By JANE MILLER

of the Journal Star

They crushed them.

Richwoods stormed to the Class 3A state basketball championship Saturday afternoon with a jaw-dropping, record-setting dismantling of Freeport, 56-19.

The Pretzels (31-4) were held to six field goals, a record low in the title game, and the 37-point margin of victory was the largest in a state championship game in the history of the tournament. The 19 points also were the fewest scored in a title game.

"I would never have thought we would have won like this," said Richwoods coach John Gross, who earned his second state title in five years. "How could you believe something like this?"

Freeport first-team all-stater Katie Norman, the player who ended Richwoods' season in the supersectionals a year ago, was held scoreless. Suporia Dickens, a second-team all-stater, scored two.

Freeport shot 13 percent in the first half, 15.8 percent for the game.

"It was worse than my worst nightmare," Freeport coach Ryan Pierce said. "It was one of the hardest things I've ever done trying to figure out what to say to the girls during the timeouts. But we didn't come to play and got thoroughly out-worked and out-played from start to finish."

The Knights (34-3) made it clear from from the beginning that this was a game they did not intend to let slip away. They got three steals in the first two minutes and jumped to a 6-2 lead by midway through the first period.

Freeport answered with a 3-pointer at 2:57 of the period to make it 6-5 — and that was the closest it got.

The Pretzels scored just three points in the second quarter and the Knights led 26-8 at the half.

As Kate Murphy has since the postseason began, the Knights junior center ruled the low post. Saturday she finished with a game-high 17 points and nine rebounds. She also had two blocked shots.

"She played that way up at Sterling against Freeport," said Gross of the team's second of three meetings this season. The Knights won that one 66-48 but lost the first meeting 49-45.

"Today she squared up, she did a great job on the boards, she did a good job of handling the ball when we needed a kid to come out and get it," he said. "All the kids played well."

Versatile guard Shyla Nott also had one of her best games of the season with 15 points, five rebounds, three assists and five steals. She nailed three of the Knights' six 3-pointers.

"How about Shyla off the bench?" Gross asked. "And I mean, Maddie (Nieukirk) and Mariah (Smith) didn't have their A game today and we still did this."

Smith, who earned 3A-4A Illinois Basketball Coaches Association first-team all-state honors before the game, scored seven and added two blocked shots and four steals.

Nieukirk had three points and four rebounds.

The Knights finished with 18 steals and their matchup zone just wouldn't allow Freeport to get anything going. Senior guards Amber Metzger and Danielle DesJardins, dubbed "crumb-snatchers" by Marshall senior Adrienne GodBold on Friday, combined for five steals and each hit a 3-pointer.

Forward Courtney Shiffer led the Pretzels with 12 points.

"It was a combination of what Richwoods was doing and us having a bad day," Pierce said. "We played poorly and they played great. They didn't do anything that we didn't expect, they just did it extremely well. They shot well (42 percent from the field), they defended us well and we never were able to get into a rhythm offensively. The credit goes to them. Even with our best game, we would have had a hard time beating them today."

The seniors on this Richwoods team were freshman the year after the Knights won the second title in school history in 2005. Richwoods also won a state title in 1983.

"I'm very proud of this group," Gross said. "I'm very, very happy and satisfied but I'm also a little sad, too. I'm usually not that way — I hate to see these kids leave and we lose six seniors and they've been great kids. I look back over all the years I've coached and all the kids on my team for four years like these kids have been and I'm not sure I've had a team that's been this easy to coach.

By JANE MILLER

of the Journal Star

Each game Richwoods played on the way to the Class 3A state semifinals helped the Knights meet Chicago Marshall's quickness and pressure and handle it.

The Richwoods girls basketball team defeated Marshall 50-35 on Friday and will meet Freeport in the state championship game at 12:45 p.m. Saturday.

"Our march down here really got us ready more than anything," Richwoods coach John Gross said. "We played Central, which is very similar to Marshall; we played Woodruff, also very similar; we played Rock Island, a very good team, and (Country Club Hills) Hillcrest on Monday may be even quicker than Marshall. So those tournament games getting here got us ready."

It didn't look like the Knights (33-3) were ready at tipoff. The Commandoes (25-7) scored off the tip, got a steal and scored and another steal which led to two free throws and had a 6-0 lead in 40 seconds.

"Our butterflies were as big as bats," Richwoods guard Danielle DesJardins said of the first flurry. "Then we settled down and got into our defense."

Mariah Smith finally got the Knights on the board with a pair of free throws at 6:39, then their defense clamped down hard.

The Commandoes didn't score from 7:19 in the first quarter until 5:32 in the second when Raven Gary hit the first of two free throws.

"We held them to six a long time," Gross said. "It was a scary first few minutes for us but we've been there before."

In the meantime, Richwoods had gone on a 15-point run.

"Richwoods played outstanding defense today and we forgot our focus on the defensive end," Marshall coach Dorothy Gaters said. 'I told our players that they were not deserving of a win today and if they wanted to blame anyone, all they had to do was look in the mirror."

Marshall shot 22.6 percent from the field and the Knights forced 28 turnovers. DesJardins had five steals and Maddie Nieurkirk and Shyla Nott had three each.

"Their guards (DesJardins and Amber Metzger) were little crumb-snatchers," said Marshall all-stater Adrienne GodBold. "They were picking up everything."

And so were the post players inside. Maddie Nieukirk finished with eight rebounds and Smith seven. And Smith had three blocks, including two in the last four seconds of the first half.

"I didn't want them to get a last-second shot to get momentum going in to the locker room," she said. "So I just reached for the ball — a couple of times."

Smith led all scorers with 15 points and played every minute. Murphy added 13 points, getting 10 of those in the first half.

"We all have to step in the game — everyone's got their moment — and that was the time I needed to step up," she said.

The Knights held their biggest lead — 18 points — with three minutes left in the game after Nieukirk hit both free throws earned after she took a hard foul and bumped her head on the floor.

Marshall rallied, with Jasmine Poteete scoring six in the fourth quarter to close the gap to 12. The Knights hit enough free throws to keep the margin comfortable until the end.

GodBold had 12 points and eight rebounds and Poteete added 10 points for the 2008 state champs.

"I knew GodBold was really, really good," said Gross, "but after watching that (game) I think Mariah was the best player on the floor and that Katie really did a good job on (GodBold)."

Richwoods now faces a team more like itself than the teams it played to get here.

"Pressure-wise, we don't have to face that now," said Gross. "We just have to cover their shooters and cover inside. It's going to be a grudge match and I'm sure they feel the same way. They want to get us again."