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Hillcrest comes up short...

BLOOMINGTON - The Lady Hawks (26-5) made the 100 mile plus trip to Illinois Wesleyan gym, Shirk Center, on a mission to make history. They had their eyes set on their school's first-ever trip to state but standing in their way path was the little-known, but talented Peoria Richwoods (32-3), who are ranked second in the state in 3A according to Associated Press poll.

Hillcrest coach John Maniatis has repeated all season as well as on our sports' talk podcast show, In the Kennel, they are on a mission to make up for last year's surprising regional final loss to Crete-Monee. Not only did they surpassed the regionals but were playing the super sectionals tonight in a hostile environment Playing at Illinois Wesleyan was like a home game for Peoria Richwoods and it

showed with the fan turn out. On the other hand, Hillcrest were not short of their travel companions either.

On the evening, the Lady Hawks came out tight and kind of tentative not making some of their regular shots including lay-ups not to mention lots of fouls were being called. Let me put it this way, there were a total of 20 fouls at halftime. They were able to turn it up a notch defensively causing a total of 34 turnovers but that wasn't. Hillcrest scrambled back in the game and took the lead at the half, 24-21.

In the third, Peoria Richwood scored 11 straight points. The Lady Hawks answered behind Jacquenae Foster scoring 5 straight, but the Knights were not done. Sophomore Mariah Smith carried the team and hit a big 3 point play at the end of the period regaining the lead of 36-32. Ms. Smith led Richwoods with 16 points.

Down the stretch, the Lady Hawks were in the game despite being out-rebounded 53 - 24, but they couldn't hit shot when they needed them the most. Instead, Peoria Richwoods took advantage of the miss opportunities and hit 4 of 5 of their last shots jumping out to a 56 - 47 lead and win giving them a berth in the Class 3A semifinals this Friday in Normal, IL.

Also on the evening, sophomore Juanita Robinson fouled out of the game and also received a technical foul late in the fourth quarter.

"Stats don't lie," said Hillcrest head coach John Maniatis after the game. "We didn't capitalize when we had opportunities and the end, and that's a credit to Peoria Richwoods, which lost in this game last year. Maybe the hunger factor played a part, but we didn't handle ourselves with as much poise as we needed to in the end. We are young but I applaud our seniors for getting us to this point."

Ms. Hampton led Hillcrest with 11 points. "It was a hard time," said DePaul recruit Uniquah Hampton. "We didn't finish our shots. Our defense wasn't good enough. We didn't work as hard as we could have. We tried to find a way, but we couldn't find a way."

Richwoods head coach John Gross said "it was a tough night. The girls found a way to fight back and win the game for us and get us back in state finals."

Peoria Richwood moves on to play (Chicago) Marshall.

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