BELOIT—The Beloit Memorial girls basketball team has spent the last several years taking on the challenge of rebuilding a basement-dwelling program into a winning one.
The Purple Knights certainly aren’t going to let any off-the-court adversity keep them knocked down.
Beloit’s 77-57 loss to Southern Lakes Conference foe Badger on Friday night came just one day after the team learned that head coach Dilonna Johnson would not be with the team until further notice.
The program confirmed that Johnson was placed on administrative leave and assistant coach Asha Johnson would take over in the interim. Beloit Memorial Director of Athletics and Activities Jon Dupuis directed the Beloit Daily News to the School District of Beloit Superintendent Dr. Willie E. Garrison II for comment. Garrison has not yet replied to an email sent by the Daily News on Saturday morning.
Dilonna Johnson was hired by the Knights in October 2020 to take over a team that had only won eight combined games in its previous six seasons. A standout at Whitefish Bay Dominican High School, Johnson went on to play at Division II Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., where she received All-Academic honors, all-conference honors, was voted MVP for her team and received an invitation to play in Brazil on a DII USA national team.
Johnson was then a varsity assistant at Como Park High School in St. Paul, Minn. and had her first head-coaching job at Columbia Heights High School in Minnesota for one season before coming to Beloit. The Knights went 7-15 in her first season, 5-20 in her second and were at 8-9 before Friday night.
Johnson’s LinkedIn lists her as a long term substitute teacher with Beloit Memorial High School.
Asha Johnson declined to comment on the situation at the time, but she praised her players for how they’ve handled the situation.
“I don't think student athletes get enough credit for compartmentalizing all that they have to go through throughout the day at school, at home, and then to show up on the court and come together,” Johnson said. “That’s a skill. I’m just proud of how they’ve used adversity to come together. What they're going through emotionally — it's a lot.
“One thing they can control is their attitude, effort and focus. So, I'm just trying to keep them locked in on that.”
It isn’t the first challenge that Beloit has had to face this season.
An incident on Dec. 19 at Westosha Central during a jayvee game led to Dilonna Johnson choosing to forgo playing the varsity game because she feared an unsafe environment had developed at the school. After a confrontation with a referee as well as school officials from Westosha Central during the jayvee contest, Johnson sought and received permission from the Beloit District to leave. She said as the Beloit team exited the gym, a handful of Westosha Central cheerleaders, student athletes, parents and fans started making noises and gestures like they were gorillas. Some students took this to have racial implications. The schools agreed to jointly discuss what happened and that an investigation would take place. Nothing has since been publicly disclosed concerning any aftermath from what happened in Salem, Wis.
This past Wednesday, Westosha Central forfeited a game that the Knights were set to host. Nothing has been announced about what will be done for the second matchup that the teams would be set to play as conference opponents, which the Falcons would be set to host. There is no scheduled second game on either Beloit or Westosha Central’s athletic calendar.
Junior guard Jocelyn Tibbetts talked about the love she has for her teammates as they battle through both situations.
“Me being here for three years, I've never had a group like this,” she said. “I feel like we're going to go so far with the rest of the season. We have a great connection. Our freshmen are a great addition to us, they help us out so much, and then us juniors getting better. We were in the gym for the whole summer, and you see it shows.”
Tibbetts helped lead Beloit (8-10, 5-5 SLC), which had won four of its last five games, to a solid first half against the Badgers (12-10, 8-5) on Friday. She hit a pair of 3-pointers to help the Knights jump out to a 12-5 advantage as she combined with teammate LaNasia Dubois to sink six treys before intermission.
But a physical Badger squad started attacking the paint behind junior Molly Deering, who finished with 13 first-half points to help the Badgers lead 35-31 at halftime.
“We started off with high intensity,” Tibbetts said. “I hit a lot of shots. Our team was getting a lot of rebounds going up. We drew a lot of fouls in the first half.”
But with 5-foot-10 junior Kamille Thomas not playing and 5-foot-10 junior Ty Banks in foul trouble for most of the second half, Badger dominated the boards and racked up second-chance points.
"We really needed them to win the game, so when Ty got into foul trouble it was a downer for us," Tibbetts said. "And Kamille definitely would have helped us."
The Badgers quickly upped their lead to 51-39 and then to 72-46. Deering, who went 16-for-19 on free throws, finished with 27 points while Makyala Hayes scored eight in the second half to end with 14. Tibbetts finished with 20 points while Dubois and SaDera Richardson each scored 12.
“Jocelyn has an undeniable motor,” Johnson said. “It’s special. She shows up every game and is extremely selfless."
The Knights next have back-to-back games against first-place Union Grove (17-5, 12-0) to finish out the regular season.
“I tell them anything can happen and it comes down to who wants it more,” Johnson said. “I just hope we're able to have a good week of practice.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0