Rosary survives St. Francis scare
The last thing Rosary coach Dave Beebe wanted to see Thursday night was history repeat itself.
It didn’t ... but barely.
St. Francis nearly erased a 15-point second-half deficit, the Spartans’ Abby Winkler letting a 3-pointer fly at the buzzer that bounced off the backboard. That allowed the Royals to let out a huge sigh of relief and leave with a 50-48 victory on their Senior Night.
A year ago on the same court from just a few feet away, the Spartans’ Kate Slattery drained a 3 to force overtime of a game St. Francis eventually won.
This time there were a few more smiles for the Royals who knew they had just dodged a bullet.
“It just felt so good to get a win especially since it was Senior Night,” said one of those seniors, Emmy Popovich, who tallied a team-high 14 points. “When we were playing as a team every shot would go in. When we work as a team we can play really good basketball.”
Rosary did that in gradually building its lead from 18-12 after one quarter to 32-25 at halftime. The Royals (9-14, 3-5) and Spartans (2-17, 0-6) traded the lead four times in the opening quarter before the Royals began to take control.
An 8-0 run midway through the third quarter, sparked by four points from Popovich and a drive from Mary Wentworth, opened Rosary’s biggest lead at 42-27.
From that point on it was mostly St. Francis. The Spartans rallied within 42-36 on a 3 from Alyssa Fernandez to end the third quarter.
The Spartans opened the fourth quarter in unusual and frustrating fashion, getting to the line 8 straight times but missing all 8 free throws. Sydney Zaragoza’s basket gave Rosary an 8-point lead before the Spartans again started chipping away.
Lexi Riccolo’s 2 free throws brought St. Francis within 48-46 with 41 seconds left. Popovich answered with a pair of her own. She finished 6 of 8 at the line while her teammates struggled at 1 of 7.
“All my family is here, all my friends, my teammates are here supporting,” said Popovich. “Now is the time to to make it. You put in all those hours of practice you just have to do it.”
Aly Germanos again helped the Spartans close to 50-48 with her free throws, and when Rosary missed 2 at the line with 9.9 seconds left the Spartans had the chance to tie or go for the win. Rosary played strong perimeter defense to force the Spartans into a hurried 3 that misfired as the buzzer sounded.
“It’s kind of how our season has been right there,” St. Francis coach Mike Phillips said. “We’ve had a lot of close games. We’re a really young team just trying to get that last shot to go in. We’re trying to get better each time we play.”
Germanos led all scorers with 16 points, Fernandez had 11 and Riccolo 10.
Popovich was Rosary’s only double-digit scorer. But for the second straight game the Royals received nice balance from Karly Tate, Maddie Kombrink, Courtney Bila, Taylor Gibson and Wentworth all scoring at least 6 points with Kombrink also leading both teams with 10 rebounds.
“The kids have been doing a much better job of that. We’re looking for that balance,” said Beebe, who saw both the good and bad from his team with possible regional foes Kaneland and Yorkville in the stands scouting.
“St. Francis played hard. There are no gimmies in conference. I was disappointed because when we ran the offense and played defense we looked really good. When we winged it because it is Senior Night we looked really bad. We’ve got to get better and tighten it up for Saturday (vs. 18-5 Aurora Central).”