FISHER – So far, so good.
With a 61-19 win over Iroquois West on Thursday, the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley varsity girls basketball team won the Bunnie Tipoff tournament championship. It is GCMS’s second straight championship victory after winning the tourney last year en route to a sectional finals appearance.
The Falcons won all four of their games so far to start the 2024 season, all by a margin of at least 20 points. They have yielded 94 points through those four games.
“We’re off to a good start,” GCMS head coach Ross Harden said. “The girls told me they were tired of practicing against each other and they were ready to go against somebody else, and they really showed that this week.”
Kenleigh Hendershot made a shot for Iroquois West (0-3) before Lily Sizemore tied the game at 2-2 with a basket. Hendershot drew a foul while making a shot with 6:29 left in the first quarter to give the Raiders a 4-2 lead.
A free throw by Sophia Ray cut GCMS’s deficit to 4-3 with 6:15 left in the first quarter before Sizemore assisted Lizzie Giroux on a go-ahead bucket. Amelia Scharp drained a 3-pointer to give Iroquois West a 7-5 lead before Giroux made a game-tying bucket and Sizemore drained a 3-pointer to give the Falcons a 10-7 lead.
Giroux’s basket started a 16-point run by the Falcons as two free throws by Ray extended the lead to 12-7 as the first quarter came to an end.
“Iroquois West brought it in the first quarter,” Harden said. “They gave us some fits with their defense, but then we settled in.”
After the first quarter, the GCMS defense yielded six points in the second and third quarters apiece before shutting out Iroquois West in the fourth quarter.
“I thought our defense was really good tonight,” Harden said. “The girls were flying around. I’m just really proud of the way the girls worked tonight. They were getting their hands on all sorts of passes.”
Mallory Rosendahl tallied a steal before scoring a bucket to extend GCMS’s lead to 14-7 with 7:17 left in the second quarter. Rosendahl finished with two points along with four steals, six assists and four rebounds.
“Her hands were on passes all the time,” Harden said. “She’s just getting after people defensively.”
Ray scored off an inbound pass before Isabelle Gawthorp scored a basket and a free throw to make it 19-7. Gawthorp finished with three points along with seven rebounds.
“She battled down there against girls way bigger than her,” Harden said.
Hadley Doman scored a bucket before Phylicity Leonard made a free throw for Iroquois West to end GCMS’s run. Sizemore then scored two more baskets via assists from Anna Warren to extend the Falcons’ lead to 25-8.
Scharp drained a 3-pointer and Leonard made a free throw to cut Iroquois West’s lead to 25-12 before a Giroux basket and a Sizemore 3-pointer made it 30-12.
Giroux finished with nine points and four rebounds while having the task of covering the 6-foot-2 Leonard.
“I’m proud of her,” Harden said.
Following a free throw by Leonard, back-to-back treys by Giroux and Warren made it 36-13 by halftime.
A deflected pass by Rosendahl led to a basket by Sizemore that made it 38-13 to start the second-half scoring. After picking up her third foul with 6:44 left in the third quarter, Sizemore made a jump shot to make it 40-13 before a basket by Ray made it 42-13.
Ray finished with nine points and seven rebounds, along with four steals.
“She’s playing really well,” Harden said.
Camren Bork made two free throws to make it 42-15 before Sizemore picked up her fourth foul with 3:09 left in the third quarter. Leonard made a basket before a 3-pointer by Warren made it 45-17.
A basket by Leah Honeycutt cut the Iroquois West deficit to 45-19 as the third quarter came to an end.
Despite her foul trouble, Sizemore made two free throws and a 3-pointer to extend GCMS’s lead to 50-19. After Ray made a basket, Sizemore scored on a layup to make it 54-19.
Sizemore finished with 23 points along with six steals, six rebounds and four assists.
“She’s just lighting it up right now,” Harden said.
Avery Hyatt stole the ball and scored on a layup to make it 56-19. The Falcons finished with 19 steals as a team.
“We’ll take that all the time,” Harden said.
The Falcons also finished with 39 rebounds.
“I thought our rebounding was a little bit better tonight,” Harden said.
Warren then made her third trey of the contest to extend GCMS’s lead to 59-19.
“She caught fire,” Harden said.
Doman then concluded the game’s scoring with a two-point basket.
Doman finished with four points and four rebounds while Hyatt had two points, three rebounds and two assists and Warren had nine points, two rebounds and two assists.
“Everybody who came in there played really well tonight,” Harden said.
Up next
After a week off, GCMS will host St. Thomas More on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
The time off may be a good thing for the Falcons, Harden said, after starting the season with four games in four days, the last which was on Thursday.
“They were a little bit tired tonight, but when they put their mind to something, they really get after it, especially on the defensive end,” Harden said.
The Falcons will then start Heart of Illinois Conference play at Heyworth on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
“It doesn’t get any easier for us, but the girls will be ready to go,” Harden said.
GCMS 61, Iroquois West 19
IW 7 6 6 0 — 19
GCMS 12 24 9 16 — 61
Iroquois West (0-3)
Amelia Scharp 2-0-6, Camren Bork 0-2-2, Abby Kraft 0-0-0, Elizabeth Izquierdo 0-0-0, Chloe Wagner 0-0-0, Kaia Kimmel 0-0-0, Jessye Rodriguez 0-0-0, Leah Honeycutt 1-0-2, Phylicity Leonard 1-3-5, Kenleigh Hendershot 2-0-4, Autumn Miller 0-0-0. Totals 6-5-19.
GCMS (4-0)
Lizzie Giroux 4-0-9, Avery Hyatt 1-0-2, Lily Sizemore 9-2-23, Kate McCall 0-0-0, Isabelle Gawthorp 1-1-3, Mallory Rosendahl 1-0-2, Sophia Ray 3-3-9, Anna Warren 3-0-9, Hadley Doman 2-0-4. Totals 24-6-61.
3-pointers – Iroquois West 2 (Scharp 2). GCMS 7 (Sizemore 3, Warren 3, Giroux).
Rebounds – GCMS 39 (Ray 7, Gawthorp 7, Sizemore 6, Rosendahl 4, Giroux 4, Doman 4, Hyatt 3, Warren 2, McCall 2).
Assists – GCMS 17 (Rosendahl 6, Sizemore 4, Giroux 2, Hyatt 2, Warren 2, McCall).
Steals – GCMS 19 (Sizemore 6, Rosendahl 4, Ray 4, Giroux, Doman, Warren, McCall, Hyatt).
Blocks – GCMS 3 (Rosendahl, Ray, Gawthorp).
Turnovers – GCMS 10.
Fouls – GCMS 18.