Vernon Hills rolls into regional final
Kasey Firnbach scored 18 points as Vernon Hills' girls basketball team earned a berth in its own Class 3A regional final by defeating No. 13 Guerin Prep 63-13 Tuesday night.
Becky Bahlmann added 8 points and 6 rebounds for No. 3 seed Vernon Hills (21-7), which will face No. 6 Latin at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Cougars also received 8 points from Mia Polisky and 7 from Sophia Lehocky.
Libertyville 76, Lake Forest 70 (2 OT): At Lake Forest, sophomore Riley Weis scored a career-high 25 points, and the eighth-seeded Wildcats outlasted the No. 9 seed in double overtime in the Class 4A regional semifinal.
Libertyville (17-11) also received 15 points from Becky Deichl and 13 from Claire Keefe.
"To see our players battle back from deficits late in the fourth quarter, the first overtime, and then the second overtime, was just remarkable," Libertyville coach Greg Pedersen said. "They never gave up."
Lake Forest received 20 points apiece from Brooke Green and Grace Torkelson.
Hersey 54, Barrington 39: At Grayslake Central, sophomore Claire Gritt scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the third-seeded Huskies to the Class 4A regional semifinal win.
Hersey (22-6) also received 13 points and 8 rebounds from senior Juliette Vainisi, while senior Annie Korff added 11 points and 7 boards.
Hersey, which advanced to Thursday's 7 p.m. regional final, led the entire way. The Huskies were up 17-7 after one quarter and 28-19 at halftime. They maintained their 9-point advantage (39-30) entering the fourth.
No. 14 Barrington (11-18) was led by Bailee McDonald's 9 points.
Conant 56, Elk Grove 34: One statistic by Conant's Dani Engelbreit symbolized the character of this year's Cougars girls basketball team.
Engelbreit had a team-high 6 rebounds in the Cougars' 56-34 win over Elk Grove in the semifinal of the Class 4A Addison Trail regional.
The 6 rebounds may not seem all that significant until you realize Engelbreit was one of the smallest players on the floor as a 5-foot-4 senior guard.
"Coach (Deidre Naughton) always says rebounding isn't always about height," said Nireet Dhillon, another talented Cougars guard who scored a game-high 18 points with 6 steals. "It's more about heart. And Dani has a lot of heart."
And the Cougars have shown a lot of heart while marching to a 22-5 record in Naughton's first season.
Conant, the top seed in the Geneva sectional, will go after its first regional crown since 2008 and only second in 17 years when it faces No. 8 South Elgin (19-9) in Thursday's 7 p.m. championship in Addison.
"Dani did a great job on the boards," Naughton said. "She was the smallest girl on the floor but she was huge on the boards."
Conant suffered a setback when leading scorer Jorie Wachal suffered an ankle injury with 5:27 left in the first quarter.
The all-conference sophomore guard, who had already hit a 3-pointer and driving layup, did not play the rest of the game but Naughton expects her to ready on Thursday.
"That was some huge adversity," Naughton said. "But she is fine and I have no doubt she will be back by Thursday. It was an ankle roll."
A bank shot by Elk Grove senior O'Rayn Macavoy with 5:12 left in the first quarter tied the game at 7-7 before the Cougars began to pull away.
A 3-point play by four-year Conant varsity player Katie Lomas (7 points, 4 steals, 2 assists) made it 10-7.
Two free throws by Dhillon and a fastbreak layup by Lexi Zades (2 assists, 2 rebounds) extended the advantage to 14-7.
Zades came up with a steal and then assisted on Dhillon's layup to make it 16-7 with 2:45 still left in the opening quarter.
"Without Jorie, we all had to push through the adversity," Dhillon said "We had to keep playing our game."
The lead grew to 22-9 by the end of the quarter on a great hustle play by Dhillon.
She made a steal, tossed the ball to senior Brie Murphy (4 points, 4 rebounds), who got it back to Dhillon for the fastbreak layup with 25 seconds left.
"That's Nireet - vintage Nireet," Naughton said of the speedy junior who directs the flow of the Cougars' offense which showed great patience in the second half.