Scoring points is critical if you want to win games, but unfortunately for Robinson High School’s girls’ basketball team Thursday night, the Lady Maroons were not very successful in that area.
The Lady Maroons picked a bad night to have a bad night offensively and the end result was a 45-25 loss to state-ranked Paris in the championship game of the Little Illini Conference Tournament in Mt. Carmel.
Scoring points is critical if you want to win games, but unfortunately for Robinson High School’s girls’ basketball team Thursday night, the Lady Maroons were not very successful in that area.
The Lady Maroons picked a bad night to have a bad night offensively and the end result was a 45-25 loss to state-ranked Paris in the championship game of the Little Illini Conference Tournament in Mt. Carmel.
“We picked a bad night to go into a shooting slump,” RHS head coach Scott Zane said. “The last two games we had been shooting over 50 percent and tonight we got the shots we wanted, we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket.”
Despite those shooting woes, the Lady Maroons stayed competitive through much of the contest, thanks to some solid defense of their own.
After Paris hit a three for the first points of the game, Robinson countered with baskets from Elizabeth Shea and Marisa Zane to give the Lady Maroons a 4-3 lead. Unfortunately for RHS, that was the only lead they would hold during the game, as Paris ended the first quarter on a 10-2 run to take a 13-6 lead and they never trailed again.
Still, Robinson stayed within striking distance, getting as close as five in the second period before trailing 22-14 at halftime.
A three-pointer from Marisa Zane to start the third quarter pulled RHS to within 22-17 and the Lady Maroons still trailed by just six, 25-19, after a basket by Katelyn Jones at the 3:50 mark, but the Lady Maroons went nearly seven minutes without scoring after that, which allowed Paris to pull away.
The Lady Maroons trailed 32-19 after three quarters, then saw the margin grow to as large as 21 before a three-point play by Alexia Zane ended the RHS drought with 5:04 remaining, but unfortunately the Lady Maroons still trailed 40-22 and were unable to get any closer than 16 points the rest of the way.
Despite the loss, Zane was proud of his team’s efforts.
“They fought hard and played good defense most of the night,” Zane said. “We were a couple of baskets away from making things real interesting in the third quarter, but just couldn’t get the shots to fall when we needed them to.”
Robinson made just 10-39 field goal attempts for the game (26 percent), including 9-31 from two-point range (29 percent) and 1-8 from three-point range (13 percent), while Paris made 15-33 shots from the floor (46 percent), which included a 9-16 showing from inside the arc (56 percent) and 6-17 effort from three-point range (35 percent).
Marisa Zane led RHS with seven points, two rebounds, two assists and one steal, while Taylor Blank posted six points, nine rebounds and two assists. Jones contributed six points, five rebounds, two steals, one assist and one blocked shot, Shea collected three points, five rebounds, one steal and one assist and Alexia Zane recorded three points, three rebounds and three steals.
Kaitlyn Coombes led Paris with 16 points, three rebounds, two steals and one assist, while Trinity Tingley posted seven points, four rebounds and one steal.
In the third-place game Thursday, fifth-seeded Mt. Carmel edged second-seeded Olney, 38-36. In other place games Wednesday, Marshall downed Newton, 51-44, for fifth place and Casey-Westfield beat Lawrenceville, 57-36, for seventh place.
Robinson (16-6) played host to Paris for their regular season LIC contest Monday and is next scheduled to play host to Neoga Saturday at 10 a.m.
2023 Little Illini Conference Girls Basketball Tournament
At Mt. Carmel High School
Championship Game
Robinson 6 8 5 6 - 25
Paris 13 9 10 13 - 45
ROBINSON (25)
Taylor Blank 2-3 0-0 2-2 6, Alexia Zane 1-2 0-3 1-1 3, Katelyn Jones 3-11 0-0 0-0 6, Marisa Zane 2-7 1-5 0-2 7, Elizabeth Shea 1-8 0-0 1-2 3, TOTALS 9-31 2FG, 1-8 3FG, 4-7 FT, 25 TP.
PARIS (45)
Vivian Moore 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Kilee Edwards 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Trinity Tingley 1-2 1-3 2-2 7, Kaitlyn Coombes 4-6 2-3 2-2 16, Taylor Clark 2-2 0-1 0-0 4, Kendra Young 0-1 0-5 4-6 4, Peighton Smith 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Deming Hawkins 1-2 1-1 1-2 6, Graci Watson 0-2 2-4 0-0 6, TOTALS 9-16 2FG, 6-17 3FG, 9-12 FT, 45 TP.
Turnovers - RHS 13, PHS 9. Team fouls - RHS 9, PHS 6. Fouled out - none. Technical foul - none. Rebounds - (RHS 24) Blank 9, Jones 5, Shea 5, A. Zane 3, M. Zane 2. (PHS 25) Young 5, Hawkins 5, Watson 5, Tingley 4, Coombes 3. Steals - (RHS 7) A. Zane 3, Jones 2, M. Zane, Shea. (PHS 9) Coombes 2, Young 2, Hawkins 2. Assists - (RHS 6) Blank 2, M. Zane 2, Jones, Shea. (PHS 6) Young 4, Coombes, Watson. Blocked shots - (RHS 1) Jones. (PHS 1) Young.
