NL_031220

36 | March 12, 2020 | the new lenox patriot sports
newlenoxpatriotdaily.com
LW West falls just short in state championship game
STEVE MILLAR, Sports Editor
5
Taylor Gugliuzza wiped away
the tears and thought back on all
the history she and her Lincoln-
Way West teammates had made
this season.
The program’s first sectional
title, first trip to state and first
state championship game. There
was just one first missing, and it
was the one the Warriors wanted
most: the first state title.
Fremd instead won its first
state championship, holding
West to a season-low in points
and pulling off a 58-47 victory in
the Class 4A state championship
game Saturday, March 7, at Redbird
Arena
“I expected more from myself,”
said Gugliuzza, a senior.
“I feel like I could have played
so much better and I let the team
down with how I played. That’s
definitely not how I normally
play, and I’m pretty upset about
it.
“But just the fact that we were
all able to experience this, [people]
rarely get to do this. It’s a
once in a lifetime opportunity,
and I couldn’t be more proud of
our entire effort and play.”
Junior guard Tara Gugliuzza
led the Warriors (32-4) with 16
points and six rebounds. Taylor
Gugliuzza added 15 points.
Alabama-Birmingham recruit
Emily Klaczek paced Fremd
(30-7) with 20 points and nine
rebounds.
The Vikings used their size
and length to slow down the
high-flying Warriors offense,
while West also had plenty of
missed layups and open 3-pointers
to look back on and wonder
what if.
The Warriors shot just 30 percent
from the field (13-of-43).
“I don’t know if nerves got to
us or what was going on,” Tara
Gugliuzza said. “We usually
make our layups.”
Fremd and West came into
the championship game with
Lincoln-Way West’s Taylor Gugliuzza waves to the fans after
receiving her second-place medal after the Warriors’ loss to Fremd
in the Class 4A state championship game.
differing styles. While the Warriors
topped the 70-point mark
15 times, the Vikings did so just
four times and typically won
grind-it-out, defensive games.
The final certainly played
more to Fremd’s style.
“Long, athletic kids coming at
you as you’re going to the basket
can cause some problems,
and they have that,” West coach
Ryan White said. “Those are the
types of kids who have given us
some problems in the past.
“Forty-seven points for us is
pretty low, so they did a good job
on that end of the floor. We tried
to make it more of a scramble
game at times, but they’re hard to
turn over. Their guards are good.
They have big kids to throw it
up when they’re in trouble. They
did a good job controlling it.”
West led 13-8 after one quarter
and 21-15 with just over a
minute left in the first half, but
Fremd hit three 3-pointers over
the final 70 seconds of the half,
two by 3-point contest state
champion Ella Burns, and pulled
level at 24-24 at halftime.
“That stretch at the end of the
first half was a killer,” White
said. “That was a backbreaker,
because we could have went
in with the lead and felt pretty
good, but instead we went in
tied.”
West led just once in the second
half, when Taylor Gugliuzza’s
free throw made it 35-34
with 1:56 left in the third quarter.
Taylor Gugliuzza’s first made
3-pointer of the night gave her
team one last bit of hope, pulling
the Warriors within 44-41 with
2:59 to go.
Fremd, though, scored the next
seven points to take command.
Sophomore forward Bri
Wooldridge, who played for
Fremd last season before transferring,
scored six points and
five rebounds against her former
team.
Taylor Gugliuzza poured in
26 points as the Warriors beat
Bolingbrook 68-57 in a semifinal
Friday, March 6.
It was the second straight win
Lincoln-Way West’s Sydney Swanberg lays in a shot against Fremd
in the Class 4A state championship game Saturday, March 7, at
Redbird Arena in Normal.
Photos by Gary Middendorf/22nd Century Media
over a SWSC foe after a 58-44
victory over Homewood-Flossmoor
in the Illinois Wesleyan
Supersectional on March 2.
“I’m going to remember the
amazing season that we had,”
Tara Gugliuzza said. “It was a
great season. We got second, but
that’s still amazing. Not many
teams can say they got second in
the state.”
Taylor Gugliuzza is set to continue
her career at Lewis, while
Sydney Swanberg and Molly
Ryan will also be big losses as
multi-year varsity players, and
Lindsey O’Donnell, Elizabeth
Atsinger and Grace Hafner will
depart as well.
The rest of the team is expected
to return, though, and the
Warriors are optimistic they can
make it back.
“This is going to motivate us,”
Wooldridge said. “I think this
experience is going to push us to
want even greater things to happen
next year. It’s going to take
us a while, because we’re young,
but I think we can do it.”