Newark 44, Immaculate Conception 29

Immaculate Conception girls basketball coach Dan Murray liked his team's defense.

Its offense was another story.

The Knights didn't receive much offensive production beyond Erin Hayes. As a result, they lost to Newark 44-29 in the Class 1A Serena sectional semifinals Monday night.

"That's the way it's been all season," IC coach Dan Murray said. "We didn't have the offensive consistency. I thought we played real well defensively. We had just a couple breakdowns, but our breakdowns are so incredibly magnified because we can't score."

Hayes went down fighting in her final high school game. The senior guard totaled a game-high 19 points.

The problem for the Knights (11-19) is no one else scored more than 4 as they lost in the sectional semifinals for the third straight year.

"We did everything we could to prepare for this team and know what we needed to do to attack them," Hayes said. "(But) I think we were pretty stagnant on offense. They were just the better team tonight."

Newark (23-7) saw three players reach double figures in scoring.

Junior guard Laura Johnson scored her 1,000th point in the first quarter and led the Lady Norsemen with 14 points. Her sophomore backcourt mate, Lauren McNanna scored 11, while junior center Sam Akre finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Newark led 22-16 at halftime and 32-26 after three quarters.

IC missed its first 7 shots from the field in the fourth quarter and finished shooting 24 percent for the game.

The Lady Norsemen used a 10-1 run to open a 41-27 spread with 2:54 remaining.

"We were feeling our way through the first quarter, but I thought once we started finding out what their system was about, I thought our girls locked into it pretty good," Newark coach Dale Skelton said. "We buckled down in the second half and played a nice defensive game."