Girls basketball/Scouting St. Edward vs. Walther Lutheran
Westminster Christian sectional
The teams: St. Edward (21-7) vs. Walther Lutheran (26-4).
When: 7:30 p.m. today
How they got here: St. Edward defeated Woodlands Academy 67-16 and Westminster Christian 68-32 to win the St. Edward regional; Walther Lutheran defeated Holy Trinity 68-26 and Luther North 71-39 to win the Walther Lutheran regional. St. Edward downed Chicago Latin 54-34 in Monday's sectional semifinal and Walther Lutheran defeated Timothy Christian 47-36 Tuesday.
Previous meeting: Walther Lutheran defeated St. Edward 54-43 on Jan. 11.
Key players for St. Edward: The starting five senior Enza Ranallo, juniors Callie Johnson, Maddie Kerr and Alex Lee and sophomore Rena Ranallo will all need to play their usually unselfish games, and the Wave will look for key minutes off the bench from juniors Paige Gannon and Katherine Von Ahnen.
Key players for Walther: The Broncos' sister tandem of senior Morgan Ransom and sophomore Melanie, are as good as they come in Class 2A. Senior guard JaQuitta Walker runs the show and 5-9 sophomore Isimeme Edeko plays much bigger than 5-8.
Outlook: There are no secrets between these two teams and coaches, who know each other well, dating back to Walther's 64-52 win in the 2007 Class A state quarterfinals. Neither team has been back to state since but tonight's winner stands a Monday supersectional victory away from Redbird Arena and joins the Elite Eight for the first time since 2007.
By all accounts, this should be an entertaining game between two teams that, if it's working, love to push the ball up the floor, shoot 3-pointers, and play ball pressure defense. And they both do it well, so rebounding will play a big key. When the Green Wave lost to Walther in January, they were without 6-foot junior post Alex Lee and her presence inside tonight could make a big difference.
"They're a good team," said 11th-year Broncos coach Todd Fisher of St. Edward. "Michelle's done a nice job with them and they're running that new offense real well. I think it's two similar styles run and gun and shoot 3s. Rebounding will be important."
Fisher's team played a zone defense in beating Timothy Christian in Tuesday's semifinal, but odds are the Broncos will ratchet up the man-to-man pressure tonight.
"We'll play whatever defense we need to to win," Fisher said. "We have an idea of what their strengths are and where we can attack them."
Dawson, meanwhile, was quick to say she wasn't making excuses but says there were some mitigating factors in the Wave's first meeting with Walther. The Wave has won 9 of 10 since that loss, the only setback being to 3A powerhouse Montini.
"We had a terrible game," she said. "We didn't have Alex, it was finals week and we just had a horrible game."
That said, Dawson has great respect for Fisher's team, which has lost this season to St. Francis, Antioch, Guerin, Aurora Christian, St. Joe's and Bishop McNamara.
"Walther Lutheran is deadly," Dawson said. "They take it to the basket and they take it outside. The Ransoms are really tough to stop."
Hometown factor: It may not be their own cozy gym but it is their town, so St. Edward should have a hometown advantage tonight, right? Not so, says Fisher.
"I'll tell our kids that (St. Edward) will have a bigger crowd but all of our kids played in the supersectional last year so they've been in front of big crowds," Fisher said.
To Dawson, sure, it's Elgin, but the Green Wave have always traveled well.
"Our fans and our kids ... our Green Machine ... have been awesome," she said. "Wherever we play we have a good following."
Winner gets: Tonight's winner will advance to the Willowbrook supersectional on Monday at 7:30 p.m. and play the winner of tonight's Seneca sectional final between Bishop McNamara and Seneca.
John Radtke