Driscoll 66, Walther Lutheran 56
For one quarter Thursday Driscoll's Highlanders played like sectional rookies.
The next three quarters they played with the poise and confidence of veterans.
Driscoll came back from a double-digit first-half deficit, rushing past Walther Lutheran in the fourth quarter for a 66-56 victory at the Class 2A Lisle sectional final. It's the first girls basketball sectional championship in school history, and it comes just a week after their first regional crown.
"It was not the start I wanted for this game, but I knew we were going to pull it through," junior point guard Gigi DiGrazia said. "That's the kind of confidence and belief I have in my teammates, and it's just a great feeling right now."
Walther Lutheran (28-5) scored the game's first 10 points before Bridget Delboccio's free throw at the 1:54 mark. By that time the Highlanders (25-5) had racked up 8 turnovers as they tried to adjust to the Broncos' defensive intensity and game plan.
"We came up with something on defense where we could contain the outside and also contain (6-foot-4 Driscoll center Courtney Lindfors) inside," Broncos coach Todd Fisher said. "For a quarter it worked."
"We've never been in this position," Driscoll coach Steve McCuiston added. "Walther came in with great poise, going downstate two years in a row. … I really thought our biggest battle was going to be between the ears, and it was."
If the Highlanders had a case of the jitters, they shook it off by the second quarter, pulling to within 4 points at halftime.
Trailing by 1 to start the fourth quarter, the Highlanders owned the period. Walther got a basket by Dominique White, then watched as the Highlanders put up the next 9 points, a DiGrazia 3-pointer giving Driscoll its first lead at 52-50 with 4:59 to play.
"I knew they weren't going to give me many open shots, so … I saw I had a step on the girl, so I popped it. I shot it with confidence," she said. "Hopefully, it was going to go in and it did.
"I knew it was going to push us over that hump. I needed to do something. We had too many turnovers and weren't able to pound it inside a lot today, so when I was wide open I knew I had to take that shot."
The Broncos never recovered, and Driscoll rolled into Monday's supersectional matchup against Bishop McNamara in Kankakee.
Lindfors led all scorers with 27 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked 3 shots.
"I came out so weak, to end like that is the best, especially at the sectional final," Lindfors said.
DiGrazia added 18 points despite being shadowed all over the court. But perhaps the Highlanders' unsung hero Thursday was backup point guard Kasey Reaber, who took up ballhandling duties for DiGrazia and wound up with 6 important second-half points by driving to the basket.
"She stepped up a lot today," Lindfors said. "For a freshman she showed a lot of improvement."
Freshman Morgan Ransom led Walther Lutheran with 16 points and White had 15, but Western Michigan-bound guard Jazzmyn Harvey was held to 3 points on 1-of-9 shooting.