Crusaders finish in eighth place at state tournament

BY: Russell Hodges
Posted 3/6/17

John Vandre has made several trips to the Lutheran Sports Association of Illinois State Tournament, and the St. Paul Lutheran School girls basketball coach got to experience another one this past weekend.

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Crusaders finish in eighth place at state tournament

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LOMBARD — John Vandre has made several trips to the Lutheran Sports Association of Illinois State Tournament, and the St. Paul Lutheran School girls basketball coach got to experience another one this past weekend.

The Crusaders entered the weekend as the No. 12 seed, and the girls were looking for their first championship since 2006, when the team also took fifth at the national level. St. Paul began the tournament on Friday with an 18-15 victory over No. 5 seed Immanuel Lutheran from Batavia.
“They had beaten us earlier in the year, so it was nice to have a win against a team that had beaten us,” Vandre said.

The girls continued tournament action on Saturday with a matchup against Immanuel Lutheran from East Dundee, who went on to earn third place overall. St. Paul battled hard but came up just short by a score of 34-10.
The Crusaders played a second game on Saturday against Bethel Morton before battling Zion Marengo for seventh place on Sunday. The team fell to Bethel Morton by a score of 27-17 before dropping a very close consolation match to Zion Marengo by a score of 33-29 in overtime.
St. Paul finished the tournament in eighth place out of 16 teams, and the girls ended the season with a 16-10 overall record. Vandre said he was happy with the effort the girls gave over the two-day event after winning both the Lutheran Conference and Meridian Conference titles during the regular season.
“We just had trouble scoring against bigger and better teams,” he said. “I’m very, very proud of how hard everyone played and the heart and determination of our players. I have seen how much they improved throughout the year and I’m just very proud of all of them. It’s fun to have a group of players at any level who all get along and are always there for each other.”