Aurora Central ends Rosary's dominance
It might not have the ring to it as the famous song, but Katilyn Rosa and her Aurora Central teammates are partying like it's 2002.
The party started in the Chargers locerkroom after their coach Mark Fitzgerald put a check mark next to “beat Rosary” which has followed program goals like beating Newark and winning the neighborhood series with Aurora Christian and Rosary.
That final victory was the sweetest in the bunch. It came Tuesday night, a 64-54 Suburban Christian Conference crossover win for the Chargers who erased a 10-point first-half deficit to beat Rosary for the first time since 2002.
“I can't even describe it, it feels great, so exciting,” Rosa said. “They have always beat us, even in volleyball. This is just awesome to beat them.”
In winning their fifth straight, Aurora Central (12-7) got the best of a Rosary (5-14) team that dominated the Chargers twice last year, including 62-25 in regional play. And while there's still goals to come — next on the list is 15 wins to match the school record — you can understand why the Chargers are going to enjoy turning the tables on Rosary for a little while.
“That's an excellent program with a long history of success and an excellent coach and for our girls to come through and fight back after being down just speaks to the character of the girls in that room,” Fitzgerald said. “I couldn't be prouder of these kids.”
Brenda Rocha capped a strong start for Rosary with a stickback basket to close the first quarter with a 19-13 lead. Courtney Bila opened the scoring with back-to-back 3-pointers and Madison Richmond followed with another 3 to go ahead 9-3, but Rosary shot just 2 of 17 on 3-pointers the rest of the game.
Rosary built its biggest lead early in the second quarter 23-13 on Brittney Hutchinson's free throw. Fitzgerald then took the first of two timeouts in the quarter.
“Their eyes were like saucers,” Fitzgerald said. “I just wanted them to take a deep breath and relax. There was no need to yell at them. I knew we had the personnel to compete with that team this year. No great coaching strategy, just calm down.”
The Chargers chipped away. Cardona assisted on the final two baskets of the first half, a 3-pointer by Alex DeCraene and an inside score from Rosa to trim the Royals' lead to 33-27.
Aurora Central continued its comeback in the third quarter and forged the first tie of the game at 43-43 as the quarter came to an end.
Cardona, the team's leading scorer, had been held to 4 points until late in the third quarter when she took over with 11 straight Aurora Central points. The last of those came on a 3-pointer from the top of the key for a 48-46 lead.
The Royals tied the game for a final time at 48 on Rocha's putback. Wilk's 2 free throws put the Chargers ahead to stay 50-48, and other than one basket from Wilk they extended the lead by getting to the free-throw line and converting. Aurora Central hit 14 of 16 free throws in the fourth quarter and 28 of 35 in the game.
“We practice free throws a lot and put them in game situations and they pay in terms of running if they don't convert in a pressure situation,” Fitzgerald said. “It's really paid off.”
Trailing 59-49, the Royals closed within 59-53 with a minute left on Bila's 3-pointer. But Rosary didn't hit another shot and finished the fourth quarter shooting 3 of 17. They were just 6 of 31 in the second half.
“Those guys flat-out kicked our butt in the fourth quarter,” Beebe said.
Maryanski led Rosary with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Bila added 11 points and Rocha had 8 points and 9 boards.
The Royals, up 7 Saturday against Hinckley-Big Rock, lost their second straight game after leading at halftime.
“Obviously they wanted to beat us a lot more than we wanted to beat them tonight,” Beebe said. “Maybe it (the rivalry) will mean more (to us) because lately, honestly, it hasn't. That's a credit to their coach, he's obviously brought them back up and got them to where they should be.”
The Royals outrebounded the Chargers 43-28 and committed 5 less turnovers but didn't shoot the ball nearly as well, finishing at 18 of 59 to ACC's 17 of 34.
“We were just tentative,” Beebe said. “We outplayed them in the first half, in the fourth quarter they outplayed us. We couldn't score, couldn't guard anybody.”
The Chargers' ‘Big Three' — Rosa (19 points, 7 rebounds), Cardona (18 points, 3 assists, 3 steals) and Wilk (14 points) — combined for 51 points. Those two plus starters DeCraene and Katherine Chandler made 28 of 33 free throws (84.8 percent).
“They stepped up big for us when it looked like things weren't going our way,” Fitzgerald said.