Rockford Boylan answers CL South's runs
Most times, when a basketball game comes down to scoring runs, the team that has the last of those runs comes out on top.
Rockford Boylan had the last and best run of the night Thursday, and now the Titans have a sectional girls basketball championship plaque as well.
Boylan took every punch Crystal Lake South offered and returned it with one of its own, downing the Gators 56-47 in the title game of the Class 4A Jacobs sectional.
The Titans (31-1) will take on Wheeling (31-1) in the 8 p.m. supersectional at Elgin Community College on Monday. Wheeling downed Lake Zurich 57-39 Thursday to win the Barrington sectional.
The Gators finished their record-setting season 26-5.
"Boylan answered every call," said South coach Kyle McCaughn, whose program was in a sectional title game for the first time since 1984. "Every time we did enough to get close, Boylan answered. That's a credit to what a good team they are. But so are we. We never backed down. We played with heart and desire just like we've done all year."
How true. Down by 7, 26-19, early in the third quarter, the Gators went on a 7-0 run to tie the defensive battle at 26. It was tied again at 28 after Michelle Gaede (11 points) scored on a putback, but then Boylan went on a 13-0 run that put South in a 41-28 hole with 5:27 left in the game. The big dagger came from junior Devin Mack (15 points, 8 rebounds), who hit a 3-pointer from the corner with a hand in her face at the third quarter buzzer.
Sophomore Brea Edwards (20 points, 12 rebounds) then opened the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer and after Mack made 1 of 2 free throws, the Gators were staring at a 13-point deficit with 5:27 left.
"She was pretty frustrated in the first half," said Boylan coach Kim Connell of Edwards, who was 0 of 6 in the first half and had just 4 points, all on free throws.
"I just told her to keep shooting."
Still, South didn't quit. Down 44-32 with less than 3 minutes to play, the Gators had one last run in them and closed to within 5 at 44-39 when junior Jenny Hanrahan stole an inbounds pass, scored, was fouled, and converted the 3-point play.
But Connell called time out and the Titans came out with a 10-2 run to grab a 54-41 lead with just 22 seconds left. Junior Molly Benoit hit two 3-pointers in the final 13 seconds to close the gap for the Gators but it was too little too late.
"We haven't been in too many close games," said Connell, whose team played in just its fourth game of the season that was decided by 10 points or less. "We just had to weather the storm and we did."
Senior Caitlin Mize added 8 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists for the Gators. Benoit had 8 points, Hanrahan 7 and senior Carly Juliano 6.
""I'm proud of what we did," Juliano said. "We accomplished something our school hadn't done in (16) years and I'm just so proud of our team. I'm disappointed we didn't win but I'm proud we got this far.
"We knew we needed to make a run and we did, but they made a bigger one."
The Gators actually outscored Boylan from the field, making 20 field goals to the Titans' 15. But Boylan, led by Edwards' 10 of 13 effort, was 22 of 34 from the free throw line while South was 4 of 7. The Gators also committed 23 turnovers, 14 in the first half.
"Our kids played with a ton of heart and composure and we battled through the turnovers, but we had too many," McCaughn said. "That was probably the most athletic and quickest team we've seen all year. When we settled down and played our game we played right with them."