1998 Girls Elite 8
27-6
(State Rank- 14th)
Four of the five starters from the 1997 season were gone. Molly Watson, Angie Galyean, and Jessica Thompson had all graduated. Melanie Pendragrass was to be a senior but tore her ACL in the summer and did not come back to play. That left only Sarah Larson (Junior) as a returning starter, and Megan Pacheco (Sophomore) as returning regular. In looking at the 1997 season, most everybody assumed this would probably be a rebuilding year.
The 8 players who were part of the regular rotation were: Jaque Howard (5'4" Soph), Michelle Flaar (5'7" Soph), Megan Pacheco (5'8" Soph), Jenny Zolper (5'9" Junior), Sarah Larson (5'11" Junior), Whitney Snyder (5'10" Soph), Sarah Pacheco 5'10" Frosh), and Rachel Bicego (5'4" Frosh). The Streaks were both young and inexperienced.
Galesburg won their first two games before losing to Class A power, Carthage 58-57. Carthage would finish with 33-2 record and finish 2nd in State Class A. It would have been easy at that point to figure the young Streaks would probably struggle with close games.
After the Carthage game, the Streaks went on a 13 game win streak. While things were exciting, sadly Sarah Pacheco tore her ACL in the 11th game of the season right before Christmas. She was lost for the season.
A highlight of the winning streak was the Bloomington-Normal Christmas Tourney. The Streaks had switched to this tourney because it offered the fans a chance to see both the boys and girls teams playing in the same town, and for the girls, some games were at Redbird Arena. Playing at Redbird helped prepare the players and fans for a possible State run.
GHS rolled thru the first two games before beating Olympia in a close 48-44 game. Streaks started went 6 for 33 in this game. The format of the tourney had the AA champs play the A champs in their "Grand Championship." It was an exciting time for Galesburg fans. The girls played Mendota and the boys played Kewanee in the Grand Championship. Both games were back to back in the Shirk Center on IWU campus.
Galesburg continued their cold shooting, starting the first quarter going 3 for 17. With five minutes to go in the third quarter, the Streaks trailed 53-37. Things did not get much better when Sarah Larson picked up her fourth foul with 5 minutes to go in the game and the Streaks still trailing. Super-soph Whitney Snyder entered the game and scored 8 points in the last five minutes of the game.
The exciting finish to the game went like this:
56 seconds- Snyder hits a bucket inside to cut it to 3- 69-72
47 seconds- Steal in the press, Howard hits a 3 for first tie since 0-0 72-72
47 seconds- Steal in the press, Howard hits a 3 for first tie since 0-0 72-72
30 seconds- Snyder scores inside again for GHS first lead- 74-72
14 seconds- Mendota scores on layup- 74-74
00 seconds- Howard takes a pass from Pacheco and hits a three- 77-74
A regular season highlight was our trip to play in Chicago, but it was bigger than usual. On Friday night the team took vans to Moline and watched the boys play and beat top rated Moline. After the game, the team drove to Chicago. On Saturday, the girls defeated Maria. The girls stayed Saturday and Sunday night in Chicago. We lost at the Chicagoland Shootout to Waubonsie Valley by 1 point as they hit a three and one with under ten seconds. Then we went to DePaul to watch the boys play Fenwick. A lot of basketball in one weekend.
The regular season finished with a loss to Quincy at Galesburg. The loss meant the Streaks did not repeat as WB6 champs. A low point of the season was in early January with a 25 point loss at Quincy. For the first time ever, Quincy advanced to the Elite 8. It marked the first time that two WB6 were both in the AA Elite 8.
The IHSA continued to use the format where all the coaches in the Sectional seeded all the teams. Then 1 played 16, 2 vs 15, and so forth. The highest seed played at home. This year there were only 15 teams in the Sectional so Galesburg as #1 seed had a first round bye.
Galesburg opened with Sterling in the Regional championship game. Behind Sarah Larson's 28 points and Jenny Zolper's 10 rebounds, the Streaks roared to 78-50 win. This was the Streaks 11th straight Regional championship.
The Sectional was hosted by Rock Island. On the recommendation of the IHSA, Rock Island hosted the games in their best gym- Rocky FH. Galesburg was matched up in the first round with Rock Island. In November at Galesburg, the Streaks won 76-65. In January, at Rock Island, RI won 65-54. Rocky featured the Youngblood sisters, who were two the all-time best players at Rocky.
The first half was a real back and forth. Rocky led by 4 after one quarter, while GHS led by 3 at half in a really low scoring 22-19 game. In the third quarter the Streaks went on an 18-6 run, and led 40-25 with three minutes to go in the third quarter. Rocky did not give up and roared back to make it 44-36 early in the fourth quarter. To make matters worse, Sarah Larson picked up her fourth foul with 5 minutes to go in the game, and her backup, Whitney Snyder was hurt in the first half and unable to play.
It is not easy to be a sub in basketball. Sometimes when you think you are going to play, the coach does not put you in. And other times when you are sure it is a game you will never play in, the coach calls your name. Kimi Peck was a soph who played on the FS team and dressed for the varsity. She had played in only 11 games, taken only 14 shots, and had made only 7 shots on the season. It was her turn on this night.
With the score 44-36 and Rock Island coming back, Kimi went in. She caught the ball in the lane, found herself wide open, didn't hesitate, and made a shot from 12 feet to give the Streaks a 46-36 lead. Galesburg never looked back. Galesburg made 12-13 free throws in the last 3:45 to win the game 61-49.
The championship game was against Dixon. The Streaks had beaten Dixon in overtime, 66-60 back in early January. While you would not expect a let down at the Sectional level, after the big win vs. Rocky, you never know. Dixon helped the Streaks to refocus. The Dixon coach was quoted in the media that he felt they should have been #1 seed. And one of the players was quoted saying that she thought the Galesburg played would have trouble sleeping at night knowing that they had to play Dixon. Coach Steve Peachey was a master at using such information to help needle our player.
The first half was a real contract. In the first quarter Galesburg went up 7. At half, Dixon was up 3. Just like vs. Rock Island, the Streaks went on a rampage in the third quarter but just kept it going for the entire game. They outscored Dixon in the second half 37-24 to win 62-52. Larson had 21, Pacheco 19, Howard 10, and Zolper 8.
This was the Streaks 4th straight Sectional championship. In the three previous years, the Streak had played the Supersectional at high schools- Pekin, Dixon, and Dekalb. The IHSA moved this game to NIU's Chick Evans FH. It was absolutely a great atmosphere. It's bleachers on the sides were huge, it seemed like our fans were 100 rows up!! The Galesburg side was full. And the best part was that students were put in the end zone under the basket nearest their team's bench. It made for a loud atmosphere.
Dundee-Crown had two seniors who were 1000 point scorers and three year starters. Billie Russel 6'1" was headed to Northwestern and Kelly Storm 5'11" was headed to Quincy University.
We felt their guards could be pressured. Early we felt we had forced a travel with the press and all four coaches jumped in excitement. The refs did not agree and they felt our response deserved a technical. We may have been wrong then but we were not as the night went on.
Russell was their big scoring threat inside. Coach Mike Jaskoski put together our defensive plan. We had 5'9" (maybe) Jenny Zolper on the 6'1" Russell, but had Larson and Howard matched on players they could help off. The defense held them to 19-54 shooting, and they did not score in the third quarter until there were only 25 seconds left in the quarter. Behind Larson's 25 points and 17 rebounds we were in control We finished with 17-23 from the line and DC only shot 9 ft's. The win was 58-45. So for the third year in a row, the Streaks were in the Elite 8.
There are no easy matchups in the Elite 8, but Galesburg drew a very tough matchup in Loyola. Loyola was ranked #2 in the State, were the defending State Champs, and had twin towers at 6'2" in Olga Gvozdenovic and Elizabeth Fletcher. They returned 4 of the starters from the year before.
Things did not go well for the Streaks. Two and half minutes into the game, Michelle Flaar tore her ACL. Loyola jumped to a 31-18 half-time lead and never looked back on their way to a dominating 59-43 win. Loyola would go onto repeat as State Champs with a starting lineup that included only one senior.
One item of interest was the contrast of Galesburg and Quincy crowds. Galesburg as usual filled their side of the lower bowl and had fans in the upper bowl, while Quincy had only about 80 total fans.
The early newspaper headline asked if the Streaks could surprise- they certainly did surprise. Why was this young group able to do this? A reporter asked Jenny Zolper what did previous Streaks players show you? Her reply, "To work hard. Molly Watson, Ami Pendry, and Woody all showed us what a real champion is. You can do whatever you want if you just work your butt off."
Roster
Jaque Howard, Michelle Flaar, Megan Pacheco, Jenny Zolper, Sarah Larson, Whitney Snyder, Rachel Bicego, Sarah Pacheco, Kimi Peck, Katie McGunnigal, Hilary Hennefent, Stacy Boetther, Ashley Shepherd, Michelle Mundy, Mary Lindstrong, Kelli Wessels
Galesburg Regional
Galesburg 78 Sterling 50
Rock Island Sectional
Galesburg 61 Rock Island 49
Galesburg 62 Dixon 52
NIU- DeKalb Super-Sectional
Galesburg 58 Dundee-Crown 45
Elite 8- Redbird Arena
Loyola 59 Galesburg 43
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