Bishop McNamara 55, Driscoll 42

It wasn't a home game for Bishop McNamara and senior guard Brittany Hasselbring, but it sure seemed like it.

Backed by a large turnout of green-clad supporters from neighboring Kankakee, Hasselbring poured in 24 points to lead the Irish past Driscoll 55-42 in the Class 2A Olivet Nazarene University supersectional Monday night at McHie Arena in Bourbonnais.

"Playing in Bourbonnais, it's like five minutes from our school," Hasselbring said. "We had our fans come out, it was great."

So was Hasselbring, a four-year starter who won a supersectional on the same court as a freshman. This time, she orchestrated her club's offensive attack like a master conductor with her expect ball-handling and all-around game. She went 10-for-10 from the free-throw line, while also posting 4 assists, 3 steals and a block.

"Hasselbring's been around," Irish coach Jeff Bennett said. "In a quality contest, I like her on my side."

Bishop McNamara (22-8) made its move in the second half. The Irish scored 8 straight points to start a 14-2 run that put them up 47-33 with 3:55 remaining. From there, they made 8 of 9 free throws to seal a spot in the state semifinals.

Gigi DiGrazia made four 3-pointers to record a team-high 12 points for Driscoll (22-6). Teammate Bridget DelBoccio added 10 points.

Bishop McNamara's trapping zone held Highlanders center Courtney Lindfors to 8 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field.

"Against this team we had to have some of our better assist leaders handle the ball up top and we couldn't get her the ball from the wing position," Driscoll coach Steve McCuiston said. "They put us in a position where we didn't have the people where we wanted to because we had to handle the pressure, so that left us with just open looks form the outside. They didn't fall."

The Highlanders shot 6-for-23 from 3-point territory.

"They really pulled us out of our offense," DiGrazia said. "It's hard to score when we're not getting it inside."

Bishop McNamara jumped ahead 8-4 after 6 straight points from Hasselbring.

But Driscoll eventually quieted the Irish fans thanks in part to its scrappy man-to-man defense. The Highlanders used an 8-0 run started by DelBoccio's fastbreak bucket and DiGrazia's back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 23-15 lead with 2:02 left in the second quarter.

Bishop McNamara closed the half though with an 8-0 run of its own, tying the game on Brandi Branka's high-arching shot off the glass from the right side in transition with two seconds left in the quarter to send the teams into their locker rooms tied at 23-23.

"That was a big momentum shift," McCuiston said. "If we could have built upon that, maybe they could have gone into the locker room with some doubts."

"I thought that was critical," Bennett said of the way his team closed the first half. "You know, we never stopped after that."