Harvest Christian savors first regional title
The trophy case at Harvest Christian Academy has been pretty much reserved for the Lions' success on the girls volleyball court.
Until now.
With senior Kylee Knox and junior Paulina Castro knocking down 3-pointer after 3-pointer, and the defense wreaking havoc all game long, Harvest Christian's girls basketball team hoisted postseason hardware for the first time Thursday night.
Castro scored 19 points, Knox 18 and the two combined for nine 3-pointers as the Lions rolled to a 53-33 win over Hinckley-Big Rock in the championship game of the Class 1A Harvest Christian regional at the Mitchell Swaback Athletic Center in Elgin.
“It's really great,” said Knox during the postgame celebration. “We've been working for this for a long time and to get it senior year is just really great. Our team worked really great with each other tonight.”
The Lions (23-6), in only their fourth year of IHSA competition, now get to return home next week, and not just to practice. They'll be the sectional host and welcome Alden-Hebron (16-10), which beat Christian Liberty 34-32 Thursday for the Christian Liberty regional title, in a 6 p.m. semifinal on Tuesday. Harvest beat Hebron twice this season, by margins of 19 and 29 points.
“They were waiting for this for a long time,” said first-year Harvest coach Rich DeTamble of his team. “All year they've been coming to practice so positive. This group loves each other and they came here tonight believing.”
While Knox and Castro were the fuel to the Lions' offense, as they have been all season, it was a collective effort on defense that led to 20 Hinckley-Big Rock turnovers and held the Royals (13-16) to just 30 shots.
“We brought in a freshman (Taylor Keeran) and she's been turning it on the last three weeks and has really added to our defense and to what we already had,” said DeTamble.
“Defense gives you offense,” added Castro, who has now played for three straight regional champions, her first two years ending a Redbird Arena as a member of Montini's back-to-back state teams, including last year's championship squad. “We were very well prepared tonight. We knew what we had to do and we came out and executed.”
A 10-0 run early in the second quarter sent the Lions on their way to victory.
Tied 10-10, Harvest took the lead for good on a basket in the paint from 6-foot-1 junior Rachel Oostdyk with 7:25 to play in the first half. A Castro 3-pointer, one of her 5 treys in the game, gave the Lions a 20-10 lead less than two minutes later and they never looked back. Castro now has 110 3-pointers this season and even after having two state medals draped around her neck at Redbird Arena, she couldn't hide the elation of a regional title at her new school.
“In a way it means more because it's never happened here before,” she said. “Our school couldn't be happier for us and we're so excited. But we're not done. We go back to work to get ready for next week. There's always room to improve and the only way to make it further is to keep improving.”
The Lions, who made 18 of their 47 field goal attempts including Knox and Castro going a combined 9-for-19 from 3-point range, led 25-12 at halftime and their biggest lead of the night was 22, 53-31, after a putback by freshman Amanda Moore with 1:20 left in the game.
Harvest also won the rebounding battle 27-22, led by 8 from Knox and 7 from senior Morgan Lockwood, who also had 6 points.
“We got our bodies on people and boxed out and rebounded really well,” said Knox, whose four 3-pointers brought her season total to 60.
Senior Alexis Gonzales led the Royals with 8 points.
“Give Hinckley-Big Rock credit,” DeTamble said. “(Royals' coach) Greg (Burks) always does a great job with them and they competed.”