Naperville Central can't catch Bolingbrook

Naperville Central spent the fourth quarter Thursday night desperately trying to catch Bolingbrook, to no avail.

No. 6 seed Bolingbrook held on for a 46-42 victory, ousting No. 3 Naperville Central from the girls basketball playoffs in the Class 4A Lemont regional final.

"I thought we were going to take the lead there at the end," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said.

It wasn't for lack of effort. Naperville Central (23-8) got a few defensive stops down the stretch, but the Redhawks couldn't convert often enough on the offensive end.

"We had a shot to take the lead in the last two minutes. We had the ball, down 2. It just unfortunately didn't work out the way we wanted it to," Nussbaum said.

Naperville Central took its only lead with a 10-0 third-quarter run. Hannah Swarm's 3-pointer off a Mia Lakstigala inbounds pass put the Redhawks ahead 28-27, and she followed that with another 3 for Naperville Central's biggest lead of the night.

"It was a great high school basketball game if you didn't care who won or lost. It was a great game," Nussbaum said.

The Raiders (17-8) stopped Naperville Central offensively until Swarm hit another 3 at the third-quarter buzzer. The teams went to the fourth quarter with Bolingbrook leading 35-34. The Raiders held the lead the rest of the game.

"Because we have been in this situation before, I don't think that they got rattled at all," Raiders coach Christopher Smith said. "We've been in tougher games, bigger teams, and not to take anything away from Naperville Central. They're a great team. But we've been in these type of environments before all season, so we know what it's like to play in them."

Junior Talia Edwards led Bolingbrook with 12 points. The Raiders will meet No. 2 seed Oswego East at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a Benet sectional semifinal.

Lakstigala scored 12 points to lead Naperville Central, and Swarm scored 11 in her final high school game. Senior Kaylee Cunningham came off the bench to make three 3-pointers on four shots from behind the arc, and classmate Sara Teteak added 7 points, getting the Redhawks started early.

"I thought we played well and yet had some missed opportunities," Nussbaum said. "Overall I'm so proud of my players. We game planned every game we played, and they either executed what we wanted or tried to the best of their ability to execute. This was such an enjoyable year. It was just enjoyable to come to practice every day. We have some quality citizens here."

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