HO_030520

44 | March 5, 2020 | the homer horizon sports
homerhorizondaily.com
Girls Basketball
3
Providence makes history with first sectional title
Chris Walker
Freelance Reporter
Less than a minute
before halftime in the
Class 3A Hillcrest Sectional
championship game
against Marian Catholic,
senior Katie Rost collapsed
in pain at the Providence
bench with a dislocated
finger.
Two quarters later, Rost
and her teammates collapsed
into each other’s
arms, celebrating the first
sectional title in program
history after Rost knocked
away a Marian pass with
the game on the line.
The Celtics held on for
a 40-38 victory Thursday,
Feb. 27, in Country Club
Hills.
Providence (27-8) was
to take on defending state
champion Morton in the
Kankakee Supersectional
on Monday, March 2. A
win would advance the
Celtics to the state finals,
set for Friday, March 6,
and Saturday, March 7,
at Redbird Arena in Normal.
“My dad put [my finger]
back together, and it was
all good,” Rost said. “I
had no sense of the clock
or anything. I just knew I
needed to try to grab the
ball and hold it. That was
all we needed because
there were less than five
seconds, so I just secured
the ball.”
Junior Ashley Raymer
led the Celtics with 15
points and 13 rebounds.
Senior Lauren Knight added
nine points and seven
rebounds. Senior Claire
McGrath had seven points,
and freshman Annalise Pietrzyk
hammered home a
pair of threes early in the
first quarter to finish with
six points. Rost did not
score but snagged six rebounds.
Providence was playing
in its first sectional
title game in 14 years after
beating Rich South 54-39
in the semifinal Feb. 25.
McGrath led the way in
that one with 15 points,
while Raymer and Pietrzyk
had nine each, and
Knight scored eight.
Against Marian, Providence
went into the bonus
with 4:29 left but made
just 4-of-8 from the line
the rest of the way, including
missing the front end
of a pair of one-and-one
opportunities. Marian (26-
9) had its own struggles at
the line, converting 5-of-9
in the final 2:30 and only
9-of-20 overall.
“I tried to tell them to
relax,” Providence coach
Eileen Copenhaver said.
“I’m typically more hotheaded,
but we didn’t need
any more heat in the gym.
I could tell they needed
to see me calm. There are
certain times where they
just need to quiet it down.
It took me a long time to
learn that. We hung in
there. That was fun.”
Long-range bombing
had the Celtics on the
brink of breaking the game
open a couple of times.
The Celtics led 23-13
with 2:26 left in the first
half after a 3-pointer and
then two free throws from
Raymer, but the Spartans
responded with an 8-0 run
and only trailed 25-21 at
the half.
“It’s risky when you’re a
3-point shooting team and
you’re not hitting threes,
so what else are you going
to do on offense,” Raymer
said. “We really took our
time when our leads went
down to four points here
and there. We had to take
care of the ball and not
rush anything.”
The Celtics made eight
3-pointers, including one
from well beyond the arc
from Knight with 4:20 remaining
in the third quarter
for a 34-26 lead, but that
was their last of the game.
Instead, the Celtics had to
rely on their defense.
“We’ve really grown
this year,” Knight said,
“In past years, we never
would’ve been able to do
what we did [on Thursday].
It was even better being
the underdog because
it was less pressure on us.
We kept our cool.”
Marian senior Samantha
Barrett split a pair of free
throws with 27.9 seconds
left to pull the Spartans to
within 39-38.
Unable to cause another
turnover, the Spartans
fouled McGrath, who
missed the first free throw
but made the second for a
40-38 lead.
The Spartans worked
the ball inside, looking to
tie the game or kick it back
out for a potential gamewinning
3-pointer, but
the 5-foot-7 Rost’s outstretched,
medically taped
hand was able to steal it
away and seal the deal on
something that had eluded
Providence forever.
“We made history,” Rost
said. “We just bonded together
so well as a team
and all had each other’s
backs. Everyone made
mistakes, but we didn’t
look down on each other.
We always picked each
other up. It was back and
forth, and we just had to
battle through the entire
game. We had no idea how
it was going to end.”
The Celtics celebrate after beating Marian Catholic for a sectional title on Thursday,
Feb. 27, at Hillcrest. Photos by Mark Korosa/22nd Century Media
Claire McGrath fires off a 3-pointer in the first half against Marian Catholic.
“I think when we are really
clicking, it is because
of our defense,” Raymer
said. “We’re all scorers on
the team. We can all shoot,
we can all drive and finish,
but we’re at our best
when we’re really clicking
on defense, and we’ve
stressed that all season.
Tonight was a good testimony
of how hard we’ve
worked. We couldn’t have
hung with this Marian
team at the beginning of
the season, but now we
can.”
Providence also beat
Marian 65-56 in the teams’
regular-season finale Feb.
13, but the Celtics knew
they would have to get
past a different Spartans
squad this time around.
“They didn’t play any of
their starters [in the regular-season
game], so this
was kind of like payback,”
McGrath said. “It’s our
time now.”