Rosary celebrates Senior Night with win
The best senior class Dave Beebe has had at Rosary almost did something Thursday none of his senior classes have done before - lose on senior night.
St. Francis did its best to play spoiler, outscoring Rosary 14-5 in the first quarter and leading for the first 28 minutes.
Rosary finally caught the Spartans midway through the fourth quarter of its 36-31 victory, one that wraps up no worse than a share of second place in the Suburban Christian Blue.
Perhaps more important to Beebe was sending out this senior class - led by the school's all-time leading scorer Jordan Rettig - with a win in their final home game.
"(A loss) would have been devastating," Beebe said. "I can't imagine honestly what it would have done for us come playoff time. I can't even imagine. But to show we can be down that much and come back is going to help us come playoff time."
The Royals honored their seniors, which include three four-year starters Rettig, Katie Petrando and Lane Richmond, before the game. Two-year starter Stephanie Haugen, Katie Eckberg and Carey DeKing also have played key roles in a run that will include three straight 20-win seasons if the Royals win at Plainfield Central on Tuesday.
Even the one year this class didn't win 20 games, their freshman season, the Royals notched one of the biggest victories in program history by upsetting No. 1 seed Geneva in the regional final. A large - and loud - crowd turned out to thank these seniors.
"We had a lot of support which is extremely nice," Rettig said. "We had a great comeback I thought. We all started playing as a team."
St. Francis (8-17, 2-9) hit 7 of its 13 shots from the field in the first quarter, then just 5 of 23 the rest of the night.
Rosary (19-6, 7-3) trailed 19-9 at halftime after making just 4 of its 22 first-half attempts, including 1 of 19 other than Petrando.
"We have no excuses even if it was senior night," Petrando said. "We were all excited. We got our heads together and regrouped."
It was a different story in the second half even though the Royals still didn't shoot all that well. But they attacked and got to the free-throw line 15 times while holding St. Francis to 12 second-half points.
Rosary tied St. Francis at 26 when Rettig put back her own miss. Eckberg blocked her fifth shot of the night on the defensive end, then scored her first basket on a pass from Petrando for the Royals' first lead at 28-26 with 4:04 remaining.
Eckberg scored again for a two-possession advantage and the Spartans never had a chance to tie over the final three minutes.
Petrando led the Royals with 13 points. Rettig finished with 9 points and 10 rebounds.
"The kids were playing way too tentative in the first half. I don't know why," Beebe said. "I told them we will not beat anybody if we don't play as a team. Defensively, I thought we picked it up."
Megan Bruggeman and Fiona McMahon both scored 9 points to lead St. Francis. Thursday's loss was the latest in a stretch that has seen the Spartans play well against the likes of Wheaton Academy, Immaculate Conception and now Rosary.
"Second half we had a hard time getting the ball inside," St. Francis coach Jeff Gerdeman said. "We just have to figure some things out offensively.
"Despite our record we have played a tough schedule. Our girls are battling. We are building some confidence that we can play with some pretty good teams."