Girls basketball: Jones scores 40, helps Naperville Central rally from 22 down to beat Maine South in Komaromy final

Maine South was going for its third championship in four years when the Hawks met Naperville Central in the title game of the 42nd annual Komaromy Classic girls basketball tournament Tuesday night at Dundee-Crown.

The first quarter was close as the Redhawks only trailed 19-17. But the Hawks really got rolling in the second quarter as they outscored Naperville Central 21-9 to take their biggest lead of the game into halftime at 40-26 as the Redhawks had 11 turnovers in the first half.

But it was comeback city for Naperville Central (13-2) as they overcame a 62-40 deficit late in the third quarter to pull out a 77-74 victory behind senior Trinity Jones with 35 of her game-high 40 points in the second half.

Trailing 64-52 after three quarters, Jones' driving basket with 4:06 to play capped a 26-4 run by the Redhawks to tie the game at 66-66 with 4:06 to play.

Maine South (12-3) could not stem the tide as a fastbreak basket by Jones put her team ahead 73-69 with 50 seconds to play. A driving basket by the Hawks' Gianna LaVecchia (team-high 18 points) cut the lead to 75-74 with 13.2 seconds left.

But Naperville Central's Erin Hackett (20 points) hit two free throws to make the score 77-74 with 8.8 seconds remaining and the Hawks were unable to score the rest of the way to seal the Redhawks victory.

"It's really nice to have good players, and we feel Trinity is the best players in the state," said Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum, whose team outrebounded the Hawks 38-33. "I felt at halftime we still had a chance at winning, and the lead went down to 12 pretty quickly."

Junior Annabelle Kritzer had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Redhawks while Jones had 11 rebounds.

Emily Currey had 16 points for the Hawks while teammates Phoebe O'Shea and Amelia Fernandez had 10 points each. Addie Kopf added 7 points for Maine South while teammate Hayden Fahy had 6 points.

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without my team, and we did what we had to do together," said Jones. "Most of all we had to play together, and we just went out there and played aggressively."

Maine South was outscored 25-10 in the fourth quarter to account for the final score.

"She (Jones) was a very tough matchup for us, but we gave it our best effort," said Maine South coach Jeff Hamann. "We put them on the free throw line too much (19-for-21 for Naperville Central), and I thought we got a little bit tentative. But I'm proud of our effort and I loved our energy. They were the aggressor in the second half."