Next challenge for St. Charles East: No. 1 seed Conant
St. Charles East will put a 10-game winning streak on the line when it enters Monday night's Class 4A Geneva sectional semifinals against No. 1 seed Conant.
The two biggest wins for the Saints (21-7) during their late-season run came against Geneva and then Friday night against St. Charles North - both victories avenging an earlier loss.
The Saints want to do that trick one more time against Conant, whose 70-64 victory over the Saints on Jan. 20 was St. Charles East's last setback before its 10-game surge netted the school's first regional title since 2009 and first 20-win season since 2007.
Conant (23-5) didn't earn the No. 1 seed by accident under first-year coach Deirdre Naughton, a former New Trier and DePaul standout who directed the Cougars to second place in the MSL West (8-2) with its only losses to state-ranked Fremd.
Yet the Saints enter with plenty of confidence both from their play in Friday's 59-49 win over St. Charles North and their hard-fought 6-point loss to Conant.
"It was a close game," sophomore guard Samantha Munroe said of the first meeting with Conant. "It should be a close game again. Hopefully we can tough it out and pull out another win. If we keep up the defense like we did (Friday) we should be good. We have everyone working well as a team."
Munroe, who was inserted into the starting lineup for the Conant game and has stuck there ever since, has given the team a big lift with her outside shooting and ball-handling.
She scored a game-high 18 points against the North Stars and provides quite a complement to point guard Katie Claussner, the team's leading scorer at 18 points per game who scored 30 in the first matchup with Conant.
"We got out of the gates quick and teams adjusted," Saints coach Lori Drumtra said of her team's 5-game losing streak in the middle of the season. "Sam really came a long way. Sam takes some of that pressure off (Claussner). It gives us a solid two ballhandlers on the court at all times."
Senior Kyra Washington is St. Charles East's other double-digit scorer with her average of 11 points a game.
Freshman Sara Rosenfeldt is coming off an excellent regional, starting with 16 points on 8-of-8 shooting with 9 rebounds in the semifinal win followed by 10 points and 7 rebounds Friday.
"She's hard to push around," Drumtra said. "She's really, really solid. She was working so hard. She doesn't know how to go slow. She puts so much energy into it."
Conant, coming off a 50-32 regional championship win over South Elgin for its first title since 2008, is led by all-conference guards Nireet Dhillon and Jorie Wachal.
Wachal is averaging 11.5 points in the last seven games. Four-year varsity player Katie Lomas, Haley Anderson and Dani Engelbreit round out the starting five.
Conant's only other losses are to state-ranked Prospect, Marian Catholic and Hersey.
Monday's winner will play for the sectional title at 7 p.m. Thursday against the winner of No. 2 seed and host Geneva (21-6) vs. the surprise in the field - at least seed-wise - in No. 6 Bartlett (20-9). The Vikings and Hawks play at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Geneva won its seventh straight regional title Friday, beating Wheaton Warrenville South 69-35.
The Vikings certainly left a lasting impression on Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke, whose team suffered a 55-54 sectional semifinal loss to Geneva last season.
"They're really good," said Kroehnke. "I thought they were good last year but I think they're better this year.
"We had to do things a certain way to compete tonight and when you don't do those things against a good team, it's going to be a long night."
Geneva's leading scorer is senior forward Janie McCloughan, who finished the regular season averaging 13.7 ppg and 5.1 rpg.
She is joined in the starting lineup by sophomore center Grace Loberg (11.6 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 2.1 spg), senior forward Abby Novak (8.7 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 1.8 spg) and freshmen guards Margaret Whitley and Stephanie Hart.
Whitley doubled her season average with 17 points in the regional championship game while Hart also impressed with 10 points.
"I thought everything was clicking," said Geneva coach Sarah Meadows. "We hit shots from the outside and we were getting touches on the inside and finishing."
"They're a really good team," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna, now 315-189 in her 17th year as Bartlett's only coach, of Geneva. "But it's tournament time, everybody's even and anything can happen."
The Hawks have relied on defense to fashion another 20-win season, while the offense has been spread around, led by junior guard Kaitlin Brohan who averages 15 points per game. She's joined in the starting lineup by senior Lauren Janczak and juniors Kelly Harris, Nicole Gerdevich and Nina Pavell. Junior Shelly Lyjak is back with the team after missing some games with club soccer commitments.
In Class 3A, Rosary will take its 12-17 record into an unlikely sectional matchup with Woodstock at 6 p.m. Monday. Senior point guard Quincy Kellett led the Royals to an upset of Aurora Central Catholic on Friday with 12 points, 4 assists, 2 steals and 9 rebounds.
Craig Brueske and John Radtke contribute to this story