Waubonsie Valley basketball star Danyella Mporokoso wasn’t going to give up.
The junior guard knew the score late in the Class 4A Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional on Monday, but she remained confident.
“I always believed in us,” Mporokoso said. “Even when we had two seconds on the clock, I believed in us to the end, no matter what. Anything can happen.”
Mporokoso made a lot of things happen for the Warriors this season. But she couldn’t quite will her team to beat Alton, which pulled out a 67-62 victory in Bloomington despite her game-high 32 points, five rebounds and two blocks.
Mporokoso still relished the experience in a game that featured 13 lead changes and seven ties.
“Just being able to be on the court and be on a team that I could believe in, no matter the time, no matter the score, was amazing,” she said.
The Warriors (31-2) could have used more size. Alton (33-2), which lost 55-53 to Waubonsie Valley in the same matchup last year, dominated inside with its two senior post players, 6-foot-2 center Talia Norman and 6-1 power forward Jarius Powers. Norman and Powers combined for 34 points and 15 rebounds.
Led by 5-9 senior center Lily Newton, who will play guard at Wisconsin-Whitewater, Waubonsie Valley limited Norman and Powers in the first half. But that left Alton’s shooters wide open, and senior guard Kiyoko Proctor took advantage to score 19 of her 23 points before halftime.
Using a full-court press to force seven turnovers, the Warriors opened the third quarter with a 13-0 run to take a 42-38 lead. Mporokoso scored the first seven points, and Newton followed with two 3-pointers. They eventually led by as many as seven points.
Alton regrouped and took the lead before Newton, who had 11 points and five assists, assisted junior guard Maya Cobb on a three-point play that gave the Warriors a 59-57 lead with 4:21 left in the fourth quarter.
“We look to get big plays to motivate both ends of the court, so I thought personally it boosted the energy of everybody else,” Cobb said. “I hope that in that moment everybody wanted to get a defensive stop to offensively get a bucket.”
The Warriors actually got two stops but no bucket. Norman’s putback with 1:15 left broke a 59-59 tie and began a 7-0 run by Alton.
Mporokoso had a feeling that Cobb’s go-ahead play would not be the last word.
“It was nice to get up,” Mporokoso said. “I wouldn’t say it was necessarily a momentum switch just because the game was so back and forth. You always have to be conscious of the score.”
The score went Alton’s way for an obvious reason.
“Their post,” Mporokoso said. “They smashed the whole game. They were able to use it to their advantage. That was really it.”
It was the end of the line for Newton. The four-year starter finished with 995 career points and no regrets.
“I know it’s not supposed to, but it kind of felt like any other game,” Newton said. “I trusted our team, so I wasn’t like too nervous. I knew we were going to play our game, and if it didn’t go our way, it didn’t.
“But we played our hearts out, and that’s all we could ask for.”
Waubonsie Valley coach Brett Love couldn’t ask for more from Mporokoso.
“She had a lot of moves in her bag, and she was able to pull them out,” Love said. “She was really ready to play, and she came out and showed it and tried to get it done.”
Newton is Waubonsie’s only senior starter. The rest will be back to try to get it done next season.
“Looking at our seniors now, seeing them disappointed, I don’t want to be in the position where I feel this loss again,” Cobb said. “I hope it brings motivation to continue to work hard in the offseason and also drive next year’s playoff season.”
Newton is confident it will.
“I’m excited for these girls next year, I really am,” Newton said. “I know they’re going to take this and not let anybody beat them next year.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
