Lockport finds the key vs. Naperville North
Lockport coach Krista Peterson didn't exactly get much advance warning she'd be without Amber Surdokaite on Monday night.
"Just before we got on the bus," Peterson said is when she found out her leading scorer had pink eye.
If it was an ominous sign for a team that only nine days prior snapped a 13-game losing streak, it didn't carry over. No. 17 seed Lockport erased an early 9-point deficit to No. 15 Naperville North for a 44-40 win at the Class 4A West Aurora regional.
Lockport (8-16) advances to play No. 2 Waubonsie Valley tonight.
"You just rely on someone filling that void left by Amber," Peterson said, "and we did tonight. They worked hard and good things happened."
Naperville North (7-21) also found itself playing short-handed at a most inopportune time. Huskies freshman guard Bria Walker tore her ACL last Thursday doing a chest bump during Senior Night introductions. Fellow freshman guard Zoe Swift was also missing, at an Olympic Development soccer event out of town.
"Zoe's best attributes are her speed and defense," Huskies coach Jacquie Discipio said, "and she could have offered a couple buckets in transition. Bria is clearly one of our best 3-point shooters. In limited minutes they could have made for an entirely different game."
Even without two key reserves, Naperville North jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the game's early minutes, a Jenna Jatczak spinning drive capping the early scoring.
Lockport recovered after the slow start, taking an 18-17 lead into halftime. But Naperville North scored the last 6 points of the third quarter, taking a 27-24 lead into the fourth quarter on a Colleen Warren 3-pointer.
The Huskies went cold from there, scoreless for the first 3 minutes and change of the fourth quarter while Lockport forged ahead 35-27. Naperville North twice pulled within 3, the second time at 43-40 courtesy of a Caitlin Knoll 3-pointer with 29 seconds left.
But Lockport's Stephanie Karl split a pair of free throws and Naperville North missed a 3-point try at the other end. Knoll had the Huskies' lone 2 field goals of the fourth quarter.
"The first quarter it felt like we were on," Discipio said, "but as the game wore on we just seemed to get colder and colder. It was one of those games where I never felt like we were in a flow."
Alyssa Garcia scored 10 points and Karl 9 for Lockport.
Knoll had 11 points and Jatczak 9 for Naperville North. The Huskies graduate Colleen Warren and Ashley Wiezeorick, but return the rest of a lineup that finished an encouraging 5-9 in conference. Naperville North's JV team also took second in the DVC.
"I felt like this season we were in the majority of our games. We were a team that opponents had to take seriously," Discipio said. "We have a lot of shooting and fundamentals development that we need to do over the summer, but I am optimistic about next year."