MM_022119

36 | February 21, 2019 | The Mokena Messenger sports
mokenamessenger.com
Girls Basketball
Knights season ends at regional semis
RANDY WHALEN
Freelance Reporter
Girls Basketball
Griffins end season with 19 wins,
fall short in regional championship
It was not the type of
game the Lincoln-Way Central
girl’s basketball wanted.
Nor the result.
The Knights fell behind
early and just couldn’t
match Homewood-Flossmoor’s
firepower. They saw
their season come to an end
on Tuesday, Feb. 12, in a
56-35 loss to Homewood-
Flossmoor in the second
semifinal of the Class 4A
Marist Regional.
It was the second season
in a row that Central (13-
15) lost to the Vikings in
the regional semifinals. The
year before the Knights fell
59-28 to H-F at the Sandburg
Regional. It was also
the second game this season
between the two teams.
Host H-F won the first one,
47-33 on Dec. 4 in a South-
West Suburban Conference
crossover.
The No. 6 seeded H-F
then defeated Marist 41-30
on Thursday, Feb. 14, in
the regional title game. The
host and No. 3 seeded Red-
Hawks (22-9) had advanced
to that point with a 67-33
win over Crete-Monee on
Feb. 12 in the first semifinal.
The Knights, who were
led by junior guard Regan
LoConte (12 points) were
hoping for another game
that H-F scored fewer than
50 in order to hang in and
have an opportunity, but the
Vikings led 25-15 after the
first quarter.
“It was a complete surprise
to us,” Central coach
Dave Campanile said of
the early pace. “We liked
that we had an earlier game
with them in the 40s, and
we thought it was a good
matchup for us. We were
concentrating on stopping
Grace Hall, but they shot
the ball really well from the
Lincoln-Way Central junior Regan LoConte will look to be
the leader of next year’s Knights squad. She led the team
with 12 points in the Feb. 12 regional semifinal loss against
Homewood-Flossmoor at Marist. 22nd Century Media file
photo
outside.”
The Vikings certainly did,
as Dakota Duplessis poured
in 14 points in the opening
quarter. The senior guard hit
four 3-pointers in the first
quarter and added another in
the second quarter. She finished
with 19 points. Hall, a
sophomore forward, scored
13 points in the second half
to also finish with 19.
Hall showed her potential
two days later with 17
points and 20 rebounds in
the win over Marist.
While the pace slowed
down in the second quarter,
the margin had been
established. Senior forward
Abi Baumgartner (9 points)
hit a 15-footer to open the
second quarter scoring and
draw the Knights within
eight points. But Duplessis
hit another trey, and Central
never got closer than 10
points after that.
H-F led 34-22 at halftime.
Ahead 36-24, the Vikings
closed the third quarter on
an 11-3 spurt over the final
5:30 for a 47-27 lead after
three. The deficit reached
as much as 26 points in the
fourth quarter.
“We weren’t expecting
their [outside] shooter
to do that,” LoConte said
of Duplessis hitting the
3-pointers. “Next year I feel
like I have to step up more
as a senior role model. We
will have to step up our intensity.”
Outside of Baumgartner
and LoConte, the Knights
couldn’t generate much offense.
Post player Lily Zopf
(4 points) was the next highest
scorer and was one of six
seniors on the team. Corryn
Mejdrich, Savannah Mitchell,
Alyssa Popp and Mallory
Robey are the rest of
the seniors.
“We fell behind and had
to go man on defense,”
Campanile said. “But I’m
proud of the girls to stick
with it. We wanted a winning
season and wanted to
get to a regional title game.
We wanted to play when the
[regional championship]
plaque was in the building.”
Central hasn’t advanced
to a regional title game
since the last time it won
one, which was in 2008. The
Knights record was nearly
the same as the 14-15 mark
from last year. Two seasons
ago they were 16-14, which
was only their third winning
season since 2008.
RANDY WHALEN
Freelance Reporter
The Lincoln-Way East
girls basketball team played
its heart out.
But, in the end, it wasn’t
quite enough.
Fantasia Baines scored
a game-high 22 points and
grabbed 14 rebounds as
Thornwood rallied for a 56-
51 victory over the Griffins
on Friday, Feb. 15, in the
title game of the Class 4A
Thornton Regional in Harvey.
In her final high school
game, senior guard Kaley
Sheehan led the Griffins
with 18 points. East (19-10),
which was seeded No. 7 in
the regional, was playing
in its 13th straight regional
championship game. The
Griffins have won eight of
them, including last year.
They also won at least 17
games for the 13th straight
season, and at least 19 games
for the 11th time in that span.
But, despite an amazing effort,
they came up just short
last week.
“The girls played hard all
year,” East coach Jim Nair
said. “[The T-Birds] size
hurt us, and at the end we
helped a little too much inside.
Credit Thornwood for
knocking the shots down.”
Junior guard Olivia Molnar
(16 points, 13 rebounds)
made her first free throw
with 4:31 to play in the game
to give the Griffins a 44-38
lead.
But junior guard CeNiyah
Hampton (8 points) came
back 16 seconds later with
the first of three straight
3-pointers for the T-Birds.
Then Baines converted a
turnover into a layup about
a minute later and the lead
was down to one. Sheehan
Lincoln-Way East senior
guard Kaley Sheehan led
the Griffins with 18 points,
but it Thornwood topped
East 56-451 in the Class
4A Thornton Regional in
Harvey Friday, Feb. 15. 22nd
Century Media file photo
swished a 3-pointer from
the right corner with 3:02 remaining
and East was back
up 47-43.
“It wasn’t our best game
to start,” Sheenan said. “We
haven’t been in an atmosphere
like this and it was
hard to get started. They hit
a lot of big shots. We were
worried about their post play
but their outside shooters
came out shooting.”
They sure did as senior
guard Lunden Alexander (10
points) sandwiched a pair of
3-pointers around a layup by
Molnar, and the game was
tied at 49-49 with 2:03 to
play. East missed a pair of
free throws with 1:41 left
and freshman guard Nayo
Lear (13 points, 7 rebounds)
converted an old-fashioned
three-point play with 1:29 to
play to give Thornwood the
lead for good at 52-49. The
Griffins were 6-of-14 from
the line in the game, including
2-of-8 in the fourth quarter.
“Free throws had been a
strength for us this season,”
Nair said. “But we missed a
few of those.”
So did the T-Birds, as they
then missed four straight
free throws but got the rebounds
after missing them.
That led to a Lear layup with
57 seconds to play and a
five-point lead. Hampton hit
a pair of free throws with 45
seconds remaining to make
it 56-49. Senior guard Libby
Villa scored on a layup with
36 seconds to play for the
Griffins, but they couldn’t
score again and Thornwood
celebrated its first regional
title since 2007.
“We were with them
and fighting all the way
through,” Molnar said. “We
always fight back. My goal
for next year is to improve
more and lead the seniors.”
There were six lead
changes in the first quarter,
which ended with four
straight points by the T-
Birds to give them a 13-12
lead. They added the first six
points of the third quarter to
extend to a 19-12 lead and
make it a 10-0 overall run.
East never got closer than
three the rest of the opening
half and Thornwood led 26-
21 at halftime.
But the Griffins came out
like gangbusters in the third
quarter, as Sheehan scored
five points and Molnar four
in an 11-0 run. Thornwood
finally scored on a 3-pointer
by Lear with 1:33 left in the
quarter, but East answered
with four more points and
took its largest lead at 36-29
on a layup by senior guard
Katchie Savic (10 points)
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