Schaumburg 73, Bartlett 50

Schaumburg girls basketball coach Bill Murmann held senior stars Gabrielle Blackwell and Kylie Castans out of the Saxons' regular-season finale Saturday against St. Viator due to injuries.

The rest appeared to do wonders for the pair, as they helped lead the Saxons to a Class 4A Bartlett regional semifinal win over the host Hawks on Tuesday 73-50.

Castans, suffering from plantar fasciitis in her foot, scored 14 points and hauled down a game-high 17 rebounds. Blackwell, recovering from a hamstring injury, added 17 points in the win.

"She was moving a little bit tender, but she's fine," Murmann said of Blackwell. "She was explosive in spurts, which was nice to see. It was a big test for Kylie. She hasn't played in three days. Her injury is getting better. They both contributed very well."

Having Blackwell and Castans back after a one-game layoff was nice for Schaumburg (26-5), but fellow 1,000-point scorer Drewann Pancratz was doing just fine herself, especially early. She scored 9 of her game-high 24 points in the first quarter, helping the Saxons jump to an 18-2 lead.

"Drew had a great offensive game," Murmann said. "She was in a tremendous flow."

Castans struggled from the field, hitting only 4-of-16 shots, but the team's leading scorer found a way to contribute with her 17 rebounds. That was part of a Saxons' 59-32 rebounding edge.

"I took a couple shots and I was off, so I figured I should crash the boards," Castans said. "Drew was hitting tonight, which was nice."

The Saxons' offensive juggernaut caught the young Hawks (10-19) off guard, particularly early. After not scoring for the first 5:20, the closest Bartlett ever came to Schaumburg was 25-14 on a 3-point play from Sam Salinas.

Freshman center Jacki Gulczynski led the Hawks with 23 points and 7 rebounds.

Schaumburg will be back at Bartlett on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. to play for the regional championship against Geneva, a 69-60 winner over Batavia in Tuesday's other semifinal game.

Hersey 46, St. Viator 40: Senior 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 regional quarterfinal 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 St. Viator.

Hersey (11-18) advances to play No. 2 Wheeling at 6 p.m. today at Lake Zurich.

St. Viator (11-18) led 22-20 at halftime and increased it 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 and gave the Huskies a 33-30 advantage with 1:39 remaining in the third.

"We kind of dug ourselves deeper and deeper," said Rogowski, whose team's 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 with two rebound baskets.

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) scored with 5:47 left to give Viator its last lead at 36-35. Tori Callero split a pair of free throws for the Lions for a 37-37 tie with 4:48 left.

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."

Junior Kelly Hendricks (12 points) and senior Jenny Muench (8 points) combined to have 5 steals and get the Lions transition game going.

Hersey freshman Megan Rogowski added 10 points.

-- Michael Eaken

Maine W. 48, Maine E. 24: Maine West coach Derril Kipp expected his team to play with its usual intensity, its usual fast-break game, build a big lead early and win the first round of the playoffs against Maine East at the 4A Maine West regional.

He got none of those -- none except the victory.

The No. 4 Warriors' 48-24 win means they will play in Thursday's 7:30 p.m. title game against No. 5 Evanston, a 43-26 winner over Niles West.

The first disappointing moment for Kipp was when he realized his team didn't have its usual spark. That gave West a 12-6 after the first quarter an a 22-13 edge at halftime.

"We just didn't play very well," Kipp said. "We played them a couple of nights ago (and won 50-27). We had a couple (of players tonight) who acted like they didn't want to be here so we put two seniors in."

The only player Kipp singled out for any accolades at all was senior forward Brittany Begrowicz. She finished with 15 points.

However she, too, noticed that her team wasn't playing with their usual intensity.

"We really had a slow start," Begrowicz said. "We just played down to their level and took them lightly. You can't do that if you expect to win sectionals.

"We were just a step slow. We wanted to get a big lead and run the floor on them. We wanted to get the ball inside. If that's not working, then we have to slow down, make good decisions and make good shots."

Kipp would like to see all of his players play up to Begrowicz's level Thursday.

"Brittany played well," he said. "She was about the only one that showed up tonight.

"I have four seniors who are supposed to be leaders. If I can't get the team to play together we're not going too far in the sectionals."

-- Kathy Rudolph

Warren 42, Palatine 19: Warren senior Sarah Boothe is zeroing in on the 2,000-point mark, and the Blue Devils are also close to their fourth consecutive regional championship.

The Blue Devils opened the postseason with a 42-19 victory over Palatine at home Tuesday in a Class 4A regional semifinal.

Warren, the No. 3 seed, will play for the title at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against No. 6 Waukegan. The Bulldogs advanced by defeating Carmel 39-34.

Boothe scored a game-high 24 points to up her career total to 1,994. The 6-foot-5 Stanford-bound center also had 10 rebounds and 3 blocks.

Warren (26-2) jumped on Palatine (10-22) from the start and led 14-3 after one quarter. On Monday, No. 19 Palatine upset Libertyville 37-29 in a regional quarterfinal.

"We had a big victory against Libertyville in the first game," Palatine junior center Katelyn MacFabe said. "There's no shame in losing to a team like Warren; we gave it our all."

Senior Megan Boecher's 4 points paced Palatine. MacFabe grabbed 9 rebounds.

-- Bob Gosman