Neuqua Valley overcomes East Aurora

Rachael Tait and her Neuqua Valley girls basketball teammates had a lot of motivation Monday night.

Tate, a transfer from Benet, wanted the chance to play against her old teammates. The Wildcats were seeking a shot at redemption against Benet, which beat them in the sectional semifinals last year.

Neuqua Valley will get that chance after knocking off East Aurora 60-51 in a Class 4A Benet regional quarterfinal. Tait and fellow junior Megan Callahan led the way with 20 points each as the 16th-seeded Wildcats (9-19) moved on to play two-time defending state champion and top seed Benet in Tuesday's semifinals.

"It's a little déjà vu coming back here," Callahan said. "Last year was a close game up until the last three minutes, so there's a little bit of (a need for) payback here. Hopefully, we can bring it."

Callahan certainly brought it against the 17th-seeded Tomcats (9-14), who never led yet kept the game tight well into the third quarter. She tallied 15 points in the first half, including three of her four 3-pointers, to give the Wildcats a 34-24 halftime lead.

It was a big shot in the arm for a team that had lost 11 out of 12 games before beating Glenbard North in the regular-season finale.

"Our record doesn't matter," Callahan said. "We step into playoffs and it's a whole different team.

"We talked about before the game how people needed to step up, and Rachael Tait and I were the ones who did it tonight."

Tait was especially aggressive in the third quarter, driving to the basket with purpose. She scored twice early in the period, once after the Tomcats cut the lead to 8.

"I was doing kind of rough at first, so my teammates gave me a pep talk and I got back into the game," Tait said. "I just decided to drive more. I started making them so then I just kept driving."

Callahan then buried a 3 to trigger an 11-0 run and a three-point play by Tait boosted the lead to 52-33.

East Aurora pulled within 58-50 on a 3-pointer by Jeanette Villezcas with 1:20 to go in the game, but a Callahan layup snuffed the threat.

Now Tait will get a chance to guard her former science lab partner, Benet center Katie Jaseckas.

"I know every single person on (Benet)," Tait said. "I have three really best friends on that team, too, so I'm excited to see them. No matter the outcome, I'm just excited to play them."

Dearra Brown scored 14 points and freshman Barakat Adekola had 10 points and 8 rebounds for East Aurora.

"We're a young team but we fought resiliently in trying to get back in the game," Tomcats coach Lee Clayborn said. "They mixed it up with their defensive changes so our girls had to make the adjustments and learn.

"We didn't knock down a lot of shots and rebounding they were more physical at first."