Froebe, who led all scorers with 31 points, scored right before the buzzer, but the Lady Shoes went to the locker room with a 33-20 advantage.

T-Town quickly expanded the lead to 16 points in the third period, but a three-pointer by Ava Gorens and four straight points by Froebe got the Lady Railers with nine at 39-30. Zoe Cremens then drained the first of her three third quarter baskets from behind the arc and the Lady Shoes began to build their lead back up, enjoying a 22-point cushion at one point in the final quarter.

“Zoe hit some big shots for us in that third period,” Thompson said. “Zoe and Lexie need to shoot from the outside for us. Lincoln was keying on Lexie, so Zoe did exactly what we need for her to do. I was glad to see her make those shots.”

But there were other aspects of the game she was not pleased with.

“We were poor on defense,” Thompson noted. “Froebe is a really good player. She gets to the basket and scores, and scores with contact. But she makes the same move almost every time and we still let her to get the basket. And you saw what happened. She scored a lot.

“Our team defense just isn’t getting any better,” Thompson added. “We keep working on it, and I believe we can get there. But we certainly have a long ways to go.”

Overall, the Lady Shoes held a narrow 27-24 rebounding advantage. But Thompson was unhappy about the number of offensive rebounds Lincoln was able to get.

“We let them have way too many second and third shots and I’m getting tired of it,” the coach said. “There’s no excuse for not boxing out. Rebounding is guts and heart. You have to get in there and do it. And I’m just not seeing that.”

For the game, T-Town shot 43percent overall, connecting on 24-of-56 attempts. From three-point range, the Lady Shoes were a very good 10-for-19, a 53 percent clip. But from inside the arc, they were only 14-for-37, a cool 38 percent. And many of those misses came from inside two feet away and several were uncontested.

“We have to be able to score when we get the ball that close to the basket,” Thompson said. “We moved the ball pretty well and got some very good looks and then missed many of them; and most without any pressure. We’ve got to make those shots.”

The Lady Shoes had three players in double figures. Lexie Niebrugge went 6-of-12 from long range and led the way with 20 points. Cremens was 4-for-6 from behind the arc and scored 12 points and Schumacher had a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

‘Kaitlyn did rebound,” Thompson said. “She always plays hard for us and I like seeing that.”

THS improved to 7-2 overall and 5-2 in the Apollo Conference. They will play three more conference games this week – tonight (Tuesday) at Mattoon (rescheduled game); Thursday at home against Mattoon; and Saturday at Taylorville.