St. Edward snares regional crown
The St. Edward girls basketball team knew all it had to do this week was stay focused and take care of business in order to win the program’s 14th regional championship.
Mission accomplished.
But now the Green Wave know the challenges become greater.
St. Edward jumped out to a 30-4 lead midway through the second quarter and cruised to a 68-32 win over Westminster Christian Thursday night for the Class 2A St. Edward regional title.
The Green Wave (20-7) will take on Chicago Latin (19-10) at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Westminster Christian sectional semifinals. Timothy Christian and Walther Lutheran meet in the other semi on Tuesday with the championship game and a trip to the Willowbrook supersectional next Thursday.
“We just needed to keep our level of intensity up this week and work on some things,” said St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson, whose team lost to Immaculate Conception in last year’s regional finals.
“We kept our composure and we were the true definition of team. I’m proud of them. They were hungry for it and ever since Senior Night I’ve seen a different level of concentration and focus. They’re not going to let anyone tell them there’s something they can’t achieve.”
St. Edward established its dominance with defense and by pounding the ball inside on offense. The Wave had 15 steals in the game, led by junior Callie Johnson’s five. St. Edward forced Westminster (15-12) into 23 turnovers on the night.
The Warriors came out with a game plan to freeze the ball and work for a good shot. But St. Edward’s defense, led by Johnson up top, thwarted the Westminster plan. And when the Wave wasn’t scoring on fast breaks, they sent the ball into the paint, leading to a game-high 16 points from junior center Alex Lee.
“We just wanted to keep going to the post and going hard,” Lee said.
Westminster trailed just 7-4 midway through the first quarter when St. Edward went on a 23-0 run that didn’t end until the Wave led 30-4 with 3:25 left in the first half.
“We had a ton of focus, we worked hard and we really wanted it,” said Johnson, who scored 13 points and had 9 rebounds. “We just have to take the mindset that this is going to carry over to sectionals.”
Senior Enza Ranallo had 14 points and 4 assists for St. Edward. The Wave had a monstrous 49-20 advantage on the boards, led by 9 from Lee and 8 from Paige Gannon.
Two freshmen — McKaila Hays and Claire Speweik — led Westminster, which is in Class 2A for the first time, with 6 points each.
“They’re a good basketball team,” said Westminster coach Ken Flickinger of the Green Wave. “I don’t think we’ve seen a team shoot that well all year. We had a good game plan and we had good looks, we just couldn’t get the shots to go down.
“But this is a historic team for us. It’s the most wins we’ve had on more than a decade. The girls’ goal was to reach a regional final so we’ve raised the bar.”