EUREKA — Eureka and Fieldcrest were supposed to meet for the St. Bede Christmas Classic championship 10 days prior to Monday’s Heart of Illinois Conference matchup.
There was extra motivation on Monday, when the Hornets pulled away in the second half to defeat Fieldcrest 57-28.
“It’s kind of the unofficial official St. Bede championship without the trophy, so yeah definitely (there’s extra motivation), and they’re our rivals so it made it extra sweet,” said Eureka senior Tessa Leman, who finished with a game-high 23 points and 11 rebounds.
Eureka athletic director Jason Greene was told by St. Bede athletic director Mike Struna that the tournament championship this year was being vacated despite never being played, according to Hornets coach Jerry Prina. The original game was schedule for Friday, Dec. 29, but was cancelled due to weather. Several other tournaments played their title games on Saturday, but St. Bede elected not to.
Neither team could get shots to fall in the first half. The Hornets made 8-of-23 (34.8 percent) shots and Fieldcrest was 3-of-17 (17.6 percent).
“I think part of it was we had so many open looks and girls are just confident in their shot, and even though we didn’t get those shots to fall it may have seemed like a sluggish start,” said Prina. “But I wasn’t unhappy with the shots we were taking I just would’ve liked more flow with distributing the ball."
“The thing that hurt us tonight was we had to hit some shots in that first half to gain some confidence because, when we kept shooting and not seeing that ball go in, we let that get to us,” Fieldcrest coach Mitch Neally said.
However, Leman was able to use her shooting early to free up lanes to drive, scoring 16 points in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting.
“I always like to start fast and kind of set the pace for the rest of the game,” Leman said. “I just want to let other teams know that we’re ready to go and we’re not going to take it easy on them.”
Even with missing all those shots, the Hornets (16-3, 9-1) outrebounded Fieldcrest 39-20. The board work and improved passing helped Eureka outscore Fieldcrest 34-14 in the second half.
Hornets senior guard Natalie Bardwell was held scoreless for the first 17:11 before finishing with 11 second-half points to help the Hornets pull away.
Lexi Jochums was held without a field goal for Fieldcrest (12-5, 5-4) and scored her only point at the free-throw line with 1:05 left in the third quarter. Madi Hock scored a team-high eight points.
Aaron Ferguson can be reached at 686-3207 or aferguson@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sports_Aaron.