Round Lake 64, Fremd 47
When it was leading 39-20, Round Lake's girls basketball team had plenty of incentive to prevent this regional semifinal from slipping away.
"If we let them come back, coach (Gary Edge) would have been very upset with us," said Panthers junior guard Labrenthia Murdock, who tossed in game-high 17 points.
Despite Fremd's comeback which twice saw the No. 9 seeded Vikings (16-11) pull to within 7 points in the second half, Murdock and company made sure Edge was smiling at game's end.
The No. 7-seeded Panthers pulled away for a 64-47 victory and will face top seed Buffalo Grove (28-3) for the championship of the BG regional Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
The Panther will go into the game needing one victory for a single-season school record.
Brittany Kucia added 12 points for the winners, followed by Jazzmin Rivers (10), Amber Phillips (8) and Corrine Conrad (7).
"I thought Jazzmin Rivers played very good defense," Edge said. "Brittany played well for being sick this week, and I thought Labrenthia made very good decisions at the end of the game. And our big people, Amber (6-foot) and Patty (Velazquez, who is 5-11) did a nice job"
A 3-pointer by Kucia and Murdock's driving layup put Round Lake ahead 11-4 early and it never looked back, leading 39-21 at the break.
"I thought we played a great first half," Edge said. "I thought Fremd came out with great defensive intensity in the second half."
The Vikings got to within 49-42 with 4:22 left in the game but Round Lake went on a 9-0 run to put things away.
Murdock hit a 16-footer and 10-foot bank shot during the big rally.
"We were so determined," she said. "We're just taking things one game at time."
"After the game I told the girls when Fremd got to within 7 of us, I thought we finished up the game real well," Edge said. "We did a good job taking the ball to the basket and dishing out."
Hersey 46, St. Viator 40:ŒSenior Sarah Stoltzner and junior Kelly Rogowski have given Hersey a 1-2 punch all season.
And the two Huskies stepped up big at the Lake Zurich Class 4A play-in game on Tuesday.
No. 18 seed Hersey used a 13-2 run in the third quarter to pull itself out of an 8-point hole, and the Huskies made their free throws at the end to pull out a 46-40 victory over No. 15 seed St. Viator.
Hersey (11-18) advances to play No. 2 seed Wheeling on Wednesday at 60 p.m. at Lake Zurich.
"You can only win one game at a time," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley, "We're happy to get this one."
St. Viator (11-18) led 22-20 at halftime and the Lions increased their advantage to 28-20 with 4:50 remaining in the third quarter.
But Kelly Rogowski scored all 9 of her points during a 13-2 run, including a 3-pointer that capped the surge giving the Huskies a 33-30 advantage with 1:39 remaining in the third quarter.
"We kind of dug ourselves deeper and deeper," said Rogowski whose teams pressing defense propelled the run. "I didn't want this to be our last game."
"We knew our press worked, but it just took awhile to get it going."
Stoltzner then stepped in scoring 9 of her game-high 15 points in the final quarter, including two baskets off putbacks.
Hersey controlled the boards much of the night powered by Emma Kuhns (4 points and 11 rebounds) and Stoltzner (8 rebounds).
"We knew that was the one thing we had to do," said Stoltzner of the Huskies rebounding. "We had to start hitting our outside shots or we had to start rebounding."
Junior Colleen Nolan ( 6 points) basket with 5:47 remaining in the game gave Viator its last lead at 36-35, and Tori Callero split a pair of free throws for the Lions tying the game at 37-37 with 4:48 remaining.
But Kelly Rogowski found Amanda Slove (4 points) underneath and Stoltzner split a pair of free throws to give the Huskies a 3-point cushion.
"We had a little run where we pushed it," said Viator coach Paul Bjerkness of Lions run to start the second half. "Then we had a little bump in the road where our shooting struggled a bit."
-- Mike Eaken