The State Tournament Scoop
March 29, 1999
The awards continue to roll in for senior Sarah Larson. Sarah was named 1999 Player of the Year by the Peoria Journal Star while making her second appearance on the first team, and was named Most Valuable Player by the Galesburg weekly paper The Zephyr, the second consecutive year she has won the award.
Junior Megan Pacheco was selected to the second team of the Peoria Journal Star All Star Baskeball Team while fellow junior Jaque Howard was named to the third team.
Sarah Larson has announced that she will continue her basketball career at SIU-Edwardsville. Sarah reached her decision early last week.
March 15, 1999
Senior Sarah Larson was recently selected to the second team All-State by the Chicago Tribune and to the first team of the Western Big Six Conference (her third straight year). Sarah led the league in scoring at 23.3 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game in league games this season.
Junior Megan Pacheco also was selected to the first team of the Western Big Six Conference (her second straight year). Megan averaged 11.9 points per game and 4.6 rebounds per game in league games this season while shooting 53% from the three point arc.
The eight member team was rounded out with Amber Dvorak and Courtney Vonderhaar of Quincy, Emily Buchannan and Mandy Evans of East Moline, Alecia Logan of Rock Island Alleman, and Jennifer Youngblood of Rock Island.
March 10, 1999
Welcome back! What a week it has been for the Streaks. The Streaks left last Thursday for Normal, IL and the state finals. After a 3:30 pm shootaround at ISU's Redbird Arena in which the coaches scored on all five of their possessions against the players, the Streaks returned to their hotel awaiting the 7:00pm IHSA Tournament Banquet.
Friday morning brought another shootaround in the morning and then the Streaks took in some of the afternoon games before returning to their hotel.
The much anticipated game against Loyola began at 6:30 pm and was hotly contested throughout the game. Loyola took leads of 13 points three different times during the first half and looked ready to silence the Streaks. Galesburg, however, chipped away at the lead taking its first lead of the second half with just 1:48 remaining in the game (54-52) on a three pointer by junior Jaque Howard. Loyola's Olga Gvozdenovic hit a pair of free throws with 1:16 remining to tie the game (54-54) setting up Galesburg's last possession. After running the clock down to 0:33, Galesburg elected to call time out to discuss its stragey. Megan Pacheco missed an eight foot jumper with 0:03.5 seconds remaining and as the rebound snaked along the baseline and appeared to be headed out of bounds, senior forward Jenny Zolper deflected the ball back to teammate Sarah Larson who calmly released her shot at (0:00.2) and made a 5 foot jumper over 6'3" Olga Gvozdenovic as the horn sounded sending Galesburg fans into pandemonium, the coaches and players into an urehearsed version of an Irish jig, and the team to the Final Four, while sending the two time defending state champions with an early exit. The game was Galesburg's second consecutive buzzer beater.
Saturday's machup brought unranked Lincoln to the Streaks table and although the Streaks looked ready to put away the Railsplitters leading by 8 points in the third quarter, Lincoln's Steph Reichle came alive and tied the score at 35 at the end of three quarters. Galesburg hung on to a slim lead in the fourth before Galesburg's Sarah Larson stepped to the free throw line giving Galesburg a two point lead with 0:05 remaining. Lincoln's desperation three point attempt was wide right, sending Galesburg to the championship game against Chicago (Marshall), and leaving Galesburg fans with its third consecutive nail biting contest.
The championship game pitted the state's #1 ranked team Chicago (Marshall) against the #2 team Galesburg. The game was close for three quarters with Marshall leading (47-42) after three quarters. Marshall increased the lead to 11 (56-45) with 5:28 remianing on a Kimya Murray layup, however Galesburg roared back to cut the lead back to five with 2:41 remaining but could get no closer as Marshall chose to delay and the Streaks were forced to foul.
Galesburg's second place finish was the team's first trip to the championship game.
The Galesburg following was far superior than any of the other teams at the state tournament. Galesburg pre-sold more than 1,200 tickets and played before crowds of 5,567 on Friday night, 4,965 on Saturday morning, and 5,458 for Saturday night's championship. The Galesburg faithful were a great help in the charge against Loyola and have provided a great lift throughout the season. Well done Galesburg!
Galesburg was welcomed home on Sunday, with a fire truck parade through town and an assembly at the high school gym.
If you wish to send the Streaks a congratulatory message or your favorite state tournament memory for their post season scrapbook, click here.
The post season awards are coming in and Galesburg's Sarah Larson is picking up some well deserved recognition. Larson was named to the following awards:
Player of the Year - Peoria Journal Star
MVP - The Zephyr
First Team - All-State Chicago Sun-Times
First Team - Associated Press Class AA Girls Basketball Team
First Team (unanimous choice) - Illinois Class AA All Tournament Team
First Team - Western Big Six Conference
Second Team - Illinois Basketball Coaches Association
Second Team - All State Chicago Tribune
Megan Pacheco was voted to the second team of the Illinois Class AA All Tournament Team and first team on the Western Big Six Conference team
Congratulations Sarah and Megan!