High School Girls Basketball
Lady Railers remain undefeated by sweeping Mahomet-Seymour
Varsity team is 20-0 on the season
JV team is 11-0 on the season

[January 09, 2023]

Saturday afternoon the undefeated Lady Railers hosted a very important Apollo Conference matchup with Mahomet Seymour. With Lady Railer fans showing up and offering their support, both Lincoln teams defeated the Bulldogs.

In the Varsity contest at 2:30 p.m. the Lady Railers held a respectable lead from the start and won by a final score of 46-21.

In the JV contest at 1 p.m. the Lady Railers managed a single-digit lead until the final quarter when the team pulled away with a solid 54-37 win.

Jumping into the Varsity game, the Lady Railers are still early in making adjustments to their game with key starter and second-leading scorer Becca Heitzig out of the lineup with an injury. But with Piper Whiteman filling the gap in the starting lineup and playing aggressive at both ends of the court, the ladies are handling the situation very well.

Lincoln was off to a quick 12-2 lead in the first quarter with Kloe Froebe and Tori Geriets doing the scoring. The points were all in the paint, with Froebe making things happen on the drive and Geriets pulling down offensive rebounds and going back up strong to score. Not an easy task surrounded by a bigger and physically stronger Bulldogs team.
 

Lincoln continued to find a way to create shots in the second quarter and with Mia Clark in the lineup, the freshman was quick to contribute. Her move in the lane allowed Lincoln a 14-4 lead. After back-to-back layups by Froebe, Lincoln was up 18-7. With just under five minutes in the quarter, a steal by Whiteman allowed Taryn Stoltzenburg to score under the basket and Lincoln was up 20-7. Froebe’s basket near the three minute mark was the end of the first half offense for Lincoln, but with the Bulldogs Durbin Thomas sinking a three after that, the halftime score was settled at 22-12.

The Lady Railers spread the scoring around in the third quarter, with Jenna Bowman contributing a three early on. Geriets and Froebe also added to their totals on the day. And finally, Whiteman scored twice in a little over thirty seconds to close out the quarter. Her two made the score 33-14 and then after a three by Savannah Orgeron, Whiteman followed that with a three of her own. As the quarter ended, Lincoln was on top 36-17.

The Bulldogs, who have owned the Lady Railers in the past, fought hard in the fourth quarter, but the times are changing. Lincoln maintained their composure and continued to play their game. Lincoln was able to run the score up to 42-17 at the start of the fourth quarter after a bucket by Bowman, two free throws by Froebe on the technical foul called on the Bulldogs coach and finally just a casual two points in the paint by Froebe. Whiteman sank one more basket in the fourth quarter to make the score 44-18. As the subs entered the game at the 1:46 mark, the huge crowd on hand gave the Lady Railers a round of applause. Grace Schneider took a shot and scored to make the score 46-18 and the Lady Railers had really shut down the Bulldogs offense in the final quarter, outscoring them 10-1 at this point. Mahomet-Seymour scored on a three by Alayna DeWitt to end the scoring and the game, with Lincoln winning by a final of 46-21.

Kloe Froebe led all scorers with 20 points and she pulled down 13 rebounds for Lincoln.

This game was obviously important for many reasons and the 20th win looks to put the Lady Railers on a route they look forward to traveling.

“This win should rank us no. 1 for our regional, which will set us up for a good route to State, I believe,” said Froebe. “And we are still holding on to that no. 1 spot in the Apollo Conference. The conference has been interesting this year. On random nights you never know who is going to win.”

The Lady Railers sit on top of the Apollo Conference with a 6-0 record.

And since Froebe said that word “STATE” it is worth noting the Lady Railers are ranked at no. 4 in the Class 3A AP Illinois High School Girls Basketball rankings as of 1-6-23.

Saturday afternoon inside the Roy S. Anderson Gymnasium also featured a big crowd to cheer on the undefeated 2022-2023 Lady Railers. In particular, a large group of former Lady Railer basketball stars sat in the far corner of the gym reminiscing about the good old days and catching a good glimpse of this current squad. (See additional article coming soon for that story.)

As far as the crowd supporting the Lady Railers, the team felt the love.

“I thought the crowd was amazing,” said Froebe, smiling. “It’s really cool seeing the community of Lincoln support girls basketball.”

The Lady Railers will undoubtedly look back on this game and probably pick apart what they need to work on, but each game is an opportunity to learn and a step in the right direction. Facing a bigger team has its challenges and the Lady Railers passed the test against a very talented Bulldogs team.

“We’re used to that,” said Froebe, very aware of the strength of opposing teams. “We know that every team we face is going to be bigger and stronger than us, but they don’t have as big a heart as us. We just go into every game knowing we’re going to work harder on defense. We are going to outwork every team. We have a little saying this season. “Revenge Season.” So we’re out for revenge and this is step one.”

Step one is complete.

But there’s still more work to be done.

These two teams will meet again in Mahomet on Thursday, February 9, 2023.

Flashing back to last season, the Bulldogs defeated Lincoln three times. On January 17, 2022 the Bulldogs won 46-37 over the Lady Railers. On February 10, 2022 Mahomet-Seymour won 63-52 over Lincoln. Finally on February 24, 2022 Mahomet-Seymour defeated Lincoln 52-43 to win the Sectional Championship on Neil Alexander Court. That Mahomet-Seymour team would go down as one of the best teams in school history but they would eventually fall to Bethalto Civic Memorial in the Super-Sectional, ending their season with a 30-5 record.

The Lady Railers remain unbeaten with a 20-0 record.
 

Mahomet-Seymour falls to 16-4 on the season.

In the JV game, Lincoln led 13-9 after the first quarter. At the half the ladies were on top of the Bulldogs 25-18. By the time the third quarter ended, the lead was still in Lincoln’s favor, 36-30 the score. Ceana Adams led the Lady Railers JV team to the 54-37 victory by scoring 18 points. Five other Lady Railers also put up great numbers and just like that, these girls remain unbeaten with an 11-0 record.

The Lady Railers are home this Tuesday night against Champaign Central. The JV game will start at 6 p.m. and the Varsity will tip-off at 7:30 p.m.

Varsity scoring

Lincoln 46

Froebe 20
Geriets 8
Whiteman 7
Bowman 5
Stoltzenburg 2
Schneider 2
Clark 2

Mahomet-Seymour 21

Oregon 13
Thomas 3
DeWitt 3
Yeakel 2

JV scoring

Lincoln 54

Adams 18
Clark 9
Knapp 8
McCloud 7
Holmes 6
Schneider 6

Mahomet-Seymour 37

Yeakel 15
Campion 7
Fuoss 6
Binkley 3
Carrey 2
Creel 2
Lewis 2

[Teena Lowery]