Timothy Christian girls basketball team reaches regional final


Strube, Schruinga named to all-MSC Red team.

By Mike Miazga

Correspondent

The Timothy Christian girls basketball team was close to winning a regional title.

“We were about 60 seconds away,” Trojans coach Michele Strube said.

Timothy lost 46-43 in overtime to Lisle in the Class 2A Lisle regional final.

“It was a tough loss,” said Strube. “We didn’t have a good first half. We started slow. We altered some things and the second half was very exciting. We were up by six points with a minute to go. We did a lot of preparation with what-if situations if we were to get into games like this. We went through what to do late in games like this.”

Timothy was plagued by missed free throws in the latter part of the fourth quarter against Lisle. The host team rallied back and hit a 3-point basket at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

“They threw up a Hail Mary and it went in,” said Strube.

Timothy didn’t score any points in the overtime period. “We didn’t have anything left in us,” said Strube. “It’s tough. We had a minute left to play and we were confident. We had been shooting free throws better lately. It’s sad for the seniors. We haven’t won a regional in a while and we were hoping to do it with this group. They are a special group of kids. They took it pretty hard. Things didn’t go our way at the end.”

Jordyn Strube led the Trojans with 16 points. “Jordyn had a phenomenal game. We had a lot of girls who played well in that game,” said Michele Strube.

Timothy finished the season 13-15.

“We competed in most of those games, which is great,” said Strube.

Jordyn Strube and Olivia Schuringa both were named to the all-Metro Suburban Conference Red Division team. Olivia Hoekstra and Ava Venema both earned honorable-mention all-conference honors.

Venema, Hoekstra, Allison Zeilstra, Tyra Hopson and Hope Zastrow are the five seniors graduating. Timothy returns five players from this year’s team.

“Allison and Olivia are our two senior captains,” said Strube. “The seniors did a great job for us.”

Strube singled out Zastrow for her contributions to the team while battling through a medical issue. “Hope was amazing for us all season,” said Strube. “She was so supportive and encouraging throughout the season. She was great. We had a lot of fun this season.