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Streak set for five for Pecatonica Lady Indians
By Christopher Johnson
RANDY STUCKENBERG PHOTO The Gazette
Pecatonica’s Payton Thomas, left, and Paige Moore block Orangeville’s Samantha Mock during the third quarter of their game on Saturday, Jan. 22, in Pecatonica.
Saturday’s showdown with the Orangeville Lady Broncos was an important one for the Pecatonica Lady Indians. Elevated position within the Northwest Upstate Illini was at stake.
Coming off a stretch that brought to a close the smoother flow of the early days of the 2021-22 winter season, Pecatonica has been knocking down challengers, nightly.
An overtime loss in the January home opener against NUIC rival Lena-Winslow by a one-score margin was quickly forgotten by the conference’s third-place Lady Indians.
Since the Jan. 3 meeting with the second best team in the Upstate, Pecatonica had run off four straight wins heading into Saturday’s home meeting with 19-3 Orangeville.
The Lady Broncos stood in front, alone at the start of the weekend in the NUIC. The 5-0 mark kept the front-runner a half game ahead of the field.
On Friday, Jan. 21, Pecatonica faced down the Dakota Lady Indians and had to take the game on the road to get it done.
An attempt to push the streak to four straight victories against conference rivals was active ahead of the Friday get together.
Pecatonica wasted no time explaining how defense worked. Dakota failed to find anything that would work for them, outside of three points in the period, a pitched shut-out had occurred, courtesy of the visiting Lady Indians.
Pecatonica’s seven-point first period advantage was never threatened. The 10-3 lead after one stretched to double-up effort length by the break.
The Lady Indians shot well enough to put eight points on the board ahead of the brief mid-game intermission.
As the third quarter opened, the Lady Indians decided to put together an effort that would put the game away. With the lead at 18-9 as the second half tipped-off, the somewhat-dormant Lady Indians attack heightened in ferocity..
Point after point collected as the visitors pitched in 15. Dakota was held to a game-high matching six points in the period.
With seven minutes to go Pecatonica had taken Dakota out of the match with the 33-15 edge. The hosts would add two-points to the team total as time ticked to zero.
Pecatonica improved to 4-2 in the NUIC ahead of the Saturday showdown with the Orangeville Lady Broncos.
Seven games remain on the Lady Indians calendar this winter session. Five of the next seven will be for final position within the Northwest Upstate.
Tuesday night Freeport Aquin visited. Details of the re-match with the Lady Bulldogs are unavoidably unavailable in this week’s edition of the Gazette Newspaper.
On Thursday night Pecatonica heads back to Stephenson County and will face the Lena-Winslow Lady Panthers for the second time this season.
January games opened in overtime fashion with the three-point loss to the Lady Bulldogs. January’s conference schedule closes with the chance to amass a focused response against the former victor.
The Saturday showdown on the road with Warren will be a non-conference game. The February schedule opens with three games remaining.
Pecatonica will be home for the final time and it will feature a meeting with the Pearl City Lady Wolves on Friday, Feb. 4.
The 2022 Class 1A, 2A and 3A State Tournament opens following completion of the Thursday, Feb. 10 regular season finale on the road at Orangeville.
