The Galesburg Silver Streaks girls basketball team won back-to-back Regional Championships when they knocked off the Morton Potters at the East Peoria Regional Thursday night. The Streaks came out with cold shooting to start the game, but their stellar defense locked down the Potters. Morton only had 2 shot attempts in the 2nd quarter while the shots started falling for Galesburg, who had a 17 - 9 lead by halftime, and went on to win 35 - 19.
Leading the way for the Silver Streaks was Zaniyah Carter with 12 points, Ella Herchenroder chipped in 8, Khloe May finished with 5, and Jozalyn Kilgore, Lily Furrow, and Ellie Johnson each had 4 points. Galesburg shot 14 of 35 from the field, 4 of 11 from three-point range, and 3 of 4 from the free throw line. They pulled down 18 rebounds, had 9 assists, and committed 15 turnovers while forcing 24 turnovers by the Potters.
Doing the majority of the ball handling, stepping up with some clutch free throws in the 4th quarter, and hitting a couple of huge 3-pointers, Ella Herchenroder was named the Dave's Auto Body Crunch Time Player of the Game. She finished with 8 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, and 3 steals. Ella's work on defense applying the full court pressure was key in preventing Morton's offense from getting into a rhythm.
The Galesburg girls begin Sectional play in the friendly confines of John Thiel Gymnasium Tuesday night. Mitch McVey and Jason Wessels will have live coverage beginning with the pregame at 5:45pm on 93.7 FM and 1400 AM WGIL and wgil.com.