Girls basketball: Strong finish sends St. Viator past Grayslake Central, onto 3A supersectional
It was a fight to the finish, but the St. Viator girls basketball team was able to weather the storm to capture the Class 3A sectional championship 43-38 over host Grayslake Central Thursday night with some great play down the stretch.
It was the second sectional title in school history for the No. 3-seeded Lions (21-14), who will play Geneva Monday at the Woodstock North supersectional at 7 p.m.
A free throw by Ava Henne gave the Rams (22-10) a 36-34 lead with 3:34 to play before a free throw by St. Viator sophomore Ava Garcia (team-high 14 points) cut the lead to 36-35.
Two free throws by St. Viator's Kalin McCrea (10 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals) gave the Lions the lead for keeps at 37-36 before she added two more free throws to boost the lead to 39-36 with 1:21 to play.
An inside basket by Grayslake Central freshman Lucy Otoo (10 points, 7 rebounds) cut the lead to 39-38 with 1:07 remaining. But McCrea (6-for-6 free throws) calmly hit two more free throws with 28 seconds left to make the score 41-38.
Then Grayslake Central's Mosey Drevline missed a shot with nine seconds to go before Garcia grabbed the rebound and hit two free throws with 6.9 seconds left to account for the final score.
"This team has persevered through tough times all year, and they always do what they need to do to win," said St. Viator coach Kyle Braheny, whose team was outrebounded 30-28. "This is the second time in program history winning sectionals, and this team is so resilient. They're something special, and we're going to keep going with it."
The Lions led 11-9 after one quarter and 22-14 at halftime. But the Rams cut the lead to 27-25 going into the fourth quarter as they opened the second half with an 8-0 run.
But teams struggled shooting the ball as the Rams shot 14-for-41 (34%) from the field to 13-for-40 (32.5%) for St.Viator. Grayslake Central had 23 turnovers to 19 turnovers for the Lions.
"I think we played really hard, we prioritize our defense and that was a big part of this win," said Garcia, who picked up her third foul midway through the second quarter. "I'm just really happy, and we just have to do what we usually do (against Geneva)."
Junior Peyton Hoffmann (four 3-pointers, 9 rebounds) scored 15 of her game-high 20 points in the second half to help the Rams regain the lead. St. Viator's Bella Gounaris scored all 9 of her points in the first half on three 3-pointers while teammate Gabriella Scaravalle had 7 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals. Central's Autumn Aliff had 7 rebounds and 5 steals.
"You've got to tip your hat to them. Down the stretch any mistake we made they took advantage of," said Grayslake Central coach Steve Ikenn. "But I'm so proud of our team. We were 10-9 at one point, we finished the season 22-10, and we made it to our third straight sectional championship game."