Casper's last-minute 3 lifts Westmont past Lisle

Westmont's Mara Casper found her favorite shooting spot along the 3-point line, and the senior guard delivered in the season's most critical juncture.

With the game tied 40-40 with 20 seconds left, Casper came off a screen, took a pass from teammate AnneMarie Carlson, and knocked down a 3-pointer between the baseline and the top of the key.

The basket gave the Sentinels a 43-40 lead, which held the rest of the way in Wednesday night's victory over Interstate Eight Conference rival Lisle at the Class 2A Aurora Christian regional.

"I called a different play, but all of a sudden I thought 'no, let's do this one,'" Westmont coach Mike McCord said of the game-winning basket. "If we would have run the original play, Mara would have had a shot on the other side (of the basket). For some reason I thought we could get a better shot if we double screened on the opposite end."

The third-seeded Sentinels move on to Friday's regional title game against the host Eagles. The second-seeded Lions finished the year with a 19-10 record, including a share of the IEC title.

"The two constants that we've preached since Day One are defense and rebounding, and we didn't do those two things very well tonight," Lisle coach Nick Balaban said. "Westmont took it to us on the boards tonight, and that was the difference. They were getting rebounds off of missed free throws and they were getting second and third opportunities."

Westmont (14-14) held the lead for most of the first quarter, and the Sentinels' biggest lead of the half was 7 when Allena Kraft scored inside off a pass from Sydney Pardy to put her team up 23-16.

Lisle scored the first four points of the third quarter on baskets by Kate Twaddle and Sarah Mogensen and took its first lead of the game on a 4-point play by freshman Natalie Takahashi that put the Lions up 30-27 with 3:17 left in the third quarter.

Lisle held the lead for the next six minutes until a Westmont offensive rebound led to the Sentinels' first big 3-pointer of the fourth quarter. Following two missed free throws, Westmont kept possession with an offensive board, which led to Amanda Prete's baseline 3-pointer that tied the game 38-38 with 2:40 left.

"The one thing about this team is that they don't quit," McCord said. "It has nothing to do with me. They just keep playing hard."

Following a running jumper by Lisle's TyAnn LeGrand-Melton, Pardy tied the game at 40-40 off a putback inside.

A Lisle shot attempt with 38 seconds left got stuck between the backboard and the rim, and the possession arrow favored Westmont, leading to Casper's game-winning basket on the ensuing possession.

"I was excited that the screen worked," Casper said of the game-winning play. "We had run that play before against Lisle and it didn't work."