St. Francis upsets Glenbard South
That last minute must have felt like an eternity to St. Francis coach Jeff Gerdeman.
“Whatever hair I had,” Gerdeman said, “I’ve lost.”
He’s feeling heavenly now.
Gerdeman’s Spartans rallied from 5 down to Glenbard South entering the fourth quarter to grab a 5-point lead with a minute left, then held on for a 39-38 upset Wednesday at the Class 3A St. Francis regional.
St. Francis (16-13) forged ahead 39-34 with 1:03 left on a Fiona McMahon basket, then proceeded to miss three front ends of 1-and-1 free throws. But the Spartans are in Friday’s regional final against Montini.
“This feels really good,” said St. Francis senior Kelly McShea, who scored a team-high 14 points. “Everybody worked really hard for this.”
Glenbard South (23-4) led 34-29 heading into the fourth quarter but didn’t score again until Danielle Chitkowski’s free throw with 37.2 seconds left made it 39-35.
After St. Francis’ second free-throw miss, Raiders freshman Stefani Bazigos came off the bench cold to hit a long 3-pointer to draw her team within one.
St. Francis missed another free throw, and on a baseball pass ahead the Raiders were fouled on a drive. They missed the free throw for the tie, McMahon corralled the rebound and time ran out.
“It’s not like we didn’t shoot the ball — we just didn’t make shots,” Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda said. “I just feel like we went dry. We had opportunities.”
Nevena Markovic scored 20 points with 11 rebounds for Glenbard South but went scoreless the last 15 minutes of the game. The Raiders this season set a school record for wins behind IUPUI-bound senior Markovic, who went over 1,000 all-time points and broke Fonda’s single-game school scoring record.
“I can’t hang my hat on one game of a great season,” Fonda said. “I’m proud of the kids I coached. We had a lot of adversity this season, a lot of ups and downs, but my seniors showed leadership and they never quit on me. It just didn’t end the way we wanted it to.”
“I hate for this to have to be against a team like Glenbard South,” Gerdeman said. “I have all the respect in the world for Julie and her program. It’s bittersweet. I’m glad we’re moving on — I just wish it wasn’t at their expense.”
St. Francis, which lost 47-42 to Glenbard South in November, rode a hot-shooting start to an early 12-4 lead. A long dryspell followed, Glenbard South eventually surged ahead 20-14 and it was 22-22 at half.
Patrice Hicks’ 3-pointer had Glenbard South ahead by 5 going into the fourth quarter, but Morgan Connelly’s stickback basket pushed St. Francis back ahead 35-34 with 2:23 left.
A pair of baskets by McMahon, who had 9 points and 9 rebounds, made it 39-34.
“I’ll be honest, I liked our defense in the first half better than in the second half,” Gerdeman said. “We switched to man and dodged some bullets there in the second half. We went back to zone in the fourth quarter and did a good job. We knew where their shooters were and collapsed on Markovic.”