Emma, WW South finish York at free-throw line
How much confidence does Wheaton Warrenville South girls basketball coach Rob Kroehnke have in senior point guard Mira Emma at the free-throw line?
Enough to gather the other four players on the floor near him for a quick huddle while Emma calmly sank the front end of a 1-and-1.
"All the confidence in the world," Kroehnke said.
Emma made the back end also in a preview of the fourth quarter.
The fourth-seeded Tigers defeated No. 8 York 40-29 Thursday night at the Class 4A York regional final for its third straight regional title. They will play DuKane Conference rival Lake Park, seeded seventh, at 6 p.m. Monday at the Batavia sectional semifinals.
The game was close until the fourth quarter, with 7 lead changes. But the Tigers (21-8) led 25-22 to start the fourth quarter, and that's just the way they like it.
"They're a great team," York sophomore Kaitlyn Kjome said. "Their defense, as our coach said, is probably one of the best in the state. They worked really hard. It was hard in the end when we couldn't get our break. They made their free throws.
"We had to somehow put it away in the middle of the game, and at halftime (York led 17-15) we thought we had it, and no."
WW South went 13 of 14 at the free-throw line in the final eight minutes, building a 35-24 lead with 2:46 to play when Emma made two of her 10 fourth-quarter free throws.
"It worked out," Kroehnke said. "...We were at the free-throw line (in the bonus) in the third quarter. Well, that's our game. Come and get us. We've got the lead, come and get us and we'll hit the free throws."
The Dukes, who lost to the Tigers in last year's regional final at WW South, saw it coming too.
"They do that to everybody," York coach Brandon Collings said.
The game lacked the drama of Tuesday's regional semifinal, when the Tigers fought back from a 20-point deficit. They were fine with that.
"We knew what we had to do," Dohse said. "The last game before we just came out a little slow. I think that game fired us up for this game, honestly, and we came out, I mean, I'm so proud of my team. So proud."
Emma led the Tigers with 13 points, and MacKenzie Stebbins added 11, going 4 of 4 at the line in the fourth.
Kjome led the Dukes (18-13) with 12 points and 9 rebounds.
"I thought she did a great job," Collings said of the 6-foot Kjome, who helped give the Dukes a significant height advantage. "That was our game plan was, we needed her to go to work down there. We needed her to be relentless. Posting, pinning, picking girls off down low there. I think she got some good looks, just had some roll of the rim there. ... But I thought she was phenomenal today."
Still, it wasn't enough to stop a WW South team that has just one loss in 2019.
"They're just rolling right now," Kroehnke said of his senior-dominated team, "and as long as we have gas in the tank, we'll keep playing."