WLB in the scoring column.

The St. Pats lead was 9-1 after Jillian Hamilton sank a bucket at the 3:28 mark. Give credit to the 8th grade girls from Pana Sacred Heart. These girls had lost the 7th grade state championship to WLB last year and they were were playing with a fire in their eyes. They set the tempo of the game quickly and they were making their shots.

For WLB it was only a matter of time before their shots would fall. A steal by Sales would get things going for the Lady Wolverines. Sales found Elly Martinez open and dished it off to the 7th grader for two points. Then another quick steal by Froebe led to another basket by Martinez and the Lady Wolverines were beginning to crawl their way back. A 9-5 lead by the St. Pats and it was the Pana Sacred Heart coach calling timeout to get his girls back on track. WLB, meanwhile, stayed calm despite the deficit.

Jenna Bowman entered the game following the timeout and she tossed in a bucket with 2:24 left in the first quarter and just like that the score was 9-7.

The St. Pats were crashing the boards in the first quarter and obviously dominating WLB in that category to start the game. After a basket by Kiley Ladage, the St. Pats had a couple putbacks to extend the lead again. This time WLB found themselves down 15-7 as the first quarter came to a close.

Lady Luck was on the St. Pats side to start the second quarter. A missed shot by the St. Pats allowed their lone 7th grader on the court, Anna Beyers, to catch the rebound all alone and toss it back in for a 17-7 lead.

WLB would have to get back on track early in this quarter. The Lady Wolverines chipped away at the St. Pats lead and at the 2:54 mark Tori Schilling got the rebound and the putback that made the score 19-14.

The St. Pats just didn’t let up though. Hamilton’s bucket with less than 30 seconds to play before halftime gave the St. Pats a 23-16 lead and just like that WLB was down but not out.

Never count these girls from the west side out. Never.

To start the third quarter it was Froebe, who was held to just eight points in the first half, scoring the first five WLB points. Her basket at the 3:52 mark closed the gap to a 24-20 Pana Sacred Heart lead.

After a free throw by Schilling, Martinez used the back board to beautifully bounce one in and just like that the fire was in the eyes of the Lady Wolverines.

WLB trailed 25-23 at this point and the crowd was fired up. With 2:04 showing on the third quarter clock, Froebe drove the lane and tossed one in off the glass to tie the game at 25-25. A brand new ballgame!

Pana Sacred Heart reclaimed the lead on a free throw but it was “Froebe time” again. This time the 6th grader bounced in a three at the 1:28 mark and finally WLB had their very first lead of the game. 28-26 was the score and the sound in the gym was deafening as the WLB fans exploded.

The St. Pats would miss their next attempt and it was Sales pulling down the rebound. My how the tables had turned. With 14.0 seconds left to play in the third quarter, WLB inbounded the ball to Sales and she tossed it to Martinez in the corner who was set quickly and hit nothing but net to give the Lady Wolverines a 30-26 lead.

The third quarter came to a close and this is what the WLB fans had been so patiently waiting for. It was the Lady Wolverines shutting down and wearing down the St. Pats in the third quarter and holding them to just three points. Remarkable.

WLB played that third quarter with ice in their veins. The ladies were so cool and what sets them apart from the rest is no matter if the deficit is ten points or the lead is twenty points, you can never tell it on their faces. They stay on track and just play the game.

The fourth quarter just went the way of the Lady Wolverines. Shots fell and the defense continued to dominate.

Sales stopped and popped at the 5:15 mark and WLB was up 32-26. Schilling danced her way into the lane seconds later and hit a basket to extend the lead to 34-26.

WLB ran about a minute off the clock next until Froebe spotted Schilling making a move towards the lane. Froebe dished it off and Schilling kissed it off the glass to give WLB a ten-point lead.

How sweet. WLB continued to control the game and all the St. Pats could do was chase them.

Froebe would hit three free throws down the stretch to give WLB a 39-26 lead and the St. Pats were yet to score in the fourth quarter. With 2:31 remaining in the game, finally Rachel Holthaus hit a three for Pana Sacred Heart. A little too late.

They did it!

Some free throws down the stretch just sealed the deal for WLB. A final score of 43-33 was all that was needed to give WLB another state championship in 2017.

The Lady Wolverines sweep the Class 1A state tournament. Let the celebrating begin. What a great game!

WLB Coach Kari Froebe agreed. “It was a great state game,” said Coach Froebe. “I said it would be a good one. They are very disciplined and well-coached. They had a great game plan. They broke our press really well right from the beginning.

"We knew coming in that they were going to be very well-prepared. They had seen us probably six times. I told my girls we needed to be ready. We obviously talked about their main shooters. We kinda knew their defense and what they were going to do. But I told my team there was no magic offense or magic defense that I could put in that’s gonna win the game. The magic is gonna come from the heart and that’s what I told them.

"I said you know you guys have put in the time, you’ve put in the work and it’s gonna boil down to who’s going to be working at the end of the game.

"When we got down I thought we stayed confident and poised. We didn’t get rattled. I thought we handled the pressure very well.

"Going into halftime we talked about how it’s going to come down to the little things. Getting the rebounds, coming off the screens, looking for the good shots, and only giving them one, you know one shot allowed.

"That’s a tough team and I knew that coming on. They are very disciplined. They are very similar to our play and I knew it was just going to come down to heart. Our girls, I thought, played tremendous until the end.”

Froebe continued praising her girls, “That’s been this team all year. You know, they work hard. We have been in close games. I feel like we really worked on toughening up that November schedule like I said before and put us in a lot more closer contests throughout November so that we had to be in situations so that when we did get in a situation like this in the postseason, we knew what we had to do and that was kind of my idea going in. I just felt like we needed clock management, we needed to focus on how to stay poised when we were in a situation like that.

"We had a lot of teams that helped us in November. We played Rochester, Prairie View Ogden, Pleasant Plains, quite a few tough teams. We tried to load up 3A and 4A schools in November for that reason. I felt like our postseason run to get here, we faced some excellent competition. Springfield Christian and Normal Epiphany, those are both tough teams as well. The strength of that schedule really helped us out here as well.

"I always tell the girls, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. That’s been our motto for years and our motto this year has been “We will” because we 'will' for everything. We will work hard, we will get the job done, we will get the rebounds. I mean it’s kinda been our thing all year.

"At the beginning of the year both the 7th and 8th grade team had goals to win state championships. That’s where the “We will” came from because we knew, we will, we can do it. It’s not if, it’s we will do it.”

Do it they did. And it was so sweet for 8th graders Tori Schilling and Asia Sales.

Schilling finished with 7 points in her final 8th grade game and following the win she weighed in. “Last year we where down by ten and I looked at the stats before the game and I just remembered that we have to come out and win this game,” she said.

Talking about the halftime deficit, Schilling recalled, “Last year we where down by ten and this year we were down by seven so I knew that we had to come back.

Today they put on their Facebook page, “Sweet Revenge” so we knew that we had to play with our hearts and it was a mental game and we had to come out and win.”

Sales, who finished the game with 5 points, also chimed in about that halftime deficit and her confidence in her team. “When we were down I was actually really scared and I was thinking for my team that we have to get up. I was just trying to pump my team up so we could get ahead. I knew we could come back,” said Sales.

A confidence in their abilities, led by 8th graders with state experience, allowed the team to reach their goal from the start. “We will win 7th grade state and we will win 8th grade state,” said Coach Froebe of the team’s goals at the beginning of the season.

And THEY DID! How amazing is that?!

State Champs waiting on those medals!

Let the medals hang on the champs.

The state champions earned this one. A come-from-behind hard fought win.

The WLB fans love their team!

Asia Sales and Tori Schilling are loving this win.

A family affair ~ The Froebe family was all in attendance for this one.

The 8th grade team finished the season with a perfect 28-0 record.

Froebe led all scorers with 21 points.

Congratulations to the Lady Wolverines!

WLB scoring

Froebe 21
Martinez 8
Schilling 7
Sales 5
Bowman 2

[Teena Lowery]