Hinsdale C. wins, Wheaton N., Wheaton Academy fall

Hinsdale Central has set a goal for itself the rest of the season, and the Red Devils are right on pace with it.

The Red Devils want to keep the opposition under 40 points for the rest of the season, and they kept the trend alive with a 45-20 win over Neuqua Valley to capture the Class 4A Hinsdale Central girls basketball regional crown Friday night.

"We focus more on the defensive end of the floor more than the offensive," Hinsdale Central point guard Toni Kokenis said. "We want to keep our opponents under 40 points and keep them in single digits in every quarter. Tonight we were able to do that."

To start the game Neuqua Valley (14-15) was able to slow the game down and keep the game to a crawl as Hinsdale Central (29-1) grabbed a 9-6 lead. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, those 6 points were the most points they scored in a quarter, doing it one more time in the final period.

Neuqua Valley was held to 3 points and 5 points in the middle two quarters and were forced to commit 18 turnovers to the Red Devils' 7 for the game.

"We came out with the right game plan," Neuqua Valley coach Mike Williams said. "I thought athletically we could match up well with them. We tried to slow the game down. The way they are coached is not to beat themselves; you have to beat them. They are a really good team and there is a reason why they are 29-1."

"I thought Neuqua did a nice job forcing us to play the style they wanted to, to start the game," Hinsdale Central coach Steve Gross said. "They gave us a lot of offensive problems early on because of that."

The Red Devils struggled early because they were not working the ball around on the perimeter. Hinsdale Central tried to force the ball down low to Molly Kinsella and when they did, she was double- and triple-teamed. Gross said his team needs to be more patient and play the style they want to play.

"We can't expect to dribble the ball to one side of the floor, work the ball down low and get a layup every possession," Gross said. "We aren't playing against seventh-graders. That will not happen. We talked at half about how teams are going to try to take us out of our game plan and what we need to do to be successful. We made some nice adjustments."

Kokenis scored all 10 of her points in the fourth quarter. Kinsella also had 10 points in the win.

Beth Goldberg scored 10 points in the loss for Neuqua.

-- Jason Watt

Fenwick 78, Wheaton North 43:ŒThe top-seeded host rolled to a regional championship behind Tricia Liston's 28 points in Oak Park.

Michelle Scandora topped No. 8 seed Wheaton North (18-9) in scoring with 17 points.

Hope 70, Wheaton Academy 40:ŒNo. 1 seed Hope held leads of 19-8 after one quarter and 37-15 at the half on the way to winning the Class 3A Simeon regional final in Chicago.

Jenn Lee led eighth-seeded Wheaton Academy (19-10) in scoring with a game-high 13 points. Kristine Egebrecht and Alexa Sharkey added 12 points apiece for the Warriors.

Hope made six 3-pointers.