Girls basketball: Rolling Meadows, Fremd advance
The pressure was on when No. 5-seeded Rolling Meadows visited No. 4 Stevenson with a Class 4A girls basketball regional championship on the line Thursday night in Lincolnshire.
Some cold shooting in the first half really hurt the host Patriots as the Mustangs took a 23-12 lead into halftime before holding off a late rally by Stevenson to post a 47-39 victory for their sixth regional title in school history.
With the win, Rolling Meadows (22-8) advances to the Barrington sectional semifinals against top-seeded Fremd Tuesday at 6 p.m. while the Patriots closed out their season with a 20-12 record.
Stevenson led 5-2 early on, but an 11-point run by the Mustangs gave them a 13-5 lead early in the second quarter. Junior Abby Ramel (7 rebounds, 2 steals) scored 10 of her game-high 19 points in the first half.
The Patriots forced 5 turnovers by Rolling Meadows in the third quarter, but they could not cut into the lead as the teams played to a 13-13 deadlock in the period. The Mustangs still held a 36-25 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Stevenson's Sydney Rosland came alive with 13 of her 15 points in the second half, including a basket off of a blocked shot by freshman teammate Reese McLelland to cut the lead to 44-39 with 1:06 to play.
But that was as close as the Pats would get. An inside basket by Ramel with 58 seconds left, and a free throw by 6-foot-4 Dalia Grandberry (12 rebounds, 5 points) with 20 seconds to go, accounted for the final score.
"Honestly I'm glad we got that big lead because they kind of rolled over us last year (at regionals)," said Ramel. "I thought it was important we came out with a lot of energy, and we all wanted to practice again tomorrow."
Senior Nisha Musunuri scored a team-high 16 points for Stevenson while Rolling Meadows' Nell Osterhues had 13 points. The Mustangs got 7 rebounds, 6 points, and 4 assists from Lizzy Andriano while Anna Andriano had 4 assists and 4 rebounds. Alexa Karcz scored 6 points for the Patriots.
"The one thing we talk about all the time are multiple efforts, and our multiple efforts on the defensive end made the difference," said Rolling Meadows coach Ryan Kirkorsky. "Obviously Stevenson has some awesome guards so you have to find them all the time and take care of the defensive boards. We've seen so much pressure this year so that prepared us for down the stretch tonight."
Stevenson outscored the Mustangs 14-11 in the fourth quarter, but 6 turnovers in that period also hampered its late comeback attempts.
"I think their pressure sped us up in the front-court and then it caused us to play a little sped up and a little rushed in our half-court offense," said Stevenson coach Regan Carmichael. "I mean in the first half I would be surprised if we shot 20%, and it's tough to win games when you score 12 points in the first half. They defended us really well, and took us out of some of the stuff we really wanted to do."
Fremd 77, Conant 52: Fremd won its sixth consecutive regional title and 11th in the last 12 seasons. But the Vikings, who had beaten Conant soundly twice earlier this season, had to battle before pulling away. Top-seeded Fremd will meet Rolling Meadows next Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Barrington sectional.
Fremd (26-5) led just 16-13 after one quarter and 33-23 at the half. But the Vikings used a huge third quarter to propel them to victory.
“We played a tough Conant team tonight,” Fremd coach James Han said. “Credit them for being prepared to play us.”
Fremd was led by Ella Todd, who had 30 points. Coco Urlacher had 18 points, Gracie Todd 15 points and Greta Thompson with 12 points.
Conant (15-15) was led by Kanna Bradarich, who had 16 points, Gianna Fresso, who had 14 points and Kristina Tierney, who finished with 10 points.