Elgin Academy, 40, Westminster Christian 28
After beating Westminster Christian handily earlier in the season and then taking a 25-15 halftime lead in Monday night's Class 1A Westminster Christian regional opener, the Elgin Academy girls basketball team thought it had things well in hand.
But the young Warriors weren't about to go quietly on their home court.
Westminster Christian came out of the locker room from the halftime break with a renewed sense of purpose and pushed Elgin Academy to the limit before the Hilltoppers were able to regroup and come away with a 40-28 win, EA's first regional win under sixth-year coach Diane Comer-Rabaza.
Elgin Academy (11-15), the No. 8 seed, will take on top-seeded Hinckley-Big Rock (25-2), the state's No. 2 ranked Class 1A team, in today's 6 p.m. regional semifinal.
"We weren't as patient as we normally are and we weren't getting our second chance rebounds," said Comer-Rabaza in explaining her team's third-quarter problems. "We just talked about doing those things to get our lead back."
It was a lead the Hilltoppers built by jumping off to an 11-0 start as sophomore Alyssa Pena scored 7 points in leading her team to a 13-4 advantage after the first quarter. Pena would finish with a game-high 16 points.
EA maintained its lead, actually adding a point to it to go on top 25-15 at halftime.
But then Westminster (3-18), a team made up of 4 sophomores and 8 freshmen, played what might have been its best quarter all season. The 11th-seeded Warriors went on a 7-0 run to start the quarter and climbed to within 25-22 after a free throw by Rachel Doby (7 points, 11 rebounds) with 2:57 left in the third. Pena then scored EA's only points of the quarter on a layup before Westminster's Sarah Rodgers (15 points, 4 steals) came back to make the final 4 points of the period and leave the Warriors down just 27-26 going into the final 8 minutes.
"We brought more energy to our press and our traps were better," said Westminster coach Ken Flickinger, whose team caused EA 33 turnovers on the night.
The Hilltoppers got their game back in the fourth quarter and also stepped it up on defense, not allowing Westminster to score a field goal in the period.
Kristin Cella broke the Hilltoppers' scoring drought with 5:33 to play, then Allison Clark (7 points, 8 steals) nailed a 3-pointer at the 4:16 mark to make it a 32-26 game. EA never looked back.
"It was a little shaky," said Pena. "We just needed to keep up the tempo. We were getting flat on our feet on defense and we weren't pushing it as hard as we could have. We just started to realize we needed to get pumped up again and start playing defense."
Flickinger was happy to see his team compete hard as it continues to grow.
"This is a fun group," he said. "They've come a long way and they've played extremely well the last three weeks. If they all come back and work hard this group has some nice potential."
Meanwhile, Comer-Rabaza's players may not be familiar with tonight's opponent but their coach sure is. She coached at Newark prior to coming to Elgin Academy and knows all about Hinckley-Big Rock.
"They were one of our big rivals in the Little Ten (Conference) when I was at Newark," she said. "(H-BR coach) Larry Peppers always has a good team. I'm sure they'll have a big girl in the middle. I know they're state-ranked. But we didn't want to look past tonight."