TEUTOPOLIS — Laurie Thompson saw it in her team immediately.
Teutopolis was laser focused on one thing Tuesday night — a win over Altamont.
“The girls were focused, came out and were relaxed,” Thompson said. “I thought they did a nice job offensively and defensively. Good things happen when you get relaxed and shots fall.”
The Lady Shoes (17-7) led 26-6 after the first quarter and rolled from there, defeating the Lady Indians, by the mercy clock, 65-35 at J.H. Griffin Gym.
Altamont (21-4) opened the game with the first three points after a Peyton Osteen long-range try.
T-Town dominated from that point, using an 11-0 run to take an 11-3 lead. Chloe Probst hit a three, Kelsey Niemerg made a pair of free throws and hit a layup off a turnover and Mollie Ruholl hit a layup to widen the margin.
Kaylee Lurkins ended the surge by making one of her two free throws with 4:09 left in the opening frame, but the Lady Shoes went on another long run after that to push the lead to 20 points. Ruholl hit a three pointer and made one of her two free throws. Probst knocked down a pair from the charity stripe. Ruholl hit another three. Malea Helmink hit a layup and Summer Wall did the same to make it 24-4.
Illinois State recruit Grace Nelson got her first two points with 15 seconds left after knocking down a midrange shot to cut the lead to 18, but T-Town answered back with a pair of foul shots from Niemerg to make the first quarter score.
The Lady Shoes then led 39-16 heading into halftime and 50-23 after the third. They outscored the Lady Indians 15-13 in the fourth.
“We’re finally shooting a better percentage,” Thompson said. “You can’t win many ballgames shooting under 20 percent and I think we’ve been hitting that hard — even at practice. Our shots have to continue to fall and we have to have confidence and I think that confidence is something I did see. You could see that in their face; you could see that in their posture going out there.”
Ruholl led the team with 16 points.
Thompson was happy to see the sharpshooter gain more confidence.
“Mollie stroked the ball really well tonight and Mollie needed that,” Thompson said. “She made that first one and she relaxed after that.”
Probst had 15 points.
“Chloe came out and played her typical game,” Thompson said. “She went inside a little bit and shot her threes.”
Niemerg had 12 points, but her primary job was guarding Nelson.
“Her job was to guard Grace; we gave her a couple of breaks throughout the game and I thought she did an excellent job,” Thompson said. “Kelsey’s becoming the full package and hasn’t even reached her potential.”
Nelson finished with 17 points — one of the lowest of the season for the standout guard.
Thompson said the gameplan against Nelson was similar to the one they used against Mt. Carmel and Tyra Buss back in the day.
“She’s a heck of a player,” Thompson said. “She can shoot the ball from 30 feet out with ease. We face-guarded her and were going to have help from everybody; they screened, we were going to double it. We ran into players like her in the past, and we used some of the same concepts that we used for Buss.”
Anna Probst added eight points to the cause, while Isabelle Zerrusen had six, Helmink had four and Eva Mette and Wall each had two.
T-Town celebrated Zerrusen and Wall, the lone seniors on the team, before the contest.
“They’re good leaders, not just on the floor, but off the court and that’s one thing I’ve said since Day 1,” Thompson said. “They’re kind of like the mothers of the kids.”
Thompson went further and talked about each one specifically, too.
“Summer is coming back from an ankle injury, so she played the most minutes she’s played in a week or so now,” said Thompson of the guard. “She did a good job and ran the show and was focused. She’s doing what we asked and defensively, she’s doing a good job and out there, she settles everything down. She’s come into her own, especially her senior year.”
“’Z,’ I thought did a good job,” said Thompson of the post. “Z got out and went to the basket pretty well and she can do that. Defensively, she’s doing some good things and that’s our post-presence on the inside. I thought she boxed out at times; she’s just another big kid that we’re going to miss.”