Lisle keeps goal in mind with win

Being a senior, Caitlyn Webber had a goal in mind all season for the Lisle girls basketball team.

"It was a big deal to me," Webber said after the Lions opened the Class 2A Lisle regional Wednesday night with a 60-21 semifinal victory against Chicago Horizon McKinley. "All along, even at the beginning of the season, I was like, I want to win regionals. Now that we're in it, I want to win it all. Knock on wood, but I'm excited. So I want to pull out a win on Friday."

The Lions (20-10) will play archrival Westmont, the No. 5 seed, at 7 p.m. Friday in the regional final. Westmont beat Chicago Noble DRW Trading 35-28 in Wednesday's second semifinal. Lisle defeated Westmont 50-33 in December.

"We're going to all push ourselves to go as far as we can go," Lions senior Jordan Buchelt said.

Lisle, the No. 1 seed in subsectional A, also will host the sectional, so it could play four games at home in the playoffs before having to hit the road.

If they play like they did Wednesday, they could go far.

McKinley scored first on a basket by sophomore Bianca Villareal. But that was all the Lions (20-10) gave up in the first quarter. They scored the next 21 points in the first quarter and the first 9 points of the second.

The big lead gave the Lions the chance to substitute early, and they took advantage. Every Lion in uniform played, and 10 Lions scored.

"It's great to give other people opportunities to make different plays and stuff," Buchelt said. "It's also great to see them score. But it's exciting for all of us, and I think it brings us a lot closer together to give us all opportunities and have us all play."

Senior guard McKenzie Weaver led the Lions with 10 points. Ainslie Klein added 9 points and Emma Webb, both freshman reserve guards, scored 8.