ARCOLA, Ill. — The wheels never came off. The armor never cracked.
Oftentimes, you’ll see that with teams when the crowd is against them. But not the St. Anthony girls basketball team.
Playing in a hostile environment didn’t bother the Bulldogs in their 45-34 victory over Arcola in a semifinal of the Class 1A Arcola Sectional. The victory pushed St. Anthony to the sectional championship game for the second time in four years.
“All season, we’ve talked about being the most prepared team,” senior guard Adysen Rios said. “We don’t really get these crowds like this, so it was different for us to have these. We overcame the crowd.”
The Bulldogs led by four points, 16-12, at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Riders jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead.
Senior Kacie Sisk hit a three-pointer before senior Crystal Ramirez followed with a basket.
St. Anthony junior guard Nancy Ruholl got the Bulldogs on the board with a pair of free throws with 6:02 left in the period. Senior forward Addi Nuxoll later made two herself to cut the lead to three points, 7-4, with 5:30 to go in the period.
Ruholl then made a layup with 4:49 left that shaved the margin to one point. She later made two more free throws to push St. Anthony ahead by three points, 10-7, with 4:20 remaining.
Arcola started the second quarter with a midrange jumper from senior Ava Simpson. Ruholl made two free throws before Simpson made another midrange shot.
Clinging to a two-point lead, Ruholl knocked down a three-pointer to space the margin to five points with five minutes left.
Both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net for the rest of the period. The Bulldogs ended with two more points, while Arcola scored once.
Sisk hit a shot to start the second half. Nuxoll then scored on a post-move.
Sophomore forward Addie Lauritzen later converted a rebound putback that pushed the margin to double-digits with 5:53 left in the frame.
The Lady Riders would cut the lead to eight points, 31-23, before a Ruholl three-pointer put the Bulldogs back in front by 11.
Head coach Aaron Rios noticed the crowd getting more enthusiastic in the fourth quarter once Arcola cut the lead to four points, 34-30.
“It’s an awesome atmosphere, but it makes it difficult. The kids couldn’t even hear us from the sideline, even the times at the end of the game when I told them to pull the ball back out,” Aaron said. “Some of them haven’t experienced this type of crowd.”
Ruholl quieted the crowd with a three-pointer in the corner with 5:04 left. A shot that her team desperately needed.
“I didn’t really think; I just shot it,” Ruholl said.
Junior guard Lilly Gannaway later made a pair at the charity stripe. Nuxoll then hit a putback shot after rebounding a miss to make it a nine-point game with 2:34 left.
Nuxoll finished with 10 points.
“I wasn’t getting a lot of shots outside of the paint and we were struggling, shooting-wise. We knew we needed to get to the basket and I did just that,” Nuxoll said.
Aaron commended his team’s effort on the glass.
“Early on, it was difficult,” Aaron said. “They had plenty of them at the end and they’re going to finish on Thursday night. Nuxoll had a double-double tonight; Lauritzen could have easily had a double-double. I think that’s going to be helpful for us to have our bigs playing at a high level.”
Nuxoll has turned into the team’s “sparkplug” this year. She is constantly smiling and lifting her teammates up — just as her coach asked of her.
“Coach always got on me and said that I don’t have to go out there and score all the points and I don’t have to lead the team in anything, but I have to lead the team in confidence,” Nuxoll said.
Ruholl finished with a team-best 19 points. Gannaway added eight. Adysen had six and Lauritzen had two.
Unofficially, the Bulldogs shot 31% (16-of-51).
“You give us an extra 10 percent and it’s not that hard coming down the stretch,” Aaron said. “Hats off to Arcola; they’re a great basketball team. They did a really nice job of game planning against us early and making adjustments in the middle part of the game.
“We got great sets. We got people open. I would say 75 percent of our stuff [turned into] wide-open shots. We just got to knock them down.”
Sisk finished with a game-high 22 points for the Lady Riders. Ramirez added six. Ava Simpson had four and junior Ema Simpson and senior Hayden Gauna each had one.