Girls basketball: Rolling Meadows’ journey continues with win over Carmel
The incredible Rolling Meadows girls basketball journey continued Monday night in Carpentersville.
Now the magical ride is off to Normal for the Class 4A state finals, the first time for the Mustangs since 2013 and ‘14 when they finished second both times.
Led by Abby Ramel (18 points) and Dalia Grandberry (10), the Mustangs prevailed 41-37 over Carmel (25-10) to win the Dundee-Crown supersectional. They will face Loyola (33-2) at 4:15 p.m. Friday in the semifinals at CEFCU Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal.
“I think we won because we were just very well prepared but most of all because we've wanted it more than all the teams we've played,” said guard Lizzy Andriano, who added 6 points while defending Corsairs standout freshman Liv Johnson, who was plagued with foul trouble in the game.
“(Johnson ) in an unbelievable player,:” said Mustangs coach Ryan Kirkorsky. “And they have a lot of talent all the way around. It was great team defense. Lizzy guarded (Johnson) most of the time and of course it doesn't hurt to have Dalia out there.”
Grandberry said it was “definitely unbelievable” getting the chance to play in the final four.
“Truthfully, it's kind of a surprise to all of us,": she said. “It was definitely a lot of hard work. We loved winning as the lower seed.”
Which was the case in each of the Mustangs’ last three wins.
“The kids just believe when they watched the tape of those games and saw things that were not going their way.” Kirkorsky said. “They saw the things they needed to correct and they took it to heart to do that.”
Senior Maron Bowes’ short bank off a nice assist from Johnson put Carmel in front 4-2 and the Corsairs never trailed again in the first quarter. Junior Maliyah Mays' 17-footer from behind the free throw line gave Carmel a 7-4 lead and Johnson's 3-point play with 1:30 left made it 10-7 after one period.
Rammel scored all nine of Meadows' points in the second quarter and her second 3-pointer gave the Mustangs a lead with 4:59 until half. But Carmel closed with a 11-2 run despite Johnson picking up her third foul with 2:52 left.
Josie Hartman's 7 straight points made it 19-14. After Ramel sank a 14 footer, Grace Booher popped in a 3-pointer with two minutes left to make it 22-16 at intermission.
The Mustangs surged to a 32-27 lead after three quarters, ending the period with 5 straight points from Nell Osterhues (5 points), including a 3-pointer which gave the Mustangs a 32-27 lead heading in the fourth period.
Meadows led by as many as 8 points in the final quarter before Carmel made it a one-possession game with under 15 seconds left.
Carmel was led by Hartman (11 points), Johnson (8), Booher (6) and Maron Bowes (6).
“You've got to give Rolling Meadows a lot of credit,:” said Carmel coach Ben Berg who led the Corsairs to the 2022 Class 3A state crown. “They are on a run now.
“I'm proud of our girls. We got down 8 and there was no quit in them. They had a chance to tie it at the end.”
After Ramel hit s free throw to make it 40-37, Carmel committed a turnover with 3.8 seconds left. Grandberry sank a free throw 0.8 seconds left for the final margin.
“At the start of the season, I wouldn't have thought this would be the end result,” Kirkorsky said. “But it was really a decision by these kids which they decided they were going to play basketball at a high level at the end of the season.”