ILHS Sports Update
Varsity Boys Basketball
The Lancers finished their season off on a high note by playing three of their best games of the year before eventually losing in a Regional Semifinal to Augusta, whom they had beaten six days prior.
That Augusta game was the middle contest of the three solid showings by the Lancers. Two nights before that, they managed to take Blair-Taylor to overtime (they had lost to the Wildcats by 26 six days earlier) by four, 51-55.
The Augusta game was the fourth place contest at the Dairyland Crossover in Whitehall in which the Lancers secured a 56-49 win. Earlier in the year, Augusta handed Immanuel a 81-40 loss. ILHS was one of two teams to win from the Small division of the Dairyland; the other was Alma/Pepin who won the first place game 49-38 over Cochrane-Fountain City. This gave C-FC their first loss of the year. Their prior meeting resulted in a 40-point win for the Pirates.
Immanuel won its opening playoff game and continued its streak of good games to three in a thriller at Independence. The Lancers won by a score of 58-56 in overtime over the higher-seeded Indees.
Augusta took the season series from Immanuel by winning the aforementioned Regional Semifinal 63-52.
The Varsity Lancers finished the year 11-12 overall, with a 4-10 Dairyland record.
Varsity Girls Basketball
The Lady Lancers placed 3rd out of 5 in the Small Dairyland with a 4-9 conference record. They had 9 wins and 14 losses overall.
A valiant fight was put up in the final game of the season. ILHS dropped their opening round playoff game to Eleva-Strum by a final score of 41-46 in an 8-seed vs. 9-seed matchup. Some of Immanuel’s best basketball was played in that game; they managed to come within five points to a team they had lost to by twenty points earlier in the year.
Highlights of the season came in the form of two 3-game winning streaks. One lasted from November 22nd to December 2nd, while the second started on January 20th and ended on January 27th.
Lauren Sotnyk was named to the Honorable Mention All-Dairyland Team and ended up being the only selection from either Varsity team to an all-conference team, most likely due to the revised method. Only first team and honorable mention teams were chosen and there was no second team. While each of the teams are bigger than before, they consist of players from both divisions of the Dairyland instead of being split up as in the past. This results in fewer players overall chosen to be on the teams.
Sotnyk and Josie Naumann return to next year’s team as this year’s scoring leaders (approximately 9 ppg).