Stevenson holds on to top Hersey

Tuesday's second semifinal at the Class 4A Fremd sectional in Palatine came down to the dramatic final seconds, and first-year Stevenson coach Regan Carmichael missed them.

But when she opened her eyes, she was smiling and heading with second-seeded team (29-3) to Thursday's 7 p.m. title game against host and top-seeded Fremd (27-6).

In the final three seconds, Stevenson survived a barely-missed floater in the free throw lane by No. 3 Hersey (22-10) followed by a putback attempt that was blocked by senior Kendell Williams as the Patriots held on for a 24-23 triumph.

“I actually closed my eyes,” Carmichael said. “I don't know what happened.”

“My teammates played so hard,” said Williams, who will play soccer at Texas. “It wasn't just me making the play at the end. I just happened to be there. Whoever would have been there would have made the play., We weren't going to go out like that. We finish games. I'm just so proud of the performance we had on defense.”

Offensively, DePaul bound Emory Klatt led the Pats with 8 points while Nisha Musunuri had 5 and Williams 4.

The Pats trailed 16-13 with 1:37 left in the third quarter when Richmond pledge Annika Manthy hit a beautiful 12-foot fadeaway jumper.

But Stevenson went on a 9-0 run to take a 22-19 lead with 4:46 left, ignited by back-to-back 3-pointers from Emma Brooks and Musunuri.

Stevenson went ahead 22-16 on a free throw by Laurel Jewell with 6:10 left in the game.

A 3-pointer and layup from Ava Harwood got Hersey within 22-21 with 2:55 left and Hersey eventually tied it at 23-23 on Kate Dovovan's 12-footer in the lane with 51.2 seconds left.

Musunuri's free throw with 24.7 seconds left proved to be the difference.

Hersey's Kristin Wentllng got the big rebound after the second miss before Stevenson held on for the win.

Manthy and Donovan each had 6 points to lead Hersey.

“We knew it was going to be like this,” said first-year Hersey coach Courtney Ludois, whose team trailed 13-12 at intermission. “A lot of their (Stevenson's) games were in the 30s. We knew it was going to be a knock-down, drag-out brawl. But it is hard to win a sectional game against a really good team when you score 23 points. As much as we tried, the ball just didn't fall for us.

“But I think our kIds did an awesome job on defense. Klatt is really a good player and we held her to 8 points,” Ludois said. “I'm really proud of that. But this is really a tough way to lose a game. We gave ourselves a shot to win it. I thought we did everything we needed to do to put ourselves in that position.``

Klatt's 8 points put her at 1,688 for her high school career, second all time at Stevenson behind Tauja Catchings.

She went up against Manthy on Tuesday.

“She is such a challenge,” Platt said. “She tired me out just in the first quarter. It was fun. She is a great player. and she is going to be great at Richmond.”

“Fremd is an incredible team, They are stacked everywhere in the lineup. It will be a great challenge.”