Red-hot Yorkville ends Rosary’s season
A year ago Rosary met Yorkville in the regional semifinals and survived in an overtime thriller, 64-56.
The Foxes were ready for their second chance Wednesday night, leading almost wire-to-wire in a 51-33 victory on their home court in the Class 3A Yorkville regional semis.
“I’m sure they wanted to win against us again but we really had the fire today to come out with revenge even more,” said Yorkville’s Alicyn Hester who led all scorers with 17 points.
Now with nine straight wins, No. 2 seed Yorkville (20-6) will meet No. 1 Kaneland (18-9) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday for the regional title. The teams split in Northern Illinois Big 12 East Conference play.
Rosary (9-18) led just once, 8-7 when Courtney Bila fed Mary Wentworth on a backdoor cut for the first basket of the second quarter.
Hester and Paige Beach needed just 30 seconds to answer with consecutive 3-pointers starting a 12-1 spurt that put the Foxes in control at 19-9.
Rosary briefly cut the lead down to 22-18 on free throws from Emily Popovich and Bila before the Foxes scored the final four points of the first half and first six of the second to go up 32-18.
The Royals weren’t able to get within single digits the rest of the night, victimized by 27 turnovers and 10-of-38 shooting.
“They are playing real well and we were too tentative,” Rosary coach Dave Beebe said. “Credit to them they made us turn the ball over. Some minutes we looked good, it’s just the way of our season. We are all over the place. You can’t figure us out.”
Beach and Jordann Dhuse added 10 points each for the Foxes who outrebounded Rosary 36-30.
“I was real happy with how we executed the game plan,” Yorkville coach Luke Engelhardt said. “We knew we had to defend the 3-point shot. We contested and made their shots very difficult.”
Tate led Rosary with 10 points and 9 rebounds. Wentworth chipped in 6 points.
“Our inside game wasn’t there and a lot of our other shots weren’t falling. She (Tate) was basically the one person who was keeping up the scoring today,” said Beebe who pointed to a third-place finish at Thanksgiving and fourth at Christmas tourneys as highlights of the season for a team that graduates seniors Bila, Popovich and Maddie Kombrink.
“It’s a rough season. You can only go so far saying we played a strong schedule,” Beebe said. “That stuff doesn’t pay off when you lose in the first game of regionals, finish second to last in your conference. We’re going to miss our seniors but I think we have a good nucleus coming up. There’s nowhere to go but up.”