No. 15 seed Conant surprises No. 4 York

It’s been said for a long time that anything can happen in the one-game elimination high school state tournament.

And that proved to be the case Tuesday night at the Conant Class 4A girls basketball regional in Hoffman Estates.

Seeded No. 15 in the Hoffman Estates sectional, Conant rose to the occasion and upset No. 4 York 40-21 to advance to itsr own regional final at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against fifth-seed West Chicago.

Conant (9-19) dropped a 56-48 decision to the Dukes (17-13) in their second game of the season at the York Thanksgiving tournament.

But this time, the Cougars jumped ahead 15-8 after a quarter and never looked back.

Seniors Natalie Kutrumanes (15 points) and Allie Bauch (11) led the way while freshman Katie Lomas chipped in 8 points.

But it was the defensive end that Cougars coach Dan Travers was stressing after watching his club limit York to single digits in each quarter.

Dukes top scorer AnnaBell Lansdowne (13 ppg) was coming off a 19-point performance against Buffalo Grove last week.

“We hung our hat on defense,” Travers said. “I think our conference schedule against teams like Fremd and Palatine and going against the Wiedemanns and (Nia) Pappas’ is what prepared us for this.

“We played great team defense and Ashley Bartuch played great defense on their top player (Lansdowne, who had 6 points). Sidney O’Keefe (freshman) helped out there too and Allie Bauch did a good job keeping No. 13 (Tawny Tucci, who had 3 points) out of the paint.”

Senior Alexis McCutcheon opened up the second half with a 3-pointer and Kutrumanes added a free throw to give the Cougars a 26-12 lead with three minutes left in third.

“Sarah Mazurek also did a good job defensively,” Travers said. “And Natalie and Katie did a good job rebounding.”

Conant led 30-11 after three quarters and held York without a field goal for the first 13 minutes of the second half.

“Our offense was more patient, we took care of the basketball and we hit some shots,” Travers said.

The Cougars had lost five of their last six games.

“I give these girls credit,” Travers added. “We’ve had ups and downs all season and they learned from them. They stayed with it. They were resilient. They kept working hard and believing in themselves. They knew better days were ahead.”

Tuesday was one of their best.

“And I give credit to my whole coaching staff,” said Travers, who is assisted on the varsity by Ron Theberge. “They helped out at practice and helped us prepare to put in the game plan.”

Warren regional: No. 10 Palatine (18-11), which had won seven straight games, took No. 6 Warren down to the wire before falling 39-36 in the Blue Devils’ 4A regional semifinal.

Senior Nia Pappas (2 assists, 1 steal) led the Pirates with a game-high 18 points while junior McKenzie Wiedemann (2 steals, 1 assist) chipped in 9.

Senior Katelyn Mayer led the Pirates on the boards with 12 rebounds while Pappas, freshman Monica Masini (3 assists) and sophomore Morgan Radtke each had 4.

Niles North regional: Playing without leading scorer Brittany Collins (16 ppg), who injured her knee (slight tear in meniscus) in Friday’s game against Glenbrook North, No. 9 Maine West dropped a 57-40 decision to host and No. 7 Niles North (17-12) in the 4A regional semifinal in Skokie.

The Warriors (13-17) defeated the Vikings 42-37 in overtime two weeks ago when Collins, a sophomore, scored 17 points.

Sophomore Julia Huinker led West with 13 points and 7 rebounds in her first varsity start while Collins’ sister Ashley, a sophomore, added 9 points and 8 rebounds.

Senior guards Amanda Hoye (5 assists, 3 rebounds) and Megan John (2 rebounds) each chipped in 7 points while Alexis Prosperi had 4 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists for West.

“Julia played real well,” said Maine West coach Derril Kipp. “She’s going to be a real good player as she matures. She played with a lot of confidence. We played with another sophomore, too, and we were pretty young on the floor at times. We are looking forward to next season.”

Without Brittany Collins, the Warriors were unable to play man-to-man defense.

“That was the difference in the game,” Kipp said. “We didn’t have Brittany to guard their top post players.

“But I was real proud of the girls. They played well. It was closer than the final score We subbed a lot at the end of the game. We scored enough points to win, but not being able to play defense (man-to-man) the way we wanted hurt.”