Girls basketball: Crystal Lake South, Geneva advance to 3A sectional championship

Crystal Lake South found itself trailing by a point after a tight third quarter against Sycamore on Tuesday.

If you ask the Gators, that’s exactly where they wanted to be.

“The pressure was a lot,” South senior guard Laken LePage said. “Everyone came together and said this pressure is good. We want to be in a position where we’re fighting. It’s more motivational if you’re down and you have to build yourself up.”

Junior guard Gracey LePage started the fourth quarter with a steal at midcourt and scored on a layup. Then, Laken LePage found junior forward Tessa Melhuish down low for her first of two baskets in the final quarter, her only two field goals of the game.

The top-seeded Gators withstood the pressure from the fourth-seeded Spartans for a 47-41 victory at the Class 3A Crystal Lake Central sectional and earned a shot at the first sectional title in program history.

South (26-6) advances to face fifth-seeded Geneva (17-14), a 55-28 winner over second-seeded Boylan, at 6 p.m. Thursday for the sectional championship.

The Gators, winners of eight games in a row, also matched the school record for wins in a season with 26.

“It feels crazy, incredible. It’s what we wanted,” said Laken LePage, who finished with 18 points, four steals and four assists. “It’s great to make program history. We want to win so bad. We want to fight.”

South sophomore Gaby Dzik led all scorers with 21 points. Her long shots weren’t falling early, so the 5-foot-11 wing started to attack the basket more. She scored eight points in both the second and third quarters as the Spartans (23-11) relied on the scoring of junior Quinn Carrier (19 points, five 3-pointers) and sophomore Sadie Lang (14 points, nine rebounds) to stick close to the Gators.

Sycamore trailed 31-26 with 5:18 left in the third following a jumper by Laken LePage. But the Spartans answered with a 10-4 run to end the quarter. Carrier hit a corner 3 with 5:02 left in the quarter, Lang had a putback and then completed a three-point play to cut South’s lead to 35-34. Two free throws by Cortni Kruizenga, her only points of the game, gave Sycamore the lead after three.

“We knew that in a game like this you have to give it your all, so we felt good having that lead,” Carrier said. “We felt a lot of confidence going into [the fourth], and every possession counted from that point on.”

Sycamore, though, had its lowest offensive output in the fourth quarter, scoring five points on 2-of-10 shooting. The Spartans had won 10 of previous last 11 games entering Tuesday.

“You get to the sectionals, everyone’s tough,” said Sycamore coach Adam Wickness, whose Spartans finished 8-23 just a year ago. “Thought we had some chances in the fourth quarter, had some decent looks, the ball just didn’t drop.

“We started off the game a little shaky and had some turnovers the first four or five minutes. That kind of put us in a little bit of an early hole, but I thought we adjusted really well. Our No. 1 key was when you get punched, punch back. And I thought our girls did that today.”

South coach Mark Mucha felt his side rose to the challenge of a big game.

“When things weren’t going our way in the third, a lot of teams break down from that and kind of give up, but we refocused,” Mucha said. “We were accepting of that challenge with our leadership of Laken, as well as other kids with plenty of years of varsity experience. I think our strongest quarter was our fourth quarter.

“As Laken said, the fourth quarter is when you want to do your damage, and I think we did that today.”

Carrier, who added eight rebounds, was proud of her team’s finish. Sycamore won its seventh regional title under Wickness.

“We came with a really bad record last year, and we knew we were hungry for some more wins to prove everyone wrong,” Carrier said. “We came in and we did that. We had a really good run. I’m just really proud of everyone.”

Geneva 55, Boylan 28: In the second semifinal of the night, Geneva kept its turnaround season going strong with a dominant win over Boylan.

Geneva held Boylan to single digits in all four quarters. Senior Keira McCann led the Vikings with 19 points, including 13 in the second half. Sophomore Emma Peterson had 12 points, freshman Adelyn Estabrook had eight points and two 3s, and senior Heidi Clesen chipped in seven points.

Linea Popp (five points) and Estabrook each banked in a 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds of the third quarter, with Estabrook’s coming at the buzzer following a steal for a 40-20 lead.

“We started the year 0-7, and we’ve had a completely different second half this season,” Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. “Super proud of them. They work hard. Defensively they’re solid, they work hard on that end of the floor, and they’re just playing well together right now.

“Just us getting comfortable playing with each other, knowing where we’ll be on the floor and trusting each other, I think that’s been the biggest key.”

The Vikings will try to win their first sectional since 2023, when they placed third in the state in Class 4A.

“It feels great. This team has made humongous strides. We always knew it was in us, it was just getting to that extra gear,” McCann said. “We were losing by single digits, and then one day it clicked. We knew we had to put the foot on the pedal the rest of the year, and that’s what happened.”