Published on February 19, 2026 9:44 pm
Last Updated on February 19, 2026 10:31 pm
NOTE: This game was to be aired on KJ Country 102.3; a power outage affecting the Premier Broadcasting studios and the surrounding neighborhood prevented the broadcast from taking place.
It wasn’t always a thing of beauty, but at the end of the night Thursday at J.H. Griffin Gymnasium the Teutopolis High School girls basketball team was still hoisting its 16th consecutive regional championship trophy after holding off Robinson 32-20 in the title game of the Class 2A Teutopolis Regional.
Robinson (17-14) played well in the first quarter and worked the Lady Shoes (25-6) to a 9-9 opening period deadlock but managed just four field goals the rest of the way — none in the final stanza. Teutopolis didn’t shoot well but owned the Maroons on the boards to the tune of a 36-16 rebounding margin.
Malea Helmink had 14 of those rebounds and parlayed a number of them into second-chance buckets for the Shoes, leading her club with 10 points as well on 5-of-6 shooting. Anna Probst tallied five of her six points in the first quarter — including the T-town’s only made three-pointer on a 1-for-13 night from distance — while Allie Ruholl finished with nine and Kelsey Niemerg scored six.
The Maroons weren’t any better from long range, hitting just one of nine triples. Both teams had rough nights at the line (Robinson was 5-for-10, Teutopolis was 3-for-8) while Robinson committed 12 turnovers to T-town’s seven.
In its 49th year of existence, the T-town girls program has now collected 44 regional championships. The only interruption in the current streak of 16 was the 2020-21 IHSA postseason lost to COVID. The only time 20th year coach Laurie Thompson hasn’t watched her team collect the regional plaque was in the 2008-09 season.
Now the Shoes —ranked sixth in the final Associated Press 2A girls poll and the No. 2 seed behind Effingham in their sub-sectional — will take aim on their first sectional title since 2020 when they travel to the Olney Sectional next week. They’ll play a 7:30 p.m. Tuesday semifinal against Mt. Carmel, the AP’s No. 10 team and the top team in its sub-sectional. The Lady Aces handled fourth-seeded Fairfield 46-23 to win their own regional.
When T-town traveled to Mt. Carmel back on Nov. 24 and managed a 46-42 victory.
On the other side of the sectional, Effingham fell to third-seeded Paris 55-51 in the Paris Regional final while third-seeded Olney outlasted No. 7 Carmi-White County 50-42 at the Eldorado Regional … meaning it’ll be an all-Tigers matchup in the other semifinal at Olney. Tipoff of that game is 6 p.m. Tuesday while the championship is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26.
CLASS 2A TEUTOPOLIS REGIONAL
CHAMPIONSHIP
at J.H. Griffin Gymnasium
ROBINSON 9 4 4 3 — 20
TEUTOPOLIS 9 7 9 7 — 32
Robinson – Tuttle 1-2 — 4; Correll 1-3 —5; McClenathan 3-0 — 7; Rawlings 1-0 — 2; McDonald 1-0 — 2; Rehmel 0-0 — 0; Beard 0-0 — 0. TOTALS 7 FG, 5 FT.
Teutopolis – Anna Probst 2-1 — 6; Niemerg 3-0 — 6; Ruholl 4-1 — 9; Helmink 5-0 — 10; Martin 0-1 — 1; J. Gaddis 0-0 — 0; Mette 0-0 — 0; Ordner 0-0 — 0. TOTALS 14 FG, 3 FT.
3-Pointers: Robinson 1 (McClenathan), Teutopolis 1 (Anna Probst).