When Grant Bland signed on five years ago to become the West Prairie High School girls basketball head coach, he knew the daunting task that awaited him.
As with many rebuilds, a five-year program is often used as a guideline to success.
Based on this year’s results, the Cyclones’ program has officially arrived.
Seventh-seed West Prairie/Southeastern found itself in its first-ever regional basketball final Thursday night against the three-seed Havana Ducks.
Despite a valiant effort by WP/SE, Havana pulled away in the second half to defeat the Cyclones 56-28 and clinch the Class 1A Havana Regional title.
One of this season’s goals was to end up with double-digit victories, something that had never happened before in the program’s history.
Two seasons removed from going 0-15 to 6-25 last year, Bland couldn’t contain his pride for this year’s team and its accomplishments.
“Saying that I’m proud is an understatement,” said Bland afterwards. “Not really sure how to put it into words. Two years ago, we were in survival mode, not winning a single varsity game and barely had enough for a team. Last season, we almost tripled in size as a group, but we had to scratch and claw our way to six wins.”
“This season, we won 18 and found ourselves in a regional championship game after knocking off a state-ranked opponent (Liberty),” Bland continued. “It’s a testament to how hard these kids work and how much they’ve improved.”
Havana had defeated WP/SE 63-28 back on Jan. 12 and in that contest, the Cyclones found themselves trailing by 17 points after one quarter.
West Prairie/Southeastern still struggled out of the gate in the rematch, but trailed by only a 15-5 margin this time heading into the second quarter.
The Cyclones turned up the defensive intensity to hold the Ducks to only seven points in the period to get within 22-15 at halftime.
The hosts broke the game open in the third quarter as the Ducks used three treys to spark a 20-7 burst and extend their lead to 42-22 going into the last eight minutes.
The Cyclones would never threaten afterwards and saw their historic season conclude with an 18-16 mark and two regional tournament victories.
“Havana did what it does best...pressure the heck out of the ball,” said Bland. “They share it extremely well and hit shots. I thought we played well in the halfcourt defensively for the first half. We just needed to hit a couple of big three’s to carry that momentum like we did Monday (against Liberty), but just couldn’t connect on one.”
Senior Madelynn Sullivan was held to seven points for the night, but reached the 1,000 point plateau for her career, becoming the first player in program history to reach that mark.
“I told her how proud I am of her and she’s a big reason our program is where it is today,” said Bland of his leading scorer. “I’ve known her for a very long time and it was easy to tell early on that she was a competitor.”
Junior Kara Stephens led the Lady Cyclones with nine points including six in the second quarter comeback.
Sophomore Payton McGrew had five points and freshman Alyvia Barkley finished with four while sophomore Josie Hodges had one for West Prairie.
Havana (24-6) was led by Ava Kramer’s 21 points as the Ducks will now advance to the Class 1A Bushnell-Prairie City Sectional and face top-seed Illini Bluffs (27-3) Tuesday.
Losing three seniors from this year’s team, Bland reflected on two of them who had been with the program since he started.
“Maicyn Shipman is the first girl that I’ve coached that has played all four years of basketball,” said Bland. “She stuck with the process and got to help us become a better team. Madelynn has been our captain and team leader. Being able to watch her eclipse the 1,000 point mark was very special.”
In closing, Bland had one other shout-out to make. “A huge thank you to Cyclone Nation,” Bland added. “They really showed up big at our parade before we left town and even more so at the game. An incredible crowd and incredible support the entire season. Never saw our stands so packed before. It gives me chills.”
