Wheaton Academy struggles but advance
There's nothing wrong with winning ugly in the postseason.
Wheaton Academy advanced to the Class 3A Riverside-Brookfield sectional championship game with a harrowing 49-46 victory Monday against upset-minded St. Joseph (13-16). Wheaton Academy will meet top-seeded Montini at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Warriors (28-1) fell behind 16-4 early in the second quarter but rallied to within 2 points at halftime.
"The first quarter, man, that was ugly," said senior guard Jenn Lee. "Just getting over that hump was beneficial for us."
One problem was that the Warriors kept missing their shots, making just 6 of 32 in the first half.
"I think we struggled to hit some shots early on," Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell said. "We kind of played a little rattled. We weren't very confident when we first started out.
"It may have just been the intensity of the game, the level of the game, being in the semifinals the sectional. These girls have not experienced that game before. But I give them credit because we battled to the very end, and we hit big shots when we needed them and came up with some big plays."
At the other end of the floor, St. Joseph junior Dee Gray couldn't seem to miss, scoring 12 of her game-high 20 as the Chargers built that first-half lead.
"Gray just kept taking the ball to the hole on us, taking it and taking it," Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell said. "We made the adjustment and went to the zone. I think that kind of stopped her a little bit, although she did hit a couple down the stretch there. But I think it changed the momentum for us. Then we hit a couple of shots to back it up."
The Warriors took the lead for good with 51 seconds remaining when junior Alexa Sharkey hit the last 2 of her 19 points. A Meghan Grant lay-in with 18 seconds to go sealed the win.
Lee added 16 points for the Warriors, including a 3-pointer with 1:20 remaining to end a 9-0 St. Joseph run and regain the lead briefly.
"They just hung in there," said Chargers coach Jim Maley of the Warriors. "I knew we had a lead, but I knew they weren't going away. And they didn't."
Wheaton Academy 49, St. Joseph 46
Wheaton Academy - S. Sharkey 3 1-1 8, Fortune 0 0-0 0, A. Sharkey 8 3-9 19, Lee 6 3-4 16, Grant 2 0-0 4, Egebrecht 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 7-14 49.
St. Joseph - Anderson 0 1-2 1, Brown 2 2-2 6, Tolbert 1 2-2 4, Gray 9 1-2 20, Bryant 5 0-0 10, Koerber 1 1-2 3, Talley 1 0-0 2, Lawson 0 0-0 0, Wilson-Stewart 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 7-10 46.
Wheaton Academy 4 14 12 19 -49
St. Joseph 14 6 11 15 -46
3-point baskets: WA: S. Sharkey, Lee. SJ: Gray.
Fouled out: none.