St. Edward rolls into title game with total team effort
St. Edward senior Katie Yohn walked off the court at Aurora Christian Wednesday night still 30 points shy of the all-time career scoring record in Green Wave history.
And it didn't matter to her one little bit.
Far more important than any scoring record to Yohn and her teammates was the fact that the Green Wave righted the ship, snapped a four-game losing streak, and will now play for a regional championship.
Yohn did lead the way with 21 points, but everyone contributed in a huge way as St. Edward dominated the second half en route to a 61-41 win over second-seeded Seneca in the semifinals of the Class 2A Aurora Christian regional.
The third-seeded Green Wave (16-10) will take on top-seeded Ottawa Marquette (21-6) at 7:30 p.m. today for the regional title and a berth in next week's Plano sectional. Ottawa Marquette eliminated Aurora Christian 60-33 Wednesday.
In addition to Yohn's usual steady game, which included 6 steals, 5 assists and 5 blocked shots, the Wave got 12 points and 8 rebounds from freshman Maddie Kerr, 10 points and 8 rebounds from senior Val Gotheridge, 9 points and 4 assists from sophomore Enza Ranallo, and 6 points and 3 steals from freshman Callie Johnson.
"I'm just so proud of our girls tonight," said Yohn, who now has 1,742 career points. "We definitely picked it up tonight. The freshmen really picked it up and Val did a great job tonight."
After a 17-17 first-quarter tie, the Wave surged ahead 32-29 at halftime on the strength of a 5-0 run to close the half. They then scored the first 6 points of the third quarter to take a 38-29 lead after a Kerr basket with 6:17 left in the period. Seneca (19-9), which had defeated St. Edward by 3 points in overtime in the second game of the season, came no closer than 7 the rest of the way as St. Edward limited the Fighting Irish to a 2 of 17 shooting half, including 0 of 5 in the fourth quarter.
"We all put in a lot of effort in practice and it was great to get a win tonight," said Gotheridge, who helped lead the Wave to a 40-27 rebounding advantage. "We didn't want to end our season tonight. We've been working on our defense and helping each other out and we got back on track tonight."
That defense, which had allowed an average of 82.8 points per game during the four-game losing streak, pressured Seneca into a 15-for-46 shooting night and helped cause 20 turnovers.
"I was really happy with our team defense tonight; we finally had a good half," said St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson. "We've been down a little these last few games but I told the kids that we hadn't won 15 games for nothing. We just got done playing two of the top teams in the state (Driscoll and Montini) and even though we were down a little we really came together as a team tonight."
Which the Wave will have to do again tonight when they face Ottawa Marquette, a team that beat Seneca 44-34 on Jan. 7.
"I think they're very similar to (Seneca)," Dawson said. "Maybe a little taller, so we'll have to crash the boards and play good defense again."
Yohn, Gotheridge and their young teammates now realize it's tournament time.
"We have to play as a team to win," Yohn said. "Everybody realizes now that it's one (loss) and done."