West Lincoln-Broadwell 7th grade team to play for third place at State
 

[February 09, 2023] The little and mighty WLB Wolverines did not back down against the giants of Newton St. Thomas Saints on Saturday in the 7th Grade Class 1A State Tournament at East Peoria Central Junior High School. It was a battle against the odds for sure but WLB pulled it off and in the end won convincingly 46-24.

At the end of the first quarter, WLB trailed Newton 10-6.

But the Wolverines would miraculously outscore Newton St. Thomas 19-2 in the second quarter to take a 25-12 lead into the locker room.

By the time the third quarter ended, WLB was running away from the St. Thomas Saints and increasing the score to 41-19.

Mark this day down in WLB basketball history as the Wolverines advanced to the final four with a 46-24 win over Newton St. Thomas. Simply incredible!

Now the reason why this win was so huge is because the Wolverines were up against some big competition. In fact, just one of the St. Thomas players alone was as tall as Maddox Whiteman and Henry Stoltzenburg put together.

For real, if you stacked them on top of each other they might equal the height of one particular Newton player who could dominate a high school game. This was confirmed through an interview at Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium with Stoltzenburg (a true 7th grader), Whiteman (a 6th grader) and Kruz Froebe (a 5th grader). The trio agreed they were the underdogs going into the game on Saturday. So how did they pull off this incredible upset?

Froebe, who has seen his three older siblings in these moments, jumped in first to answer like a pro.

“I think we just moved the ball well and found the open person not by the big man,” said Froebe. “And we got away from the big man.”

Stoltzenburg also weighed in with his thoughts.

“My teammates here, Maddox and Kruz, made a very good amount of 3s and other shots to help us win, I’d say,” said Stoltzenburg. “But we moved the ball and we attacked people that weren’t the big man.”

Froebe and Whiteman were relied on heavily for their outside shooting but without a doubt Stoltzenburg’s ability to score in the paint was key. Stoltzenburg explained how he was able to score on the inside by driving to the basket.

"On ball reversals, he (the big man) was on the right side so I just went to the other side and it left very good driving lanes for me,” said Stoltzenburg, who used his quickness to outrun the big man.

Whiteman added, “We just tried to execute and we tried to put him on the opposite side because he was guarding Grant (Hayes), so our job was to put the dude on the other side.”

Basically the plan was to just get away from the big guy, who was listed at 6’2, and it worked!

One final story the three shared about the game on Saturday had to do with Froebe and a fever. After the game, as the WLB boys were going through the line to shake hands with the boys from Newton, the Newton coach stopped Froebe and touched his forehead.

Here is how Froebe told the story.



“So I was walking through the line and the coach said, ‘Man, did you have a temp today?’ and he felt my head,” explained Froebe.

You see, the coach was impressed because Froebe was on fire scoring 22 points against his team.

“Yea, you could say that,” laughed Froebe.

So in his debut at State, Kruz Froebe led WLB with 22 points. Froebe made four 3s and five 2s, which no doubt left the Newton players and their fans speechless.

Griffen Cross also had a three for WLB.

WLB improved their record to 25-3 on the season.

Newton St. Thomas goes home with a season-ending 20-6 record. Chances are they will never forget who sent them home early.

The big man for Newton is a 7th grader named Quincy Fulton. Fulton did have 18 points against WLB and upon further investigation, it appears he is an elite baseball player as well.

In the evening session of the state tournament on Saturday the Wolverines were defeated by Peoria St. Jude 40-20.

The Wolverines (25-4) will still be bringing home hardware tonight as they take on Royal Prairieview Ogden (23-3) in the third place game at 6 p.m. The game will be played at East Peoria Junior High School.

Good luck, Wolverines!

WLB 46
Kruz Froebe 22
Maddox Whiteman 9
Henry Stoltzenburg 8
Grant Hayes 4
Griffen Cross 3

Newton St. Thomas 24
Quincy Fulton 18
Beau Bennett 5
Carson Barthelme 1

WLB 20
Grant Hayes 6
Henry Stoltzenburg 4
Maddox Whiteman 3
Kruz Froebe 3
Kamdin Horn 2
Ryder Conrady 2

Peoria St. Jude 40
Hoeft 11
Pribaz 10
Fady 9
Ho 8
Stickelmaier 2

[Teena Lowery with photos by Josh Short and Kent Froebe]