Aurora Central survives scare
Aurora Central coach Mark Fitzgerald called it jitters, his star player Jacquie Cardona said the team was over-ready and the star of the night Ashley Wilk said it was a case of the Chargers winning without their best stuff.
Whatever it was, all that matters to the Chargers is they are still playing. A No. 1 seed for the first time, Aurora Central survived some serious foul trouble and No. 4 Sandwich’s fourth-quarter charge for a 53-46 victory Tuesday night in the Class 3A IMSA regional semifinals.
The Chargers (18-9) will look to add to their program record for wins Thursday night when they play No. 3 seed Rosary at 7:30 p.m. for the regional championship.
“It’s March Madness and we’re still alive so I’m very pleased,” Fitzgerald said. “Sandwich played the game of their lives. We are extremely fortunate. I feel our jitters are out and we’ll play Aurora Central Charger basketball come Thursday.”
Cardona’s floater to end the third quarter gave Aurora Central its biggest lead of the game, 39-28. A 6-0 run by Sandwich (14-16) midway through the fourth quarter brought it within 41-36.
Cardona answered with a post score on a play Fitzgerald drew up out of a timeout, but Sandwich kept pushing closer. Down 47-42 with 2 minutes remaining, Sandwich drew Cardona’s fourth and fifth fouls on successive trips, and after making 2 of the 4 free throws the Chargers’ lead was just 47-44 with 1:30 to go and their leading scorer and top ballhandler on the bench.
The Chargers missed a 1-and-1, and Sandwich worked the ball for an open 3-pointer for Alexis Lawrence, who had already hit three 3s. This one missed, and Wilk and Katerine Chandler put the game away with 6-for-6 free-throw shooting in the final 30 seconds.
“We had a real good look there,” Sandwich coach Randy Malloy said. “She (Lawrence) is good from that spot.
“It’s hard coming off a game yesterday and playing the No. 1 seed. It’s good we made it a game and made them panic a little bit.”
Lawrence provided nearly all Sandwich’s offense in the first half with three 3-pointers. Sandwich only made 5 field goals in the first half but four of them were 3-pointers, with Lawrence’s third tying the game at 18.
Aurora Central regained momentum with the final 7 points of the first half for a 25-18 halftime lead. It got tight, but the Chargers never let the lead go in the second half, and the drills Fitzgerald ran in practice without Cardona proved key to help them handle that situation in the closing two minutes.
“I’m really happy my teammates came through,” Cardona said. “I thank them a lot for doing that.
“I don’t think we were nervous, we were ready for the game but we were over-ready and were playing really jump-ity.”
Lawrence scored 16 points and Jessica Miller 12 for Sandwich. Wilk led the Chargers with a career-high 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Cardona scored 13 and Katilyn Rosa added 8 points and 8 rebounds. Both Wilk and Rosa finished the game with 4 fouls.
“We practice situations like that when she’s (Cardona) out and you have to finish this thing,” Fitzgerald said. “I won’t tell you we won every one but I think it helped prepare us for this situation.
“I think we had a lot of jitters on us. They are playing in an unusual position. When I took a look at all those minuses I see a big plus at the end of the game because we were able to close it out.”