Reaber, Immaculate Conception light up Latin
The chants of "you can't stop her" rose from the Immaculate Conception student section a minute into the fourth quarter, serenading Knights junior Kasey Reaber.
They weren't exaggerating.
Reaber scored 26 of her personal-high 34 points in the second half, carrying the Knights past the Latin School 61-49 in Tuesday's semifinals of the Class 2A Willows Academy sectional in Des Plaines.
"She was pretty phenomenal tonight," IC coach Dan Murray said. "It seemed like she got to the basket at will at times. They had a really hard time with her foot speed, and she kept attacking."
Sisters Kasey and Taylor Reaber and teammate Allie DiVito are familiar with an extended playoff run, state champions at Driscoll last year. For IC (29-3), though, Thursday's sectional final with Walther Lutheran will be the school's first since 1980 - the year IC won its only sectional championship.
Sweet-sounding stuff for 10th-year IC coach Murray, who guided the Knights to three straight sectional appearances from 2005-08. Two of those ended in 2-point losses in the semifinal round, one of them to Latin.
"Anytime at this point in the season you win a game and continue to move on you're elated as a coach," Murray said. "To beat an outstanding basketball team like Latin in the semis is a huge win for us. I'm really proud of the girls."
Still icing a fractured bone in her right wrist afterward, Kasey Reaber eschewed the protective mask she's worn the last three games for a broken nose, eclipsing a previous personal-best of 24 points.
"I didn't want to wear (the mask)," Reaber said. "I don't like to wear it. I can't see with it on."
Reaber missed her only 3 shot attempts in the first quarter, but Latin had no answer the rest of the way for her array of slashing drives and floating runners.
"We just kept running the same play," Reaber said, "and they didn't know how to guard us. Once they finally came into me I'd just kick it out to our shooters. They really didn't have a way of stopping it."
Latin (25-3), down 14-1 in the first quarter, had come all the way back to within 36-29 with 2:29 left in the third quarter. But Kasey Reaber answered with a pair of driving layups, assisted DiVito's 2 free throws - then scored IC's first 9 points of the fourth quarter to push the advantage back to 51-35.
"My hat's off to her - she is very talented and can pretty much get to the rim whenever she wants to," Latin coach Max Rouse said. "We just couldn't stop her."
Taylor Reaber scored IC's first 9 points of the game, and finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Erin Dunne added 7.
Chloe Kaulas had 16 points and 9 rebounds for Latin, knocked out of the sectional semifinals for the third straight year by a Reaber-led opponent. Driscoll eliminated Latin in 2008 and 2009.
"You can't get down to a good team like IC," said Rouse, whose team lost by 15 to IC in December. "Spotting them a 14-1 lead, it was going to be a tough, uphill climb after that."