Elgin Academy claims first regional championship

The Elgin Academy girls basketball team made school history Thursday night.

Sophomore Ashley Barnes drained a 3-pointer with nine seconds left in the game to lift the Hilltoppers to a thrilling 30-28 win over North Shore Country Day and a Class 1A regional championship at the NSCD regional in Winnetka.

The regional championship is just the second for the school in any sport. The 1983 boys basketball team also won a regional title.

"The girls played amazing," said Academy coach Vicente Pena. "They're excited to leave a big imprint on Elgin Academy history. Now they all want to go to Disney World."

The reward for the Hilltoppers (13-9) will be a date with Independent School League rival Morgan Park Academy at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Mooseheart sectional. MPA beat Illinois Lutheran 45-25 Thursday to win its own regional. Elgin Academy lost to MPA 51-36 on Jan. 14.

Barnes said she was able to get open for the game-winning shot, but then she and her teammates had to get back and play defense to prevent North Shore from tying the game.

"It was pretty incredible," said Barnes, who scored 7 points in the game. "I was wide open and I had about three seconds to set up. Then we went into a man defense and everybody stepped up and played big."

Senior Alyssa Pena led Elgin Academy in Thursday's win with 15 points, including going 7-for-10 at the free-throw line.

"Words can't explain how exciting this is," she said. "We knew we had a shot, we just had to take it one game at a time. There are no words to describe how this feels."

Pena's senior teammate, Lauren Steimle, shared the emotion.

"It's unbelievable," Steimle said. "This is a good way to end our season. It's unreal, especially because a lot of people said we weren't very tall this year. We've had taller teams and more athletic teams, but we've worked so hard and now it's paid off."