Girls basketball: Galvan’s 23-point third quarter sends Loyola past Maine South
Loyola’s Aubrey Galvan had a third quarter to remember. It is also one that Maine South would like to forget.
Galvin personally scored 20 unanswered points in the third quarter. That helped end Maine South’s season as Loyola beat the Hawks 55-30 in the Class 4A sectional final Thursday at Glenbrook North.
Loyola (33-2) will play unbeaten Huntley in the supersectional at 6 p.m. Monday at Warren.
It was the fourth consecutive sectional final meeting between Maine South and Loyola, with the Ramblers winning three of those games, including the last two.
“This Maine South program, we have nothing to hang our heads down on,” Maine South coach Jeff Hamann said. “We have got this far four straight years. With the same opponent. It is really difficult to do, to get this far, beat great teams along the way, and have a community and a school that is behind us as you can see.”
Both teams struggled to find their shooting eye in the first half as Loyola took a 19-17 lead.
Each team had a stretch of at least three minutes where they couldn’t score. The teams combined to shoot 4-of-27 (15%) from outside the arc.
Maine South (25-10) led 12-8 early in the second quarter, taking advantage of Loyola’s four minute scoreless streak. The Hawks led 15-12 on a three-pointer by Hayden Fahey.
Maine South then had a streak of the three minutes where they couldn’t make a basket as Loyola scored 7 unanswered points. The Hawks’ Ally Pape scored in the final seconds to make it 19-17.
“Neither team shot well in the first half,” Hamann said. “So we liked where we were at.”
Both teams came out shooting well in the second half. Hamann liked the fact that his Hawks took a 28-26 lead on a three-pointer by Emily Currey with 3:44 left in the third quarter.
That’s when Galvan, who had just four points in the first half and missed all 5 of her three-point shots, heated up like a super nova.
Galvan first hit just a normal basket to get the scoring feeling back. She then proceeded to hit her next 6 shots, all of which were three-pointers. She also added three free throws when she was fouled on another three-point attempt to finish with 23 points in the quarter.
“I didn’t even know I scored that many points in a row,” said Galvan, who only had one uncontested three-pointer during that stretch.
“It was just in the flow of the game. I didn’t know what was happening. I had a bad first half, but I know my shot is going to fall.”
Hamann said that he has never seen a player erupt like Galvan did.
“I watch a lot of basketball and that just does not happen,” Hamann said. “They were deep threes. She was back deep. What are you going to do? You tip your cap and congratulate her after the game. She is a special talent. She got hot and things got away from us.”
While Galvan was scoring, Maine South was not. The Hawks, who turned the ball over 8 times in the third quarter, did not score in the final 3:44 of the period. They also scored just two points in the fourth quarter as Loyola pulled away.
Pape led Maine South with 10 points and 7 rebounds. Fahy came off the bench to score 6 points while Asia Kobylarczyk had 4 points and 8 rebounds.
“Our girls have a lot to be proud of,” Hamman said. “Especially our seven seniors. We are going to miss them. It was a great season. We persevered through some ups and downs and came together at the end of the season.”