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.

Palatine tried playing in back of Boothe and also fronting her. When the Pirates fronted her, Boothe's teammates lobbed her the ball and she usually had an easy finish.

"I was able to pin my (defender) and use my size to my advantage," Boothe said.

Warren (26-2) jumped on Palatine (10-22) from the start and led 14-3 after one quarter. Palatine's patience on offense and sound defense led to a low-scoring second quarter where each team scored four points.

"We played well against an opponent that tried to control the tempo," Warren coach John Stanczykiewicz said. "We didn't give them a lot of shots."

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.

Warren senior Shana Shepherd scored seven consecutive points in the third quarter. She finished with 9 points.

Boothe was 12 of 21 from the field.

"Sarah's strength and size makes it so hard to move her off the block," Stanczykiewicz said. "Her teammates did a nice job of giving her the ball and she made some nice catches in traffic."

Waukegan 39, Carmel 34: Waukegan senior point guard Bianca Jarrett was a non factor in the first half of Tuesday night's regional semifinal against Carmel at Warren.

She made up for it over the final two quarters.

Jarrett scored all of her game-high 17 points in the second half to help Waukegan hold off Carmel 39-34.

"We got beat by a special player," Carmel coach John Ryan said. "We couldn't stop her."

Waukegan (19-10), the No. 6 seed, will play No. 3 Warren for the regional title at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Warren routed Palatine 42-19.

Thirteen of Jarrett's points came in the fourth quarter. Junior guard Danasha Jenkins added 15 points.

"I would have been shocked if you would have told me we would be up at halftime and Bianca would not have (scored)," Waukegan coach Rommel Drake said.

Considering Carmel did not score in the first quarter and was down 10-0 at one point, Ryan was not too disappointed with the halftime score (12-6).

"We hung in when things didn't go our way," he said. "I was real happy with the way we made a game of it and had an opportunity to win."

Junior Tiffany Hendrickson's play in the second half (10 points) keyed Carmel's comeback. One of her baskets brought Carmel all the way back and tied the score at 22-22. Carmel scored 14 points in each of the final two quarters.

Corsairs seniors Aubrey Simmons and Danielle Prigge had 8 and 7 points, respectively.

The Corsairs (14-14) finished the season with a .500 record.

"We improved tremendously from the start of the year," Ryan said.