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Engelbreit, Conant measure up against Elk Grove

One statistic by Conant's Dani Engelbreit symbolized the character of this year's Cougars girls basketball team.

Engelbreit had a team-high 6 rebounds in the Cougars' 56-34 win over Elk Grove in the semifinal of the Class 4A Addison Trail regional.

The 6 rebounds may not seem all that significant until you realize Engelbreit was one of the smallest players on the floor as a 5-foot-4 senior guard.

"Coach (Deidre Naughton) always says rebounding isn't always about height," said Nireet Dhillon, another talented Cougars guard who scored a game-high 18 points with 6 steals. "It's more about heart. And Dani has a lot of heart."

And the Cougars have shown a lot of heart while marching to a 22-5 record in Naughton's first season.

Conant, the top seed in the Geneva sectional, will go after its first regional crown since 2008 and only second in 17 years when it faces No. 8 South Elgin (19-9) in Thursday's 7 p.m. championship in Addison.

"Dani did a great job on the boards," Naughton said. "She was the smallest girl on the floor but she was huge on the boards."

Conant suffered a setback when leading scorer Jorie Wachal suffered an ankle injury with 5:27 left in the first quarter.

The all-conference sophomore guard, who had already hit a 3-pointer and driving layup, did not play the rest of the game but Naughton expects her to ready on Thursday.

"That was some huge adversity," Naughton said. "But she is fine and I have no doubt she will be back by Thursday. It was an ankle roll."

A bank shot by Elk grove senior O'Rayn Macavoy with 5:12 left in the first quarter tied the game at 7-7 before the Cougars began to pull away.

A 3-point play by four-year Conant varsity player Katie Lomas (7 points, 4 steals, 2 assists) made it 10-7.

Two free throws by Dhillon and a fastbreak layup by Lexi Zades (2 assists, 2 rebounds) extended the advantage to 14-7.

Zades came up with a steal and then assisted on Dhillon's layup to make it 16-7 with 2:45 still left in the opening quarter.

"Without Jorie, we all had to push through the adversity," Dhillon said "We had to keep playing our game."

The lead grew to 22-9 by the end of the quarter on a great hustle play by Dhillon.

She made a steal, tossed the ball to senior Brie Murphy (4 points, 4 rebounds), who got it back to Dhillon for the fastbreak layup with 25 seconds left.

"That's Nireet - vintage Nireet," Naughton said of the speedy junior who directs the flow of the Cougars' offense which showed great patience in the second half.

On one possession midway through the third quarter, the Cougars made at least 10 passes before senior Haley Anderson (3 points, 2 assists) sneaked under her defender for a layup that made it 39-24.

"That's another thing coach always tells us - we have to have patience so we can make the defense shift," Dhillon said. "When it does that, it's easier for us to get a shot or get in position for a rebound."

Alyssa Wachal came off the Cougars' bench and chipped in 7 points with 4 rebounds.

Elk Grove (9-20) was led by Southeast Missouri State recruit Amber Lindfors, who ended her three-year varsity career with 11 points followed by Macavoy (9) and Taylor Matos (7).

"They (Conant) put some really good pressure on our guards and that made it difficult to get the ball inside," said Grens coach Jen Guth. "Conant is a really good team and they play really clean defense. You know they're going to take advantage of any opportunity they get.

"Our girls played with heart all season. We have some good underclassmen coming back. We are looking forward to getting back at it for next season."

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