Harvest Christian ready to go for second straight sectional title
When Harvest Christian's girls basketball team advanced to the sectional and supersectional rounds of the Class 1A playoffs last year, Paulina Castro was the only player on the team with experience that deep into the postseason, that coming when she played her first two years at Montini.
A year later, 7 of the 10 Lions on the roster played for the team last year, when their magical postseason ride was halted by Iroquois West, 74-64, in the Lewis University supersectional.
The Lions (22-7) will continue their quest to reach another supersectional - and beyond - on Tuesday night when they take on Walther Christian (14-13) in the 7:30 p.m. sectional semifinal at Harvest Christian. Seton Academy plays Luther North in the 6 p.m. semifinal with the winners coming back on Thursday for the sectional championship and the right to play at Lewis next Monday night in the Elite Eight.
"We're excited," said Harvest coach Rich DeTamble. "We've scouted Walther and they are a very good team. They are very well coached, they push the ball and they are a little unpredictable so we'll need our defense to come through, we'll need to rebound and we need to play well for four quarters."
Under 15th-year head coach Todd Fisher, the Broncos have bounced back from a 3-23 season a year ago and a 7-21 campaign in 2013-14, which came after Fisher led them downstate to a fourth-place finish in Class 2A in 2012-13. The Broncos knocked off 20-4 Chicago Hope Academy 54-36 to win their own regional, their ninth regional title under Fisher. One of the Broncos' top players is sophomore Vivica Coleman, who was an all-tournament selection at the Lisle Holiday tournament, leading her team to the consolation championship.
For comparison's sake, Walther defeated Westminster Christian 49-37 in Elgin on Jan. 23; Harvest beat Westminster three times, the last a 64-44 Lions win in the Westminster regional final last week.
The Lions have been led all season by senior Northern Illinois signee Castro (19.0 ppg), who over the weekend was named the MVP of the Northeastern Athletic Conference for the second year in a row, and sophomore Alyssa Iverson (15.8), who also lead the defense with 120 steals each for the season. Senior post Rachel Oostdyk averages 6.4 points per game.
"It's been a wonderful process with this group," said DeTamble. "They don't care who they play, they're just focused on what we do and they're playing tough physical basketball right now. They've learned to play through their mistakes and things have been paying off for them. The last few weeks we've really been clicking. We're not overconfident but we believe in ourselves."
The winner of the Harvest Christian sectional will play the Decatur Lutheran sectional winner at Lewis. State-ranked Danville Schlarman and Cissna Park figure to meet in the sectional final in Decatur Thursday.