The University of Illinois Springfield women’s basketball team surprisingly but justifiably swarmedLauren Ladowski prior to Thursday’s tip against Quincy at The Recreation and Athletic Center.
A pregame ceremony at midcourt presentedthe four-year junior guard with a plaqueafter nabbingtheschool’s all-time scoring record the previous week at Rockhurst.She beatMegan Bergerud’s mark of 1,348 points set from 2010 to 2014.
After a few photos, her teammates suddenly came rushing toward her.
“They're great teammates,” Ladowski said. “Without them and the coaches, I wouldn't have gotten obviously where I am today, so they're awesome. They're so supportive.”
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It was actually coach Casey Thousand’s idea.
“It's all about our team and it's a great honor for her to do that,” Thousand said. “But she knows that she needs her teammates to help her get there and accomplish it. They've been doing it all year, and we love to swarm the courts as much as possible. It's fun, and it makes it fun for everyone.”
Sophom*ore teammate Malea Jackson said Ladowski deservedthe celebratory moment.
“We dumped some water on her last game,” Jackson said. “It was awesome, but I'm happy for her and very proud of her.”
WHERE IS LADOWSKI NOW?
The St. John, Indiana, native raised her career tally to 1,374 points after recording a game-high 16 points in the subsequent 61-43 Great Lakes Valley Conference win over the Hawks.
She spurred a key 11-point run in the third quarter. She nixed Quincy’s preceding 10-0 run with a putback attempt andconverted a steal into a layup about two minutes later.
UIS (13-6 overall, 8-5 GLVC) led 50-34 by the end of the third period.
“Lauren's insane, she's crazy,” Jackson said. “She just gets out there and does her thing, and she helps everyone else. It's not just her, so I'm so happy for her. She's doing awesome and hopefully she can just keep breaking records.”
Ladowski additionally holdsschool records for most steals (184) and free throws made (444). She currently shoots 81.3% (104 of 128) from the line this season.
Free throws have always been aforte.
“Free throws are a big thing, we do it every day at practice,” Ladowski said. “We shoot about 20 to 40 free throws at practice. You get to the line and you just kind of knock them down. They're easy to make so yeah, we practice them a lot at practice.”
TEAM RECORDS TO KNOW
UIS matched acouple of records in the process.
The Prairie Stars tied the 2017-18 record for most wins in a season since making theirNCAA Division II debut in 2009.
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They also netted their fifth straight victory, which ties another program record in the NCAA era.
“I don't care about breaking records,” Thousand said, “I want to win games. Last year, we were there in a lot of games, but we just couldn't get over the hump. Their mindset this year is just that they're here and they're good.”
SUPPORTING CAST
Thousand duly credited veteran leaders such as Ladowski, junior forward Olivia Travis and junior “silent assassin” Ellie Mitchell.
Mitchell indeed was a catalyst and scored all of her nine points in the first half. Jackson contributed 12 points while sophom*ore transfer guard Ally Gietzel had eight.
UIS’ spate of talented guards allows Ladowski to play off the ball.
“Anyone can really bring the ball up,” Ladowski said. “LikeCoach Casey says, as long as you just push it and we control the ball, we'll be good.”
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But the Stars’ defense is perhaps more critical. Ittotaled 12 steals against the Hawks (6-15, 2-11). That fueled the third-quarter run, Jackson said.
“We just had to pick up our defense,” Jackson said. “We had a lot of turnovers today, which means we were really active, and everyone was helping the helper on defense, so we got it done and got some points off of the turnovers.”
Making their first ever GLVC tournament appearance remains the ultimate goal.
“It's nice to have individual awards, but we've never been in the tournament,” Ladowski said.“We think that would be a huge award and it would be great to get into the tournament. We have the team for it and the talent, so it'd be good.”
LOOKING AT THE MEN’S SIDE
The UIS men’s team claimed a 44-38 halftime lead but bowed 80-74 to the Hawks.
The Stars (9-12, 4-9) featured four freshmen in the starting lineup alongside prolific sophom*ore Chase Robinson.
Robinson scored 10 of the team’s first 14 points while senior transfer guard Chris Hamil hit his first six field goal attempts off the bench in the first half en route to agame-high 25 points.
Hamil previously broke a school record with nine 3-pointers in a 68-64 win over Missouri St. Louis.
Robinson ended with 18 points against Quincy. Freshman forward Jack Weberasserted his presence after the breakand finished with 16 points.
The Hawks(12-12, 5-9) rallied ahead 52-50 on a 10-pointrun early in the second half and led by as much as 70-61 with five minutes remaining. Paul Zilinskas scored 23 points for Quincy.
TheUIS roster includes 11 underclassmen all together.UIS coach Matt Brock said it’s tough be young in the GLVC.
“They’re a very good offensive team,and we didn’t do a very good job guarding,” Brock said. “We couldn’t get a stop, so when you’re playing offense against a set defense every time down, it’s going to be harder. You’ve got to get stops to get their defense in transition.
“We’ve got to get better defensively. We made a lot of fundamental defensive mistakes, first-week type of mistakes. We’re just a really young team and we’re learning a lot right now.”
Contact Bill Welt: bill.welt@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/BillWelt
