State bound: Lincoln girls basketball hammers Highland, rolls to Class 3A state finals
TAYLORVILLE — The stage is different.
The magnitude of the moment is bigger.
Star junior guard Kloe Froebe and the Lincoln girls basketball team just continue to wreak havoc all the same.
Froebe amassed 40 points and 11 rebounds and the unbeaten Railsplitters throttled Highland 61-39 in the Class 3A Taylorville Supersectional at Dolph Stanley Court on Monday to ascend to the state finals for the first time since 1999.
Lincoln (35-0) will meet Deerfield (29-5) in the state semifinals at Redbird Arena in Normal on Friday at 11:45 a.m. Peoria (27-3) faces LaGrange Park Nazareth Academy (32-1) in the other semifinal at 10 a.m.
Deerfield defeated Lombard Montini 52-45 in the Carpentersville Dundee-Crown Supersectional.
“Before the game, we really had the mentality this was just another game,” Froebe said. “We have a good crowd and let’s make the most of it. It was fun.
"It was what we were striving for the whole year and to be able to pull it off is just amazing.”
Here are some top takeaways from Lincoln’s historic supersectional win.
Lincoln’s defense disrupts Highland
Highland (26-8) trailed just 15-11 early in the second quarter.
It quickly turned into a rout.
Lincoln outscored the Bulldogs 24-3 in the frame and led 39-12 at halftime.
Froebe, of course, ignited with 27 points in the first half, but Lincoln’s unrelenting 1-2-2 zone press also wrought 10 turnovers by the break.
“They do a really good job of getting deflections,” Highland coach Clint Hamilton said. “Froebe at the point of the press, she’s everywhere it seems like. Once she gets one and gets a little energy … it was all predicated on their defense for sure.”
Highland shot just 1 of 11 from the field and 0 of 5 from 3-point range in the decisive second period. The Bulldogs finished 4 of 20 from behind the arc.
Sophie Schroeder led Highland with nine points and five rebounds. Larissa Taylor added eight points and five boards.
“We knew coming in they like to run and they were going to be tough to stop in transition, so we tried to slow them down,” Hamilton said. “If we’re not making any shots, it’s hard to slow them down and we didn’t make any shots in the second quarter.”
The Railers have won by an average margin of 38.7 points this season, including 40.8 in the postseason.
"We play Lincoln basketball and Lincoln basketball is playing great defense, and they did it," Lincoln coach Taylor Rohrer said. "They came out in the second quarter, the nerves settled down and they did a great job."
Froebe, Heitzig supply 1-2 punch
Froebe and junior teammate Becca Heizig seemed unstoppable in the second quarter.
They combined for 19 points in the frame, including 14 from Froebe.
Froebe shot 16 of 22 from the floor, 3 of 5 from 3-point range and 5 of 5 from the free throw line. She had all of her 40 points by the end of the third quarter.
Heitzig totaled nine points but also flourished as an additional ball hander and facilitator alongside Froebe. That connection resurfaced time and time again.
“We have a lot of chemistry,” Heitzig said of Froebe. “We talk to each other and we know where each one is going to be. That just kind of helps us and we both fire each other up.”
Heitzig missed several weeks of the regular season due to a broken wrist.
That temporary setback forced Froebe and the rest of the lineup to step up but perhaps only strengthened the Railers in the long run with Heitzig back in top form.
“She’s my right-hand man,” Froebe said of Heitzig.
History in the making
This will be Lincoln’s third state appearance. The Railers finished fourth in the 1999 Class AA state finals and second in the one-class 1978 finals.
The Railers reiterated this was their goal from the beginning despite no seniors in the lineup.
“The fact that we were able to execute our goal is just amazing,” Froebe said. “It’s the best feeling in the world.”
Junior guards Taryn Stoltzenburg and Jenna Bowman each had five points. Stoltzenburg helped trigger the downpour in the second quarter with a 3 on a kick out from junior forward Tori Geriets.
Lincoln shot 25 of 46 from the field and 5 of 15 from 3-point range.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Rohrer, in her 11th season at the helm. “It’s been a goal of ours the entire season and we accomplished it. Now we got another goal on Friday, so we’re going to stay focused and get after it.”
Contact Bill Welt: 788-1545, bill.welt@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/BillWelt
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA girls basketball: Lincoln dominates Highland in 3A supersectional
