Huntley's comeback just 'super'
ROCKFORD - Huntley's girls basketball team may be living on the edge, but the Red Raiders are still alive.
For the second straight game, Huntley faced a late deficit but stormed back to win, this time using the fourth-quarter scoring prowess of junior standout Ali Andrews to defeat Rockford Boylan 37-33 Thursday in front of a near capacity crowd in the championship game of the Class 4A Rockford Guilford sectional.
The 6-foot-2 Illinois recruit scored 13 of her game-high 17 points in the final quarter as the Red Raiders, who had to rally late to beat Crystal Lake South in Tuesday's semifinals, came back from as much as a 7-point deficit in the final 5:42 to win their second sectional title in the last three years.
"It means so much and says so much about all the hard work we put in," said Andrews. "We just worked together as a team."
No. 8 Huntley (28-4), which set a program record for wins in a season, will head to coach Steve Raethz's alma mater Monday night when the Raiders take on No. 2 Fremd (27-4) at 7:30 p.m. in the Hoffman Estates supersectional. Fremd, led by Duke-bound Haley Gorecki, beat Hersey 50-29 for the Palatine sectional title Thursday. Huntley has now won 21 straight.
After starting the game on a 10-2 run, Huntley went cold and fell victim to a stifling Boylan defense led by senior Allie Zimmerman that only allowed Andrews a single basket and 3 shots in the first half. After scoring those 10 points in the first five minutes of the game, the Raiders scored only 6 more the rest of the half and fell behind the Titans (24-9) at the break 19-16.
The Raiders forged a 22-22 tie on Andrews' second basket of the game with 3:05 left in the third quarter but senior Emily Crouch scored to give Boylan a 24-22 lead going into the fourth quarter.
That basket also started the Titans on a 7-0 run that gave them a 29-22 lead after an 8-footer by Halle Stull (11 points) from the baseline with 5:42 left in the game.
But Raethz called timeout and from that point the game became the Ali Andrews Show, as well as a free throw nightmare for Boylan, which made just 4 of 9 from the line in the fourth quarter.
Back-to-back Andrews baskets made it a 29-26 game with 4:02 left but Boylan made 2 of 4 from the line to gain a 31-26 advantage with 3:05 to go. Andrews scored in the paint at 2:57, Boylan's Jessie Schiro made a free throw at 2:02 and Andrews buried a 3-pointer with 1:48 left to make it 32-31.
Then came the key play of the game. Coming out of a time out, Huntley junior Kayla Barreto stole Boylan's inbound pass, was fouled and made both free throws to give the Red Raiders the lead for good, 33-32, with 1:43 to play.
"I thought that was the key point of the game," said Raethz.
With the lead, Huntley was able to get the ball in Andrews' hands and she made 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in the final 42 seconds while Boylan missed 3 shots and made just 1 of 2 free throws.
"Ali really took things over and took the game over in the fourth quarter," said Raethz. "What a job by her. She put us on her back. We also did an unbelievable job of stepping up and getting stops. We found a way to come back and if there's one word that describes our team tonight it's resiliency. I just can't say enough about our kids."
To Andrews, who played the final 3:05 with four fouls, it was all about not letting the defense rattle her.
"You can't get frustrated," she said. "You just have to play smart. We had other people step up. It was frustrating but I just had to play through it. We've seen defenses like that all year."
Speaking of defense, Huntley's was up to the challenge as well, especially senior Kaitlin Costantino, who along with junior Madeline Moffett, held high-scoring Boylan senior guard Kayla Steward to 5 points, the first 3 of which gave her 1,000 for her career.
"Going into it I knew I had a big responsibility," said Costantino. "She's a good player and I knew I had my work cut out for me. I just had to stay focused the whole game."
The win also avenged last year's loss to Boylan in the sectional title game.
"It's honestly surreal right now," Costantino said. "To come back and beat the team that beat us last year is just an awesome feeling."