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Kuhn does it all in leading illinois girls to classic victory by ferujkll sdff
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Kuhn does it all in leading illinois girls to classic victory |
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By BLAKE TOPPMEYER Herald-Whig Sports Writer The Illinois girls were out of options at point guard. So they turned to 6-foot-1 center Tori Kuhn to spearhead theirattack. She didn't disappoint. Kuhn led Illinois on a 20-7 run in the final 4 minutes, 51 secondsas the Land of Lincoln all-stars rallied for a 69-60 win overMissouri in the 30th annual McDonald's/Herald-Whig Classic at Quincy University 's Pepsi Arena.
"She was playing point-center for a while," Illinois coach BradBegeman said. Kuhn had to. Lauren Gronewold, one of Illinois' point guard options, went downwith a game-ending left ankle injury with 15:22 remaining in thesecond half. Then with 4:51 to play, Shannon Foley -- Illinois'starting point guard and the team's only other true ball handlerother than Gronewold -- fouled out. In their absence, Kuhn helped Illinois break Missouri's press.
Shefinished with 18 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and six blockedshots and earned Most Valuable Player honors for Illinois. Illinois trailed 53-49 after Randi Lee Plunkett hit a pair of freethrows following Foley's final foul, and Illinois' deficit moved tofive points after Rachelle Sharpe made a free throw with 4:19remaining. Kuhn responded by getting to the free-throw line on back-to-backpossessions and making all four attempts to cut Missouri's lead to54-53. On Illinois' ensuing possession, Kuhn dished to JaceyHartweg, who converted a layup to give Illinois a 55-54 lead -- itsfirst lead since it led 23-21 late in the first half.
"(Kuhn) is tall and she's strong, but the thing that got me waswhen we threw on the press, Tori Kuhn was breaking our press. Howdoes that happen?" said Plunkett, who earned MVP honors forMissouri after finishing with 15 points and eight rebounds. "She can dribble the ball, and nobody wanted to get in front of herobviously because if you get hit by that, ouch. I got hit a coupletimes.
You don't bounce off of that." Kuhn had a couple capable sidekicks down the stretch. Marlee Bradshaw scored nine of her 13 points after Foley fouledout. Bradshaw had no points at halftime after playing just fourminutes in the first half, but she saw her playing time increaseafter halftime and answered the challenge. "Honestly, I thought I was going to be the bench warmer, and Ididn't care really because we had a good team, but it was anawesome experience," Bradshaw said. Hartweg was also key.
She drained a 3-pointer with 1:25 to play toput Illinois ahead 64-55. That essentially put the game away.Hartweg, who finished with 15 points, started off 1 of 5 from3-point range but made her final two attempts from distance. "I noticed in the beginning that maybe she wasn't knocking downsome of her shots, but the good thing is, she didn't stopshooting," Kuhn said. "And she hit that key three (with 1:25remaining) when we needed it, and that just gave us a lot ofmomentum.
I think that's when we really started believing we (weregoing to win)." Illinois came out in a full-court press that flustered Missouri,allowing Illinois to take a 13-3 lead. However, Missouri closed thefirst half on a 9-0 run to take a 28-23 halftime lead. "They wore themselves down with that press, and we had to weatherthe storm through that," Plunkett said. "And if we got throughthat, I knew we could slow the ball down and then pick up theoffense and get the ball inside and outside and get good shots." Megan Brennan and Jessica Redd joined Plunkett in double figuresfor Missouri, scoring 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Katie Serbinadded eight points and 12 rebounds. Yet it was Plunkett who led the Show-Me State's charge. She played39 minutes, and her two free throws with 8:55 remaining putMissouri ahead 47-35. That matched Missouri's biggest lead, butIllinois responded with a 7-0 run, capped by Hartweg's secondthree.
"I think when we got down all those points, it was just a gut-checkfor all of us," Kuhn said. Once Illinois got rolling down the stretch, it didn't let up --certainly not Kuhn. "Tori was pretty dominant," Missouri coach Mike Johnson said. "Shewas too much for us to handle." -- btoppmeyer@whig.com/221-3367. I am a professional writer from Electrical Equipment & Supplies, which contains a great deal of information about np fm50 battery , canon camera supplies, welcome to visit!
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