New Trier 50, Prospect 31

New Trier's switch to a zone defense didn't catch Prospect off guard Wednesday night.

But the eighth-seeded Trevians threw the Knights' offense completely out of whack in their Class 4A Niles North girls basketball regional semifinal in Skokie.

The ninth-seeded Knights (15-12) went from scoring 11 points in the first 3½ minutes to 4 points the next 20½ minutes in a 50-31 loss.

"We knew they were going to do that but I guess we kind of panicked under the pressure," said Prospect senior Megan Murray, who finished her high school career with 6 points and will go to school at Illinois. "Our shots weren't really falling from outside and we should have taken it to the center more."

Prospect did early by scoring its first 6 points on free throws. One of two 3-pointers by sophomore Lexi Glennon was good for an 11-10 lead.

Then the Knights went stone cold against the aggressive 3-2 and 2-3 zones of the Trevians (17-13), who will play in Friday's 7:30 p.m. regional final against No. 1 Loyola, a 71-34 winner over No. 15 Niles North.

"We really felt we had to do that," New Trier coach Carrie Sowa said of the move to its zones. "We teach our kids to be very, very active within our various zone sets and it's been very effective."

Prospect missed 23 of its first 26 shots from the field and finished 9-for-43 (20.9 percent).

"We were ready for it but it's hard to try and mimic what they do," first-year Prospect coach Martha Kelly said of the Trevians' 3-2. "We prepped as best we could for it but it just didn't go our way.

"They forced us to shoot outside shots and they didn't fall for us."

They were in the first half as New Trier shot 58.3 percent (14-for-24) en route to a 31-13 lead.

Sophomore Molly Quirke, who averages 7 points a game, scored 20 on 10-for-16 shooting. Freshman Abby Schmitt came off the bench to score 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting.

But the Knights are looking ahead to better days as they lose only Murray, Katie Dyer and Marietta Smith to graduation.

Sophomore Rachel Hunt had 6 points and 4 rebounds and her freshman sister Sarah played major minutes in her varsity debut and had 4 points and 4 rebounds.

"Things look good," said Murray, who was the only returning starter.

"I think the future looks bright," Kelly said. "I'm very excited about what we have installed for this year and the year after.

"The next couple of years I see very good things."