Cohen-Wilharm connection dooms Glenbard East
It was as if Lauren Cohen and Alex Wilharm had a telepathic connection Thursday evening in Glen Ellyn.
It was equally inconceivable of Glenbard South advancing to the Upstate Eight Conference girls basketball championship game as a result.
Cohen hit four clutch free throws in the waning moments to personally seal the Raiders' hard-fought 39-36 victory over Glenbard East.
The second-seeded Raiders (10-5) will face Bartlett on the final day of the abbreviated season at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The No. 3 Rams (10-6), who received a heroic effort from Lauren Huber in defeat, take on South Elgin in the third-place game.
"Lauren Cohen, she would see me coming down the court," said Wilharm. "She would see me right under the basket. She got me all the time. Thanks to her for all those layups."
"Even if she didn't say my name I just found her," said Cohen, the Illinois State-bound senior point guard for the Raiders who repeatedly found Wilharm for inside scores.
"They played so well, (Nos.) 3 (Cohen) and 34 (Wilharm)," Glenbard East coach Nicole Miller said. "(Wilharm) got a lot of easy baskets."
Glenbard South never trailed after Wilharm opened the first-quarter scoring with a point-blank field goal off the first of 6 Cohen assists.
The two seniors, veterans' of the Raiders' 2019 Class 3A state runner-up unit, scored 14 points apiece to share team-scoring honors.
Wilharm scored all of her points in the first and third quarters.
But Huber almost single-handedly eliminated the seniors' championship-game aspirations.
The Rams trailed 30-19 entering the fourth quarter after Wilharm tallied the last of her 8 points in the third.
But in the opening 57 seconds, Huber followed a short jumper - her trademark for the entire game - with a theft and coast-to-coast score.
Just like the opening quarter when Huber produced the Rams' entire output, the undeclared senior guard was on a similar path by scoring 11 of her game-high 21 points in succession for Glenbard East.
"The only way to stop Huber is to not give her the ball," Glenbard South coach Morgan Eufrasio said. "She went off when her team needed her."
The Raiders' comfortable double-digit advantage was shaved to a one-possession game when Huber scored the last of her fourth-quarter points.
"Their defense is lockdown defense, very tight," Huber said of her opponents. "In the fourth quarter we were able to raise our energy levels and work the ball to get open looks. That got us back into the game."
Allie Mizwicki (6 points) and Gianna Clouzzi (5) were the only other Glenbard South players to score.
Glenbard East freshman guard Catey Carney drained two late 3-pointers in scoring all 6 of her points to frame the final score.