Palatine rallies past Highland Park
Trailing No. 19-seeded Highland Park 11-5 after one quarter and by as many as 9 points in the second period, No. 14 Palatine came charging back for a 62-33 victory in the play-in game of the Class 4A Wheeling girls basketball regional.
"We started out slow, and we weren't hitting our shots," said Palatine coach Mark Johnson, whose team (11-17) advanced to Tuesday's 6 p.m. semifinal against No. 3 Stevenson (24-5), the North Suburban Conference champ. "But we turned up the defensive pressure in the second half."
Freshman guard Elena Porrata had her shot turned up from 3-point range, hitting four and finishing with a game-high 15 points.
Sophomore Syd Rzepka added 12 for the Pirates while seniors Ashley Shapiro and Carrissa Multon (three 3-pointers) each had 11. Junior Reggie Much also had a 3-pointer for Palatine.
Prospect 55, Steinmetz 6: No. 11 Prospect limited No. 22 Steinmetz to just 1 field goal in the first, third and fourth quarters to win the play-in game of the Class 4A Maine South regional which is part of the New Trier sectional.
Prospect (10-18) will face No. 6 Maine South in Tuesday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal.
The Knights' balanced offense was led by Olivia Sykes (10 points), Angela Roman (8), Nikki Matters (8), Maggie Determann (7) and Brenda Kendziera (6).
Sykes and Matters each had two 3-pointers for Prospect while Eileen Donohue and Angelina Villasin had one apiece.