Lady Shoes to Play for State Championship

The Teutopolis Lady Shoes staged one of the more improbable comebacks in high school sports to win their state semifinal game 45-43 over Westchester St. Joseph at the Girls Class 2A Basketball Tournament Friday night. The Lady Shoes will play Byron for the state 2A championship tonight at Redbird Arena at Illinois State University. The game can be heard on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com. 

T-Town trailed by eight, 41-33, with 1:57 remaining in the game when they began their comeback. After St. Joseph's Maia Marshall made two foul shots to give the Chargers the eight-point lead, the Shoes worked the ball down the court and inside to Anna Hartke who hit a layup to cut the deficit to 41-35 with 1:49 left. Molly Smith got the assist. After a timeout, the Shoes forced a turnover by St. Joseph point guard Davane Gross and a steal by Danielle Repking. Jamie Sandschafer's shot was blocked by St. Joseph's Elise Estelle, but Molly Smith grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 1:14 remaining. Smith hit both foul shots to make it 41-37. T-Town then fouled Gross who missed the front end of a one-and-one with Hartke grabbing the rebound. The Shoes turned it over, though, with Marshall coming up with the ball. She was fouled by Repking with :48 remaining and Marshall hit both foul shots to push the St. Joseph lead back to six at 43-37.

Teutopolis got back on the board quickly, though, as Repking hit a layup with :35 remaining to cut the lead to 43-39. Repking was fouled on the shot, and she made the and-one to make it a three-point game, 43-40. St. Joseph was fouled as soon as they inbounded the ball and Gross missed twice at the foul line with :32 left with Smith grabbing the rebound for the Shoes.

T-Town got the ball to Molly Smith who raced downcourt and and fed Raegan Drees who made a great drive to the basket and made a layup on which she was fouled. Drees canned the foul shot and the Shoes had tied the game at 43-43 with :28 left. 

St. Joseph still got the ball, though. The Chargers got the ball downcourt to Amber Brooks who missed a jumper with :13 left courtesy of Hartke's block. Smith grabbed the rebound and got the ball to Drees who raced to the basket and hit a layup with :07 left to give the Lady Shoes the victory.

Each team had earlier leads. Teutopolis at one point was up seven, but St. Joseph appeared to have things in hand before the last-second T-Town comeback.

Teutopolis shot 39% from the field, 16 of 41, just one of five on threes, but made 12 of 14 foul shots, grabbed 32 rebounds, and turned the ball over 16 times.

St. Joseph was 16 of 50 from the field, 32%, including two of six on threes. The Chargers were just six of 15 from the line, their downfall as it turned out, committed 12 turnovers and pulled down 34 rebounds.

Molly Smith led Teutopolis with 11 points, while Anna Hartke had 10 to go along with 10 rebounds for a double-double and Jamie Sandschafer had 10 points. Also for T-Town: Raegan Drees 7, Danielle Repking 4, and Shelby Thompson 3.

Maia Marshall with 12 points and Davane Gross with 10 led St. Joseph, who fell to 20-13 on the season.

Teutopolis, now 29-6, will take on a Byron team that won the other semifinal game 55-31 over Camp Point Central to improve to 32-3 on the season.

A reminder that members of the 1986 Teutopolis Lady Shoes state championship team will be introduced at halftime of tonight's third place game, including the moms of three of this year's squad, Beth (Niebrugge) Hartke, Sandy (Braun) Michels, and Laurie (Holman) Thompson, the current Lady Shoes coach, who are the mothers of Anna Hartke, Macy Michels and Shelby Thompson.

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In the 1A semifinals Friday afternoon, Central A&M kept rolling, defeating Shabbona Indian Creek 34-31 to move into the championship game at 2pm today against Hardin Calhoun, who defeated South Holland Seton Academy 58-42. Shabbona Indian Creek will play South Holland Seton Academy for third place at 12:15pm.