For two years in a row, the Prairie Central Lady Hawks have broken the hearts of the Herscher Tigers on Valentine’s Day.
PC defeated Herscher 57-47 Tuesday night in the Fairbury regional semifinal hosted by Prairie Central High School. Chloe Sisco was the scoring and steal leader with 29 points and 9 steals. Mariya Sisco had 10 rebounds. Marissa Collins and Mariya each had 4 points. Lucy Whitfill and Carmen Gradberg each had 8 while Kelly Wilkey and Sawyer Ashman each scored 2.
Nerves got to Prairie Central in the first quarter but they never looked back after that, in the game broadcast live on Fairbury News with Mike Norris and Mike Wolf on the call.
“They got those nerves out of their system and at halftime, we made a big adjustment,” PC Coach Gabby Zeedyk told Fairbury News after the game.
Coach told the players to get out and run to pick up the pace.
“Nothing gets their nerves out better than moving up and down the floor a little bit.”
During her postgame interview with Fairbury News, Coach Zeedyk said Gradberg is getting the sneaky layups under the basket and has hit some key three pointers this season while Wilkey is tall and tough. She noted Whitfill and Ashman often guard girls taller than them in games.
"They're doing their best to push them out of the way and get under their skin a little bit."
Peotone is the next Hawks opponent Friday at 7 p.m. in Fairbury for the regional championship with the winner advancing to the Coal City sectional. Coach Zeedyk says she will have a whole new game plan for this one. PC faced Peotone before where the first half went fine, the two teams tied at the half and the Hawks ended up losing by close to 20 points.
“We are going to go back to the chalkboard, we are going to learn something new, we are going to throw it at them and see what happens,” noted Zeedyk.
Fairbury News will be back at PCHS this Friday night to broadcast the regional championship at 7 p.m. with our pre-game starting around 6:40. Jeff Curl and Mike Wolf will have the play-by-play and Mike Norris will help on the wireless mic courtside.
