St. Edward, Westminster to meet for title
One team cruised, one team nearly blew a double-digit lead, but both Elgin schools advanced Tuesday to the Class 2A St. Edward regional championship.
St. Edward scored the first 11 points of the game and never looked back in a 67-16 victory over Woodlands Academy in one semifinal. Westminster Christian lost an 11-point fourth-quarter lead before scoring the game’s final 6 points to beat Willows Academy, 45-41.
“One of our big goals was to make a regional final. So we’re there. Now what we do with that is up to us on Thursday,” Warriors coach Ken Flickinger said. “We have our work cut out for us. (St. Edward is) an outstanding basketball team.”
Top seed St. Edward (19-7) will host No. 2 seed Westminster (14-8) at 7:30 p.m. for the regional title and a trip to next week’s Westminster Christian sectional.
The Warriors led by at least 7 points from 30 seconds into the second quarter until a minute into the fourth. They led 34-23 heading into the fourth, but the third-seeded Eagles scored the first 6 points of the quarter to cut the deficit to 34-29. Later in the quarter, Willows Academy’s Monica Hinderer scored back-to-back baskets, both after Westminster turnovers, to make it 38-37 Westminster. After a Whitney Vanden Bos free throw, the Eagles tied the game at 39-39 on a Keelin McNally basket.
Willows Academy took its first lead with 1:47 remaining on a Mo Brown bucket. Katie Moeller tied the game at 41-41 with 1:28 for the Warriors.
Moeller then knocked away a pass for Hinderer, who led all scorers with 20 points. Claire Speweik hit a pair of free throws with 37.7 seconds left at Westminster regained the lead, 43-41. Vanden Bos sealed the game with 2 more free throws with 10.2 seconds remaining.
Moeller led the Warriors with 10 points. Katie Surratt and Speweik each added 9 points.
“We always dig ourselves into a hole, but they have figured out how to get out of them,” Flickinger said. “It was nice effort there at the end.”
In the first semifinal, St. Edward made quick work of Woodlands Academy. The Green Wave went 11-for-18 from the floor in the opening quarter to lead 25-2. The fourth-seeded Wildcats (13-14) shot 1-for-12 and committed 9 turnovers.
“I just wanted to make sure our level of intensity stayed consistent for 32 minutes,” St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said. “That was one of our big focuses tonight. We wanted to run the transition game. We had some great looks up the floor.”
St. Edward led 40-4 at halftime and 62-12 after the third quarter.
Madeline Kerr and Alexandria Lee each had 14 points and 6 rebounds to lead the Green Wave. Enza Ranallo added 10 points. Callie Johnson finished with 9, Rena Ranallo had 8 and senior Vanessa Velazquez added 7 off the bench.