Antioch speaks up, grabs sectional final berth

The shy twin, Amy Reiser, used to follow her sister Ashley's lead.

That's how Amy got into basketball.

Now both Reiser sisters are standout guards at Antioch, starting as sophomores.

"I haven't really ever said this before, but (Ashley) was my role model when I was younger. I looked up to her," Reiser said. "She was outgoing, she did basketball, and I just followed her and did what she did."

Ashley was touched as she stood by her sister's side and heard this revelation.

"Awww," Ashley squealed. "I didn't know that."

But what Ashley does know is that Amy can lead now, too.

Amy Reiser isn't so shy on the basketball court. She led the top-seeded Sequoits to a 54-35 victory over No. 5 Regina in a Class 3A sectional semifinal game at Antioch on Tuesday.

Antioch, which improves to 29-3 and has never before won a sectional title, will face No. 2 North Chicago at 7 p.m. Thursday in the championship game.

Amy Reiser didn't hesitate with her 3-point shot, and aggressively drove to the basket in scoring a game-high 21 points on two 3-pointers. One of her best plays was when she "led" sister Ashley to the basket with a perfect pass that yielded a backdoor layup.

"It's been that way for two years now. I think it's been that way since birth, in the womb," Antioch coach Tim Borries said of the twins' chemistry. "I mean, they're twins. They don't need to talk. They just know. It just works together and the other girls feed off that."

Antioch fed off a 12-0 run to start the game. The twins scored 7 points between them during that stretch, and a robust crowd was loving it.

"That just built our confidence," Amy Reiser said of the start.

"We really got hyped," said Ashley Reiser, who scored 8 points. "This definitely was the biggest crowd we've had all season. We are so grateful for our fans. We couldn't do it without them."

The Sequoits also couldn't have pulled off the win without the inside contributions of Carly McCameron and Kelly Johnson. The two bigs scored 12 and 10 points, respectively, and were all over the boards, giving Antioch plenty of second-chance opportunities.

Regina cut its deficit to 20-15 in the second quarter on back-to-back baskets by Meave Degnan, who finished with 20 points on four 3-pointers.

But that's as close as Regina would get. By the end of the third quarter, Antioch was up 40-27.

"They had the spark and the energy early and they kept scoring early and we just couldn't adjust," Degnan said of Antioch. "Usually, we're all over the place on defense but today we were kind of hesitant. We weren't playing together like we usually do."

Regina, which closes its season at 18-10, also got 8 points from Barbara Acacia.

"A little disappointing today," Regina coach Kerry Durham said. "I think we had more fight in us than we showed. We just had a hard time putting the ball in the basket, and we didn't play the way we've been playing defense lately, and we gave them a lot of open looks."