Naperville Central 61, Wheaton Warrenville South 53

Sure a conference title would have been nice, but Naperville Central's Kelley Hendrick and her teammates were plenty happy with having to "settle" for a regional championship Thursday night.

The Redhawks withstood a late rally by DuPage Valley Conference girls basketball champion Wheaton Warrenville South and a super effort by the Tigers' Sarah Langlas to win 61-53 and claim the Class 4A Naperville Central regional title, the seventh regional championship in eight years for the Redhawks.

"I'd rather win a regional than the DVC any day," said Hendrick, who paced a balanced Redhawks attack with 14 points. "We really wanted this."

The Tigers, who went 12-1 run down the stretch to claim a second straight DVC championship, trailed by as many as 18 before closing the gap with a big fourth quarter. Langlas had 9 of her game-high 23 points in the final quarter, including a 3-pointer that brought WW South (20-9) to within 56-49 with just less than a minute to play.

But in the end Naperville Central (23-9) just had too much firepower and also took care of business at the foul line. Hendrick went 8 of 9 from the stripe in the fourth quarter, and freshman Emma Ondik was 5 of 6 in the quarter to finish with 13 points.

"I think we all wanted to get this win and we came out with all the hustle and energy we had," said Ondik, one of four Redhawks to score in double figures. "We have a pretty good free-throw shooting team, so we were pretty confident that we'd win if it came down to free throws."

With center Lisa Lawrence scoring 5 baskets inside in the third quarter, the Redhawks built a 41-23 lead, and it didn't appear as if free throws would play a role in the outcome. But with Langlas, Madeline Close and Taylor Owens all coming up big down the stretch, the Tigers put a scare into the Redhawks.

"I thought we really focused on the task," said Nussbaum, whose team advanced to face Hinsdale Central at Tuesday's Neuqua Valley sectional semifinals. "We still couldn't contain Langlas as much as we wanted to. She's outstanding. I didn't really feel confident until there were 2½ seconds left. They were the conference champs for a reason."

Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke would prefer to have won the rubber match of the season against the Redhawks, but he had no problem with his team's effort Thursday nor with its accomplishments in 2007-08.

"When we were down 18 we could have given up," he said. "But the girls kept fighting and we clawed our way back. But Naperville Central, wow … every time I thought we had a chance they came right back at us."

With Annie Shain and Hannah Credille giving the Tigers two freshmen starters, nobody expected this team to win 20 games and claim the league title.

"This is the only class ever to win two conference championships in a row," Kroehnke said. "What these girls did this year was special. This is great group."