Girls basketball: Glenbard West upsets No. 1 seed St. Charles East in OT
Points were at a premium during Tuesday night’s Class 4A girls basketball sectional semifinal between Glenbard West and host St. Charles East.
Senior guard-forward Makenna Yeager, who missed the Hilltoppers’ first meeting with St. Charles East with a broken hand, scored the last 3 points of regulation to force overtime.
During the 4-minute extra session, the Hilltoppers (22-12) held the top-seeded Saints scoreless, and received just enough offense to pull off a stunning 35-32 victory.
Glenbard West will try to capture its first sectional title since 1999 against No. 2 seed Batavia, a winner of Wheaton North, on Thursday night in St. Charles.
“It was a great basketball game, and we’re happy to come out on top,” said Hilltoppers coach Kristi Faulkner. “It’s fun to be a part of it. I’m proud of the girls.”
Yeager, who led all players with 14 points, was glad to be a part of it — period.
“I was really excited coming into the game, having missed the first one,” said Yeager. “We were so close against them (45-36 loss) the first time. It’s always hard to beat a team twice. We all had confidence. We had to close out that game, especially when it went to overtime.”
Glenbard took the lead for good at 34-32 on senior guard Lauren Escalante’s inside bucket with 2:28 left in the extra session.
Julia Benjamin (8 points) split a pair of free throws with 1:13 remaining to give the Hilltoppers a 35-32 lead.
From there, the Hilltoppers misfired on 6 consecutive free-throw attempts, leaving the door open for the Saints.
However, the Saints (26-7) had shooting woes of their own, missing all 6 of their field-goal attempts in overtime, including a potential tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.
“I’m pretty sure we did not score for the last 8 minutes of the game,” said Saints coach Katie Claussner. “We’re a team that averages 50-60 points a game. It’s unfortunate to lose that way, and it really hurts.”
The Saints led 15-12 at halftime despite making just 1 of 10 free-throw attempts.
For the game, St. Charles East finished 14 of 47 from the field (30%), including 1 for 14 from 3-point range, while hitting 3 of its 16 foul shots.
“We played the worst offensive game of the season, and we were up pretty much the entire game except for the last minute and overtime,” said Claussner. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t buy a basket.
“You would think that on our home court where we’re practicing every day, we’d have a little more of an advantage there, but tonight was not our night.”
Trailing 32-27 with 4:13 left, the Hilltoppers inched closer on a steal and layup from Hannah Roberts, prior to Yeager’s free throw and tying basket.
“In a game like this, somebody is going to be a difference maker who maybe normally is not,” said Faulkner, whose team received a 7-point, 19-rebound effort from sophomore Ellie Noble. “I’m so proud of those kids.”
Addie Schilb paced the Saints with 12 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals, while Brooklyn Schilb added 8 points and 8 rebounds.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted, but we went 14-0 in conference for the first time in history,” said Claussner. “We won back-to-back regional championships for the first time since 2005-2006, and we tied for the most wins in program history.
“All in all, it was a fantastic season.”