Monmouth-Roseville girls seeks 1st IHSA basketball regional title, Scott Weber's 100th win
MONMOUTH, Ill. – By the time this season is finished, the Monmouth-Roseville girls basketball team could achieve a slew of records and milestones.
Up first is the opportunity to win the Three Rivers Athletic Conference’s West Division. The Titans will square off Thursday night at reigning champion Sherrard, with both squads entering the contest with one TRAC loss.
For the Titans, that setback was against Sherrard, which topped M-R 50-36 on Jan. 12. Three nights earlier, the Tigers suffered their lone league defeat, falling 71-58 against Morrison.
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Coach Scott Weber’s Titans will then close the regular season with home games on Feb. 4 and Feb. 6 against Farmington and Orion, respectively. Should the 21-5 Titans win all three remaining regular-season games, they would equal the M-R record for victories in a season with 24. Weber was an assistant on the 2014-15 team that accomplished the feat, and he was head coach when the Titans did it again in 2019-20, wrapping up just weeks before the pandemic started.
That 24-win accomplishment would be nice, but the real prize is bringing home the first regional championship in M-R girls basketball history. The Titans will learn their draw from the IHSA later this week, but what they know for sure is that they’ve avoided a stacked sub-sectional to the south, which features a quartet of 20-win teams – undefeated PORTA, as well as Quincy Notre Dame, Central/Southeastern and Sacred Heart-Griffin.
A roadblock in M-R’s sub-sectional might be Sherrard, although the Titans and Tigers could earn the top two seeds, with one team heading to the Mercer County Regional and the other squad playing at Bureau Valley. If that were the case, the teams couldn’t meet until the Rockridge Sectional, where Weber believes programs like Deer Creek-Mackinaw and Canton could be headed from the other sub-sectional.
“Whichever way we go, we can win our regional,” said Weber. “And I believe that once you get beyond regional, the teams are all good and anybody can beat anybody.”
Last on the list of significant accomplishments would be Weber earning his 100th victory at M-R. If it happens this season, it will be a very memorable win, as the earliest it could occur would be a sectional final.
Weber entered this season with a record of 72-33 and has 93 victories entering Thursday night’s action.
Titans back at full strength
Just in time for the home stretch, Weber’s team is working its way back to full strength, although he’s been pleased by the efforts of his players who come off the bench. A prime example was an MLK Day victory at Illini West, when four of the Titans’ top seven players were out. Picking up the slack in the 33-29 win were Malia Killey and Meyah Hunter, who both assumed starting roles.
“Meyah never came out of the game,” said Weber. “Our bench has been very, very good for us. We thought coming into the season that we were deep, and that’s been the case. They’ve been awesome.”
The starters have, too, as Carmyn Huston leads a balanced group of four players averaging between nine and 13 points per game. Huston (12.8) and Bri Woodard (12.4) do most of their damage in the paint, while Mattie Gillen (11.5) and Tatianna Talivaa (8.7) are the outside scorers. Mariah Reading, who was out of action since Christmas break, is now back to round out the starting five.
An 80% free throw shooter, Gillen leads the team with averages of 3.2 assists and 2.8 steals, just ahead of Talivaa in both categories. Woodard pulls down a team-best 9.0 rebounds per game, while Huston grabs 5.2 to go with 55% shooting from the floor.
To win the rematch against Sherrard, both Woodard and Huston will be called upon to neutralize Sherrard star Olivia Meskan, who scored a game-high 21 points in the first meeting.
“Defensively, we’ll need better post defense than the last time we played them,” said Weber, who saw his team outscored 25-11 over the middle two quarters. “We just need a solid game defensively and to execute better on offense. It’s going to be a great ball game, and we should have some fresh legs for it.”
Looking ahead not only to Sherrard but to the tough postseason games ahead, Weber said there is good news beyond his team’s health improving.
“I don’t think we’ve played our best basketball yet,” he said. “If we play defense like we’re capable of, the offense will take care of itself. We have so many options.”