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Maine West, Lake Zurich meet in Hersey supersectional

Lake Zurich's girls basketball team has won 10 of it last 11 games.

The only setback was to state-ranked Maine West, which happens to the Bears' opponent in Monday's Class 4A Hersey supersectional.

Maine West (30-1) and Lake Zurich (20-10) will tip off at 7 p.m. in Arlington Heights to determine who lands a spot in the Friday state semifinals at Illinois State's Redbird Arena.

Less than three weeks ago on Feb. 5, Maine West traveled to Lake Zurich and defeated the Bears 53-21 in a nonconference game.

Obviously, the Warriors have removed that game from their minds.

"We are going to have to play with extreme intensity to beat Lake Zurich," said second-year Maine West coach Kim de Marigny, whose No. 5 ranked team in Class 4A has lost only to defending 4A champion Geneva. "They are a tremendous team, well coached and playing great basketball right now."

Coach Chris Bennett has the No. 3 seed Bears playing in their third supersectional in program history after a 27-24 triumph over top-seeded Warren in the Fremd sectional final.

Top-seeded Maine West advanced to its second straight supersectional and eighth in program history by defeating No. 3 Loyola 57-46 in the championship game of the Maine East sectional.

"I'm very proud of the way our girls have competed so far in this tournament," de Marigny added. "But we must maintain our focus and resolved determination with our next opponent."

De Marigny's Warriors are enjoying the second-best record in school history, behind only the 1988 team that went 35-0 and won the Class AA state title under the late hall of fame coach Derril Kipp, who once coached the upperclassmen on this year's team.

"What an incredible job Kim de Marigny has done stepping into that situation, handling it with grace and compassion, and leading these kids to 30-1 record," Bennett said. "She has done just an outstanding job."

Bennett is quite familiar with the Maine West program.

The Bears have played the Warriors in nonconference games the last 20 seasons.

"Derril had always been a great friend to Carl Krause (former Lake Zurich girls basketball) and myself," Bennett said. "He gave me an opportunity to coach in his (AAU) Hustle program back in the 1990s when I was a 20-something, know-nothing coach. He taught me a lot about coaching when we traveled together during the summer to tournaments."

Now Bennett has the chance to coach in a supersectional - something Kipp did nine times and de Marigny the last two seasons.

"We know what we are up against, having played them three weeks ago," Bennett said. "They are multidimensional and present so many different types of challenges. They can play slow or fast, inside or outside. We have to do our best to keep them in front of us and keep them off the boards, and on offense we have to handle their pressure. We looking forward to a great matchup against a great team."

Bennett's Bears have had a terrific final month of the season.

"We are peaking at the right time of year," Bennett added. "Our team has been motivated all year to get their number (2018) on the board in our field house. We missed a conference title by one game, so we were happy to win a regional, and the sectional title is just icing on the cake.

"As a staff, school, community we are so proud of all they have accomplished, and are looking forward to stepping on the floor one more time to see if we can win ourselves a trip to Normal."

The winner of Monday's game faces the winner of Monday's Streamwood supersectional (Geneva or Rockford Boylan) at 7:15 p.m. on Friday.

  Lake Zurich celebrates as a last-second 3-point attempt by Warren is too late in the championship game of the Fremd sectional on Thursday. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
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