Renkosik's 3 lifts Huntley past Crystal Lake S.
ROCKFORD - As expected, Ali Andrews made most of the shots for Huntley, but nobody made a bigger shot than Paige Renkosik.
The Red Raiders' junior guard knocked down a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left to put Huntley ahead 42-40, and the Raiders hung on to beat Crystal Lake South, 44-40, in the semifinals of the Class 4A Rockford Guilford girls basketball sectional semifinals Monday night.
Huntley (27-4), which tied the school record for wins in a season, will play Boylan for the title at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The Raiders lost to Boylan in last year's sectional title game at CL South but beat the Titans 48-43 this season in the MLK Tournament final at DeKalb.
Andrews led all scorers Monday with 19 points, and also pulled down 7 rebounds. Renkosik finished with 10 points for the Red Raiders.
Chanel Fanter had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Crystal Lake South (22-9). Annika Sevcik added 10 points and Gabrielle DeJesus had 9 on three 3-pointers. Kianna Clark had 6 rebounds, 4 points and 4 assists for the Gators.
The Gators led 40-37 after DeJesus' final 3-pointer. Abbey Brown scored inside to get Huntley within a point. Kayla Barreto came up with a steal to get Huntley the ball back. After each team called a timeout, Huntley ran an inbounds play for Andrews, but she wasn't open. Renkosik got free, took a pass from Brown and swished a shot from just beyond the arc.
"We had an inbounds play and it wasn't there for Ali. I knew we had to get it in right away and try to find an open area and get the shot off," said Renkosik. "I just shot it up there and it went in."
The Gators had one final chance but turned it over, and Barreto made 2 free throws for the final margin.
"I'm just really proud of our kids and the resiliency that we showed down the stretch of that game," said Huntley coach Steve Raethz, whose team has won 19 straight and 24 of 25. "South played an outstanding game on both ends, and they made some huge 3s against us in that second half. Our kids did a great job of maintaining their composure."
Huntley led the entire first half, but South came out with guns blazing in the second half. Led by Fanter, the Gators opened with a 13-2 run to go up 29-25. In that stretch, Fanter hit two 3-pointers, scored on a breakaway layup off a pass from Clark, then returned the favor, getting a steal and feeding Clark for a layup.
"We had our opportunity at the end and that's all you can ask for," said South coach Mark Mucha. "It's the third time we've played them, and you kind of get used to one another. You draw up a game plan and hopefully improve on the last time you played them.