Streaks Scrapbook- 1996 Girls 3rd in State

1996- Third in State   

29-6   (State Rank #14)

The success the Streaks had in 1996 started with the 1994 season. Sara Wood and Ami Pendry were the starting guards as sophomores on the 1994 team, who was upset in the Galesburg Sectional by IVC. Then in 1995, Sara Wood (Jr) and Molly Watson (So) started along with seniors Bonny Apsey, Stef Mitchell, and Gina Miller. The ‘95 Streaks made it to the Super-Sectional before losing to Normal Community. 

The 1995 team may have been one of the all-time best teams with senior scoring stars- Bonny Apsey and Stef Mitchell. There was a real sense that 1995 was the Streak’s chance to go to Redbird Arena. So initially, there was a sense that the 1996 team would not be as good. 

The ‘96 Streaks rattled off 10 straight wins to start the season, and only one team came within 15 points of the Streaks. Despite the loss of Apsey and Mitchell, when you analyze things, the ‘96 team should not have been a surprise. Wood had started two years, Pendry had been a regular for two years, Molly Watson was returning starting point guard, and Jennifer Bulkeley was a regular the year before. So the Streaks did return a strong core group with lots of experience. 

The starting lineup was Molly Watson (Jr- 5-4, 14ppg), Sara Wood (Sr-5-5, 12ppg), Ami Pendry (Sr-5-6, 13ppg), Jennifer Bulkeley (Sr- 5-9, 9ppg), and Jessica Thompson (Jr- 5-10, 6pp). Coming off the bench were Meg Sherwood (Jr-5-8), Jen Wright (Sr-5-5), Angie Galyean (Jr-5-8), and Sarah Larson (Fr- 5-10). The two  things notable about the team were not tall, and the freshman coming off the bench would eventually be GHS’s all-time leading scorer.

The Streaks turned the lack of height into an advantage. Offensively they were uptempo fastbreak, with all three guards able to shoot and handle the ball. Bulkeley and Galyean as posts constantly outran the other teams taller post to get fastbreak layups. Defensively the Streaks played an aggressive half-court man to man, while in full court pressing 1-2-1-1 on post scores and man to man on guard scores. On deadballs they trapped in the half-court out of man to man. In their first ten games, they average 75ppg, and on the season averaged just under 70ppg. 

Their early season run came to a crashing halt. Starting on Dec. 16, the Streaks lost three straight games over a 6 day period of time. They lost at Maria (5 points), at home to Quincy (5 points), and at Rock Island (2 points). Those three losses equaled the total number of losses in 1995. The Streaks were to only lose 2 more games in the regular season- at Manual to Manual in the championship of the Xmas Tourney by 9, and at Quincy by 7. 

At this time the IHSA had a format where all the teams in the Sectional complex ranked all of the teams. The team with the best seeds hosted their Regional games. The Streaks were seeded #1 which means they would host the #16 seed. Galesburg defeated Princeton 64-36. The Princeton coach commented, “Their guards move the ball better than any team we’ve played.” 

Galesburg jumped out to a 30-11 first quarter lead vs Rochelle in the Regional championship on their way to a 89-52 win. This was Galesburg 9th straight Regional title and 9th straight season with 20 wins. 

Galesburg faced Freeport in the first round of the Sectional at Ottawa. Freeport was coming off finishing 4th in State the previous two years. The Pretzels were lead by a four year starter, who was all-state- Lindsay Werntz (5’6”, 20ppg). She was headed to Arkansas State. They had a 6’3” underclassman Kris Abramowski (So, 15ppg). 

Galesburg jumped out to a 17-10 lead, and led most of the game. Freeport took the lead 64-61 with 2:08 to go. In the last 69 seconds, Freeport let Galesburg back in the game by missing 6 of 8 free throws. Freeport led 66-65 with 13.5 seconds to go, and Abramowski at the line. She missed the ft, and Bulkeley got the rebound and outletted it to Molly Watson. Watson went the length of the floor for a layup that put Galesburg up 67-66 with 5.3 seconds left. After a time out, Freeport got the ball to Werntz, who dribbled the length of the floor but missed a 20 foot shot. Galesburg had big scoring nights from their three guards- Watson (18), Wood (17), Pendry (17), and Thompson pulled down 16 rebounds. 

High school students had taken a pep bus, and local businesses had paid for buses for the JH girls teams. When the horn went off, all the students and players flooded the floor. The next day at school, Coach Peachey had bag after bag of Pretzels for students to eat. 

Potentially the Sectional championship was going to be versus Rock Island, who the Streaks had split with during the regular season. As it turned out, Moline upset Rock Island. Galesburg had beaten Moline by 17 and 19 in the Regular season. The Streaks pulled away to a 71-52 win after delaying and shooting FT’s the last 4 minutes. 

The Super-Sectional was at Dixon, and the Streaks played Belvidere. Belvidere was 30-1 with an All-State point guard who would later star at Old Dominion. Amanda Levens was a 5’7” guard averaging 17ppg. Belvidere played an aggressive mm defense and led 32-30 at half. Belvidere led most of the way but could not create a big lead. Ami Pendry hit a three with 2:02 to play that put Galesburg up for good at 52-50. It should be noted that Pendry was 3 for 17 before that shot. 

With their three guards, when Galesburg got the lead and the ball, they went into a delay. GHS outscored them 13-1 in the last two minutes, including going 8-8 from the foul line. Sara Wood iced it by going 6-6 from the line. 

This marked the first time in Streaks girls basketball history that the student section was able to start the famous chant, “No school Friday.” Indeed, the Streaks were scheduled to play Normal West in the Elite 8 matchup at 9am at Redbird. It should be noted that Normal West had upset Quincy. So Galesburg avoided playing either Rock Island or Quincy on this run.

Galesburg went nuts for the girls. Over 500 Elite 8 t-shirts were sold, practice was moved to Knox College to prepare for playing on the longer college court, and a media session was held to allow the players to be interviewed. All week long the radio and newspaper ran stories on the girls. The team left Thursday after a pep rally in Hegg Auditorium. It was the first exclusively girls sports pep rally. The students were as loud as in 1976 for the boys. 

Normal West had won 28 in a row. Normal West had size. Meredith Jackson was 6’2” and averaged 22ppg. They played two other girls at 5’11”. So most of the time they had three players taller than Galesburg’s tallest. Galesburg forced 24 turnovers on the way to a 59-54 win as Sara Wood had 21 points. 

The Streaks had won 15 of their last 16 games, but it was to end vs. Stevenson. Stevenson had two D1 players- Tauja Catchings 6’0” guard and Katie Coleman 6’0” post. Both of them averaged over 20 points per game. The Streaks hung in and were leading 29-26 with a minute to go in the first half, and were down 4 after three quarters. Eventually Stevenson prevailed 71-54. Stevenson was ranked #1 in Illinois, and #3 nationally by USA Today. 

In the third place game, Galesburg ran away with a 79-68 win. GHS was up 49-37 at half and was able to clear the entire bench. Bulkeley and Watson each had 21 points. 

Several things that standout from the 1996 trip to State:

This groups commitment to working on their games and working on fundamentals is illustrated by Stevenson’s scouting report. In the scouting report, “Do not let #12 Sara Wood get to her left hand, she is a lefty.” In reality, Sara was a right hander, but had worked so hard on her ball handling that indeed she was great with her left hand. 

After Freeport played Galesburg, the Freeport coach was quoted as saying, “Galesburg doesn’t care if you score, they just want to get the ball back and score as fast as they can.” There are teams who press and team who want to fastbreak, the 1996 team was totally committed to playing at a different pace. 

Attendance for the AA tourney was over 43,000, which was a record at the time. It was a tribute to the Galesburg fans. The total attendance record kept rising every year Galesburg made it to State. 

The Streaks were welcomed home on Sunday afternoon by all the fans. The team road the fire trucks down Main St to Henderson St. It was a run that you wished could just keep going, 

People ask, who was the best Streaks team. There are several teams who are definitely in the discussion as the G.O.A.T of Streaks girls basketball. On paper, looking at the lack of size, it would be easy to discount the ‘96 team. If you put together a tourney of all the Streaks teams, I can guarantee the team none of the others would want to play would be the ‘96 team. Their tempo on offense and their pressure on defense were unrelenting. 

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1996 Pressure Basketball

Lean On Me

Galesburg Regional

Galesburg 64- Princeton 36

Galesburg 89- Rochelle 52

Ottawa Sectional

Galesburg 67- Freeport 66

Galesburg 71- Moline 52

Dixon Super-Sectional 

Galesburg 62- Belvidere 51

State Finals- Redbird Arena

Galesburg 59- Normal West 54

Stevenson 71- Galesburg 54

Galesburg 79- Morris 68

Galesburg Roster

Molly Watson, Ami Pendry, Sara Wood, Jen Bulkeley, Jessica Thompson, Sarah Larson, Angie Galyean, Meg Sherwood, Jenny Zolper, Jen Wright, Mandy Giger, Hilary Coffman, Julie Lofing, Bridget Schroeder, Melanie Pendergrass