Nazareth downs Montini in semifinals
Stella Sakalas may be young, but she's got an old-school basketball game.
The Nazareth freshman excels at something that has become a lost art.
"The beauty of her is she's so unique," Nazareth coach Eddie Stritzel said. "She's got the best midrange game that I've ever coached.
"From 15 in, most kids struggle in that range, but she's mastered that part of it already. She's starting to stretch her range out to the 3-point arc, and she showed it tonight."
Indeed, the 6-foot Sakalas was impressive from wherever she was on the floor Thursday night, scoring a career-high 23 points on 10-for-11 shooting to lead the Roadrunners to a 65-45 victory over Montini at the Montini Christmas Tournament semifinals.
Nazareth (13-1) will play Young in the championship game at 8:15 p.m. Friday.
The Roadrunners, who remain unbeaten against Illinois opponents, jumped out to an early 12-3 lead before junior center Danielle Scully went to the bench after picking up her second foul. She was replaced by Sakalas.
Montini (10-3) trimmed the deficit to 12-9 on back-to-back 3-pointers from Victoria Matulevicius and Shannon Blacher. But Sakalas answered with a 3-pointer, then made a deflection that led to an Amalia Dray trey.
"She's amazing," Scully said of Sakalas. "She comes in with energy, and everything she does is, 'I'm going to do this for my team.'
"When she saw that me and Grace [Carstensen] were in foul trouble, she really took over. She really brought our team up."
Indeed, Sakalas scored 14 of Nazareth's 20 points in the second quarter, including the final eight. That allowed the Roadrunners to take a 38-26 halftime lead even though Carstensen sat out the final five minutes of the second quarter after getting her third foul.
Sakalas buried all three of her 3-point attempts, but she was just as dangerous when taking shorter shots. She showed nice touch on three midrange jumpers around the lane in the second quarter, then scored three layups in the second half to help the Roadrunners break Montini's press.
"It was great passing from my team," Sakalas said. "The defense was packed in, so it was great passing from the point guard to push it up the floor and kick it out to the corners."
That led to Nazareth sinking eight 3-pointers. But Sakalas' midrange shooting also softened up Montini's defense, allowing Scully and Carstensen to score on drives in the third quarter and extend the lead to 20.
"I like to use the midrange, because everyone is obviously looking for the layup or the 3, and the midrange is always unaccounted for," Sakalas said. "So instead of getting them off from 3, getting away from the defender off the dribble and hitting the midrange is what I like to do."
While Sakalas said she still needs to work on her defense, she did make three steals, one of which she converted into a layup for a 54-38 lead with 6:24 to go in the fourth quarter.
Matulevicius scored 17 points, and the Northern Illinois-bound Blacher tallied 10 of her 15 points after intermission. They rallied the Broncos within 54-43 with 5:50 left.
But Sakalas scored twice off press breaks, then made another steal which led to Dray sinking two free throws.
Dray finished with 15 points, while Scully added 10 points and Carstensen eight points to go with six of the Roadrunners' 16 steals.
Sakalas said she wasn't surprised at how the Roadrunners jumped out to a big lead, and Stritzel wasn't shocked by her performance.
"She's a sensational player," Stritzel said. "She can play all five positions.
"I love our whole freshman group, but Stella really showed that she's a big-time player. She's going to be at a Power Five school."
At Wheaton North:
Juniors Jada Branch and Madi Dolecki and their Schaumburg girls basketball teammates answered the challenge from coach Jacqie Strauch as they entered Wheaton North's Bill Neibch Holiday Classic on a three-game losing streak against tough opponents.
"We just came out with a we have to go get it attitude," Dolecki said. "I feel like losing to the tougher teams made us tougher because we stuck with them. This tournament we knew we could be here (playing for the title) even though we were a lower seed."
The No. 6 seeded Saxons nearly won the 16-team title for the first time since 2015 but No. 1 seed Glenbrook South pulled out the title game 58-51 Thursday.
Branch and Dolecki were named to the all-tournament team. Schaumburg (10-8) reached the finals with a 62-60 overtime semifinal victory over third-place Waubonsie Valley (13-2).
"I think we did what we came to do. We were the No. 6 seed and played hard in this championship. Of course we want the win but I am not unhappy with our effort," Strauch said.
The Saxons' Grace Schluckbier had 17 points with two threes and seven fourth quarter points. Dolecki had 14 points and 11 rebounds, Branch had 11 points and three assists.
Schaumburg took its only lead at 25-24 on its first possession of the third quarter only trailed 38-36 with 6:14 left before the Titans (15-2) scored the next six points.
The closest Schaumburg came the rest of the way was on Dolecki's three with 11.5 seconds before the Titans scored a layup against the press for the final basket.
In the third-place game, Waubonsie bounced defeated Downers Grove North 50-44. Wheaton North finished fifth. Waubonsie senior Khaliah Reid and freshman Danyella Mporokoso, Downers North senior Maggie Fleming and Wheaton North sophomore Sara Abdul were all-tournament.
"We knew we had to learn from what we did last game and just take the win today," Reid said. "We just had to look at the future and what we could do better and differently."
- Bill Stone