Girls basketball: Noble’s 3 at buzzer lifts Glenbard West over Hersey, into Fox River Classic title game

Glenbard West slipped past Hersey 51-50 on Ellie Noble’s 3-point buzzer-beater from the top of key to win the first Fox River Classic semifinal Friday night in Batavia.

Trailing 50-48 with under eight seconds left to play, Glenbard West inbounded the ball from under Hersey’s basket after Hersey’s Kate Donovan converted her second free throw. Pushing the ball up court, the Hilltoppers passed the ball to Noble, and the junior squared up and got off her shot just before the final buzzer.

Glenbard West (14-1), ranked sixth in the Daily Herald’s Top 20, will face off against St. Ignatius (9-5) at 8 p.m. Saturday for the tournament championship. The Chicago school beat Peoria Notre Dame, 60-56, to win Friday’s second semifinal.

Fifth-ranked Hersey (9-3) will battle Peoria Notre Dame (11-3) at 6:30 p.m. for third place.

Both games will be played at Batavia.

“I just thought I needed to do this for my team,” Noble said. “We've worked so hard this whole season, and we practice our end-of-game scenarios every single day. So I knew that if I had the opportunity, I needed to do it for my team.”

Noble’s dramatic trey completed Glenbard West’s fourth quarter comeback.

The Hilltoppers trailed the Huskies 37-33 at the start of the last frame. A Noble three-pointer from the right wing pulled Glenbard West within, 37-36 at the 6:19 mark of the period.

Back-to-back baskets by Etta Fisher returned Hersey’s margin to 5, 41-36.

Glenbard West made it a three-point game with 49.2 seconds left on the clock, 46-43, after a Nina Hendricksen layup.

Hersey’s offense stalled in the remaining seconds and was only able to score on free throws. Another Noble trey, with a half a minute left to play, pulled the Hilltoppers within 47-46. The junior scored 11 of her game-high 23 points in the last quarter.

Two Donovan free throws were answered by a Noble layup to make the score 49-48 with 10 seconds left. Donovan led Hersey with 20 points.

After the Noble basket, the Hilltoppers fouled Donovan again, setting up the game-ending sequence.

“Clutch shot, clutch shot. Ellie Noble really has ice water veins. I was really proud of all the kids. They stayed in the game, they fought,” said Glenbard West coach Kristi Faulkner.

“We give up 18 points in the fourth quarter. Our defense has always been our strength and we kind of got away from what we're good at. Plus, we had a lot of turnovers in the third quarter and we went 5 of 8 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. Those things added up,” said Hersey coach Courtney Ludois. “So very correctable things and we'll learn from it and get better.”

Glenbard West jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter on an 11-0 run for an 11-2 lead. Hersey started to battle back and only trailed 13-9 at the end of the quarter.

Hersey pulled ahead in the second quarter, taking its first lead 16-15 on an Emily Hany trey from the right-wing halfway through the period. The Huskies led 24-22 at halftime.

In addition to scoring nine points, junior Sadie Marks pulled down eight rebounds for Hersey. Lily Hubbuch notched 10 points for Glenbard West.