York’s stretch run does in Bartlett
A seesaw battle for three quarters didn’t turn out in Bartlett’s favor down the stretch.
York outscored the Hawks 16-8 in the fourth quarter including an 8-for-15 showing at the free throw line, compared to 0-for-6 by Bartlett. The end result was a 51-39 loss to the Dukes in the Class 4A Wheaton Warrenville South regional, ending the eighth-seeded Hawks’ season at 15-13 a year after they finished their season by claiming the third-place trophy at the state finals.
Ninth-seeded York (17-11) moves on to face host WW South in Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. regional final.
“(York) made a run and we’ve shown that we don’t recover from that really well,” Bartlett coach Denise Sarna said. “In the fourth quarter, we had opportunities at the free throw line and we were 0 for 6. Tonight, (York) capitalized and we didn’t.”
Neither team led by more than 4 points in the first half as York was up 4-0 and 13-9 at one point.
Bartlett took a 20-18 lead into the third quarter where the teams battled back and forth for the next six minutes.
The lead changed seven times during that stretch until a fastbreak layup by York’s AnnaBell Lansdowne (11 points) put her team up for good at 30-29 with just over two minutes left in the third quarter.
It ignited a 7-0 run by the Dukes that extended a lead for the first time on the night. Sarah Milkowski followed Lansdowne’s basket by knocking down a key 3-pointer in front of her own bench that put her team up 33-29.
A jumper from the wing by Bartlett’s Ally Giampapa (10 points) with 5:50 left in the game cut the Dukes’ lead to 37-33. A drive and baseline jumper by Chantel Zasada trimmed the deficit to 37-35, but that was as close as the Hawks got the rest of the night.
York’s Paige Wrasse put some distance between the two teams when she scored on two straight trips down the court midway through the fourth quarter. She cleaned up a rebound off a miss by Jessica Bianchi and then followed by taking a pass in the lane from Lansdowne and scoring on a fast break to put her team up 41-35.
“In the second half, I just asked our team to play with the same intensity coming down the stretch,” York coach John Constable said. “That means pursuing the basketball and being aggressive on both ends of the floor. We were able to come up with the hustle plays in the second half.”
Milkowski led York with a game-high 18 points while Alyssa Hernandez led Bartlett with 11 points.