Girls basketball: Alton turns tables on Waubonsie Valley, denies Warriors repeat trip to state despite Mporokoso’s 32

BLOOMINGTON — The undersized Waubonsie Valley girls basketball team played big most of the way against Alton in the Class 4A Illinois Wesleyan University supersectional on Monday.

The Redbirds, however, facing a 59-57 deficit with 4:21 to go, didn’t shrink from task of pounding the ball inside to make a 10-3 run that secured a 67-62 victory.

Alton’s triumph helped ease the sting of last year’s 55-53 overtime loss to the Warriors, who went on to place fourth in the 2024 state tournament.

Alton improved to 32-2 while advancing to Friday’s 11:30 a.m. state semifinal at CEFCU Arena in Normal where it will face No. 1 Chicago Kenwood (33-3).

The outcome earned the Redbirds their first Final Four trip after coming close last year (32-3) and in 2023 (31-2). Waubonsie Valley came in hoping for a second straight state berth and a third overall to go with a 1999 trip.

“I think we made some bad decisions (in the fourth quarter),” said Waubonsie coach Brett Love, whose 31-2 team saw a 21-game winning streak come to an end.

“We didn’t operate in space. We got a couple shots blocked. We turned the ball over. They were more physical, and they were able to get the ball in the right spots down low with their bigs.”

The Warriors, whose only other loss was to Fremd, struggled to overcome Alton’s trio of college recruits: 6-foot-3 Drury bound Talia Norman (18 points, nine rebounds, two blocks), 6-2 Illinois-Chicago commit Jarius Powers (five points, six rebounds, two blocks) and 5-6 SIU-Edwardsville signee Kiyoko Proctor (23 points).

Kaylea Lacey added 16 points for Alton, which shot 53.8% from the field compared to Waubonsie’s 46.9%.

“We don’t have any experienced bigs,” said Love, whose team was outrebounded, 31-20.

Coach Deserea Howard had a simple message for Alton the final four minutes.

“I just looked at my starters and said, ‘I’ve got to be able to depend on you all right now,’” she said. “We’ve got to dig deep. They delivered big.”

Alton won its ninth straight game while remaining unbeaten against in-state opponents. The Redbirds’ only losses were to Missouri teams St. Peters Lutheran and suburban-St. Louis power Incarnate Word.

Waubonsie 5-7 junior Danyella Mporokoso, who came in averaging 22.4 points, poured in 32 on 12-of-23 accuracy from the field, 4-of-8 3-point shooting and 4-of-4 free throw accuracy.

“We tried to throw everybody at (Mporokoso),” Howard said. “She’s a phenomenal player.”

Wisconsin-Whitewater recruit Lily Newton added 11 points for Waubonsie while Maya Cobb had nine and Maya Pereda eight.

“They had a (height) mismatch the whole game,” lamented Mporokoso. “They were able to use it to their advantage.”

Waubonsie, which returned four starters from last year’s 32-5 squad, fell behind, 16-15, after one quarter and, 38-29, after two, but led, 54-49, entering the final period. Alton closed the first half on an 18-5 run.

Proctor paced the Redbirds with 19 points the first half to match Mporokoso. Proctor finished 6 of 10 from beyond the arc.

“It did surprise us how many she hit,” Love said. “I think we could have done a better job earlier defending her. The second half we denied her and that worked, but then they got more opportunities inside.”

Waubonsie opened the third period with a 13-0 run to go up 42-38. The Warriors’ full-court press forced five turnovers in the opening 2:12 of the second half.

“We made an adjustment and came out and got some tips and deflections,” said Love, whose team will lose three seniors to graduation.