Plainfield East rallies by West Aurora
There's a few teams in the area with young lineups, but nobody trots out a greener group than Connie Siljendahl's West Aurora Blackhawks.
Her starting five for their regional opener Monday - two juniors, a sophomore and two freshmen - were spelled by three sophomores and a junior coming off the bench.
All that youth bodes well for the future, but it brought a fair share of growing pains this season.
That proved true again Monday. The No. 15 seeded Blackhawks took a 4-point lead to the fourth quarter against No. 17 Plainfield East before missing 10 of 11 shots in a season-ending 46-42 loss in the Class 4A West Aurora regional.
"I thought we had it," said junior guard Ashley Williams, who tied for a team-high with 9 points. "The turnovers we had made our confidence go down. We needed to keep our heads up."
West Aurora ends the season at 8-19 while Plainfield East (10-19) advances to play No. 2 seed Neuqua Valley Tuesday. The Bengals won despite missing all 13 of their 3-point attempts.
"It was an ugly win but we fought through and did what we needed to," Plainfield East coach Tony Waznonis said. "Our shooters didn't hit anything for us. I saw a lot of rusty things there but they fought through."
The game was tight throughout, 16 ties or lead changes and no lead bigger than 6 points. West Aurora led 13-12 after one quarter, making 5 of their 8 field goal attempts to overcome 6 turnovers and rebounding woes.
By halftime Plainfield East had outrebounded West Aurora 21-10 and taken a 23-20 lead. The Bengals also did a good job containing the Blackhawks' leading scorer and sharpshooter Carly Frauenhoff, holding her to 4 points in the half and 8 for the game - well below her 15-point average.
"Too many turnovers and not enough rebounds," West Aurora coach Connie Siljendahl said. "We couldn't get Carly the ball. We had several drives and the ball just went in and went around. It just didn't go our way."
The Blackhawks cut down on the turnovers in the second half and improved their rebounding. They regained the lead in the third quarter behind the play of freshman Kiyanna Rodgers.
Rodgers made a 3-pointer to start the quarter to tie the game at 23. She gave her team a 25-23 lead with a Euro step move, and she capped the quarter with another smooth drive for a basket that put West Aurora ahead 33-29 going to the fourth quarter.
"She had a great game," Siljendahl said. "She's starting to peak the last few weeks."
Unfortunately for West Aurora, Rodgers hurt her ankle with 5:22 left in the fourth quarter and didn't return. The Blackhawks made 7 of 8 free throws in the final quarter but just 1 field goal attempt.
That came when Williams laid in a left-handed layup with 1:20 left to tie the game at 42. The Bengals took the lead for good on Payton Gladney's free throw with 44 seconds to go.
West Aurora didn't come close on a 3-point attempt. The Bengals made 2 free throws to extend their lead to 45-42, and the Blackhawks again failed to connect on a drive before Plainfield East sealed its win with a free throw at: 14.
"We never let any one person get going," Waznonis said. "We took some of them out of their game a little. Defensively in the fourth quarter we stepped up our intensity another notch. We have to do that for four quarters tomorrow."
Plainfield East's Lotanna Onua led all scorers with 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Rodgers tied Williams for the West Aurora lead with 9 points. The good news for the Blackhawks is that all 42 of the points they scored Monday return next season.
"These kids most play AAU at a high level and we will do a bunch of team camp stuff and get everybody rolling," Siljendahl said. "They want to get going for next year."