Rosary 60, Oswego 53

With 1:52 left in Thursday night's Class 3A Yorkville regional championship game, Rosary senior Victoria Alvarez went to the line and coolly sank a pair of free throws, giving her team its first two-possession lead since early in the fourth quarter.

Battling a scrappy Oswego team, the top-seeded Royals found themselves having to work to get a decent shot, and scrambling on the defensive end to locate their opponent's sharp-shooters.

The result was a showdown between No. 1 and No. 2 that featured just about everything you would hope to see in a title game, and when the final horn sounded it was Royals who wrestled away a 60-53 win.

"This was really close and we had to earn it," Rosary's Faith Jones, who scored 16 points, said. "They were really scrappy, but we fought hard, and played as a team."

Rosary will play Rockford Lutheran at 8:10 p.m. Monday in the Class 3A Rochelle semifinals.

The Royals used their inside-outside attack of Jordan Rettig underneath and Jones along the perimeter to build a 13-8 lead after one quarter.

"We were able to open it up for Jordan down low by hitting our shots," Jones said. "We know that we can trust our teammates to pick each other up when we need them to."

But the one constant in this game was Oswego's defense, led by sophomore Brittany Collier who blanketed Alvarez for four quarters, and often prevented the Royals' point guard from running the offense.

"(Collier) was one of the top three players who has ever played defense against me," Alvarez said. "She didn't allow me to do anything."

The intensified effort on defense fueled a scoring surge by the Panthers (16-12) as Katie Ziemnik and Samiya Wright, who led all scorers with 24 points, each knocked down a pair of 3s in the second quarter. With Oswego winning the majority of the loose balls, the Royals were fortunate to still be leading, 27-25 at the half, after the Panthers held a 25-21 advantage with just under two minutes to go.

"Oswego can play, they're a tough team," Rosary coach Dave Beebe said. "Our strategy was to pick up the intensity and take care of the ball."

For a while, the third quarter seemed to follow a familiar script for the Royals who have often come roaring out of the break after struggling in the second quarter. When Jones scored on back-to-back possessions, she gave her team its biggest lead, 36-25, just three minutes into the second half.

But Oswego's defense took over, and the Panthers answered Rosary's 11-0 run with a 12-0 stretch of their own, taking a 37-36 lead with just over two minutes left in the quarter.

"Our girls sacrificed themselves out there, and that's who they are," Oswego coach Chad Pohlmann said.

As the third quarter drew to a close, Alvarez took over the way seniors often do in a game like this. She gave the lead back to the Royals, who were still up 42-39 at the end of the third quarter, then extended it in the opening minute of the fourth.

"Victoria really stepped it up and provided leadership for us," Beebe said. "That's what we need her and Faith to do, and that's what they both did."

Jones and Alvarez were called upon to step up again in the final minute, this time at the line and on defense and both responded to help Rosary (23-5) close out its second straight regional title.

"This was not going to be easy for either team, it was a great game," Alvarez said

Rettig led Rosary with 23 points, Katie Petrando scored 14.