Gilman City concluded their 27-2 season with a 42-31 loss to Rock Port in the State Quarterfinals in Gallatin Friday. The Hawks had their best season ever, getting a school record 27 wins; their previous record was 24 set during the 2007-2008 season. They won their second straight HDC title and their second straight HDC Tournament title. They won four tournaments this year; they won the Gallatin, Gilman City, and District 14 title as well.
Rock Port returns to state, where they finished fourth last year. They were on a mission as they were not satisfied with that showing; they were sharp during warmups, and how a team practices during warmups frequently translates into the game.
Khloey Sperry shot Gilman City into a 5-4 lead after one quarter, scoring all five of their points. The focus of the game was on stopping Audrie Meyerkorth. Avery Gregg faceguarded her all night long and did the best job any enemy defender has done on her the last two years, holding her to five points. Rock Port kept screening for her to get her open, but even when Gregg was caught chasing through the screens, she would close out hard and force a miss.
But Rock Port has a lot more than just Audrie Meyerkorth. Freshman post Stevie Gaines went off for nine points in the second quarter as Gilman City was focused on stopping Meyerkorth. That put Rock Port ahead to stay at 23-16 at the half. Leah Meyerkorth, another freshman, always wanted the ball in her hands and chipped away at the three-point line. And when Gilman City put Khloey Sperry on Gaines in the second half and slowed her down, Rock Port simply went to Braylyn Wood, another tall post player, who went off for eight points in the second half.
Rock Port was one of the most fundamentally sound defensive teams the Hawks had seen all year; they guarded well, they helped out on drives and jumped ball screens. The effort was there for Gilman City, but their low numbers (only eight players on the roster) told on them in the end as their legs were tired while Rock Port, with 12 players, could sub people in and out at will to give key players a break or keep them out of foul trouble.
Khloey Sperry had 18 points for the Hawks. Alli Burke had 6, Hailey McClure 5, and Avery Gregg 2. But the stat sheet did not show the kind of game Avery played; she saved her best defensive game for last by hounding Audrie Meyerkorth and limiting her, keeping the Hawks in the game. It was that kind of effort that she brought the last two years that earned her a spot at Culver-Stockton next year.
The Hawks closed out the season having won 46 out of their last 50 games. They survived adversity, injury scares, low numbers, the loss of three key players from last year, and breaking in three new players for this year. They will miss Avery Gregg badly next year and will be looking for someone to bring the ball up the floor, but they return five key players for next year and hope to bring up several freshmen from their successful junior high teams from the last two years. In two years, they hope to bring up two promising seventh graders, Chyles Webb and Aspen Wyatt.
Khloey Sperry has averaged 15 points a game and 15 boards and has carried the team, even when getting a lot more attention from defenses. She scored 30 against Winston last year and has had 20 rebounds and 8 blocks twice. Alli Burke has shown the ability to score in bunches. She improved her rebounding this year, getting as many as 13. She and Sperry have shown the ability to play all five positions when necessary.
Tenley Griffith made an immediate impact as a freshman in her very first game against Princeton when she controlled the game, grabbed a ton of tips and rebounds, and threw a Princeton player around like a rag doll as both were going for a loose ball. She also had 15 rebounds regularly and has had as many as 18. She got 19 tips in the Braymer game.
Hailey McClure came back this year from a knee injury. She had a breakout game against Union Star with 20 points. Other teams left her alone thinking she would not be a threat with her big knee brace, but she turned into the team’s third best rebounder behind Sperry and Griffith and got quicker as the season progressed. She got better as a defender as well, helping out on Meyerkorth in the Rock Port game if she got by Gregg. With Norborne faceguarding Avery Gregg and Khloey Sperry and keeping it close, McClure went off in the second half, scoring 15 points as the “mostly harmless” girl with the big knee brace dropped dagger after dagger and hit her free throws as well.
Paisley Taggart showed the ability to score in bunches at times. Pressed into service for all 32 minutes when McClure went down with the flu against Mercer, she grabbed several key rebounds and steals as the Hawks managed to survive.
Last year, nobody expected the Hawks to do anything after a 3-4 start, hitting a low point with a 51-22 loss to Northeast Nodaway in which Baylie Busby put up a quintuple double. But like the “Impossible Dream” Boston Red Sox of 1967, the Hawks suddenly started winning. Nobody expected the Red Sox, several years removed from the retirement of Ted Williams, to do anything that year, but they suddenly caught fire and won the pennant, coming within a game of knocking off Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. And nobody expected Gilman City, with one of the tiniest schools in the area, in one of (supposedly) the weakest conferences in the state, to suddenly compete with some of the best teams in the area, but they did.
And the Hawks kept winning this year. They drew the top seed at Gallatin, meaning they had the target on their backs after having been the best-kept secret in the area last year. They won that tournament and kept on winning, even with enemy teams scouting and preparing for them. They broke into the state rankings. The hope is that with a few more bodies on the floor for next year, they will finally make it over the top.
