Girls basketball: Waubonsie Valley’s season ends against Nazareth in supersectional

Stella Sakalas bent down, banged two fists to the gym floor and bounced up with a big smile.

“Knocking,” Nazareth’s senior said. “This will be my third time going to state and every time about this week I just start knocking for superstition. Knock on wood. I did throughout the game, too.”

Nazareth is indeed headed back to the state tournament, for the sixth time in eight postseasons. No surprise, its defense is paving the way.

The Roadrunners held Illinois State recruit Danyella Mporokoso to nine points, and Waubonsie Valley’s team to a season-low point total.

Nazareth pulled away from a tie game a minute into the fourth quarter for a 54-42 win in Monday’s Class 4A Lyons supersectional.

The Roadrunners (33-3), surviving a matchup between two of the top three teams in the final Associated Press statewide poll, advanced to face Belleville East in Friday’s state semifinal in Normal.

It didn’t feel like just a supersectional matchup, played in front of a huge crowd, and Sakalas knew it.

“Waubonsie is an incredible team and they have incredible players and we had to work really hard to beat them,” said Sakalas, a BYU recruit. “Our calling card is our defense. We knew if we played great defense we would get that win.”

Lyla Shelton scored 18 points, Sophia Towne 17 and Sakalas had nine points, 10 rebounds and six assists for Nazareth. Maya Pereda and Elliana Morris scored 12 points and Mporokoso nine for Waubonsie (32-4).

Nazareth used a 14-0 run to lead by 11 in the first quarter, but it was tied 25-25 by halftime and Waubonsie led 34-32 in the final minute of the third quarter.

Sakalas from there scored seven of her nine points, starting with a three-point play that sent Nazareth into the fourth quarter ahead 35-34.

Her score with 5:16 left gave Nazareth a 42-37 lead.

“I call her the hammer,” Nazareth coach Eddie Stritzel said. “In crunch time, with the game on the line, she’ll get you three or four buckets and it’s just devastating for other teams.”

With the score tied 37-37 after a Morris three-point play for Waubonsie, Nazareth put the game away with a devastating 17-3 run.

Shelton’s fourth 3-pointer started and Towne scored three consecutive baskets.

“It was a really good environment, I think all of our emotions got into the game and that’s how we got the lead at the end,” Towne said. “We’ve been practicing all week for them and it kicked in at the end, got all those fast-break layups.”

Waubonsie, which led by four points a minute into the second half, had five turnovers in the fourth quarter and scored just six points until the final seconds. The Warriors looked rattled as the pace quickened late.

“I thought we were timid in our passes,” Waubonsie coach Brett Love said. “I thought we needed to be more aggressive and decisive in not only our passes but our shooting as well. I thought we didn’t want to make a mistake which ended up leading to mistakes.”

Mporokoso, who became Waubonsie’s all-time leading scorer this season, needed 30 points Monday to reach 3,000 for her career.

But she took just 10 shots, and was a clear priority of Nazareth’s zone defense.

“She’s a great point guard, a good shooter and moves well without the ball so we knew she always needed to see two of us,” Towne said. “Their other shooters, we were going to make them shoot more than usual.”

Two of those shooters, Pereda and Morris, combined for six 3-pointers, five in the first half to climb Waubonsie out of the early 11-point hole. But that was a bargain Nazareth was willing to make.

“We doubled her in our zone, and when you do that you’re going to give up something else,” Stritzel said. “Our goal was to hold Danyella to 20. Second half we upped the tempo and extended our zone. We weren’t going to let Danyella beat us. Somebody else was going to have to beat us. The had open shots, but they made to make them.”

The Warriors didn’t late. Waubonsie was 0-for-8 from distance in the fourth quarter, 7-for-15 before that.

“It’s difficult when they’re allowed to deny Danyella and double team Danyella and we don’t get good movement off the ball,” Love said. “Other people have to be a threat. We did have Elli step up and Maya step up. But I would have liked to see Danyella be more aggressive, even when she was double-teamed.”

Sakalas, like Mporokoso, was more facilitator than scorer for much of the first three quarters.

But Towne and Shelton combined for 35 points and seven threes, no surprise to Stritzel.

“I don’t know where the idea came that we’re Stella and a bunch of role players. We have a lot of kids that can score,” Stritzel said. “We have four kids who are going to play at the next level. Lyla hit some big shots, Sam Austin hit some big shots. We like the points spread around.”