Rosary's surprise run comes to hard-fought end

Entering postseason play with a 10-17 record, a long playoff run seemed a bit improbable for Rosary's girls basketball team.

Entering Thursday night's Class 3A sectional championship game against a 26-win Rockford Lutheran team, keeping the game close figured to be a tall task for the Royals.

However, desire and heart can lead a team a long way.

Trailing 30-25 with 3:33 remaining, the strong-willed Royals made things difficult for Rockford Lutheran (27-5) but couldn't quite pull off another upset during a 41-29 sectional title defeat in Hampshire.

"They have a lot of height and they're a very, very good team," Rosary third-year coach Jessie Terrell said of the Crusaders, who advance to Monday's Romeoville supersectional against Morton, which defeated Galesburg 47-44 at LaSalle-Peru.

"I don't think anybody expected us to be here," added Terrell. "I'm very proud of our team for believing in themselves when nobody else believed in them."

Rosary definitely caught the attention of Rockford Lutheran when it grabbed a 6-4 lead after 1 quarter.

Despite committing 11 first-half turnovers, the Royals clung to a 9-8 lead on a basket by sophomore forward Lauren Smith (6 points) off a feed from senior guard Quincy Kellett with 54 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Rockford Lutheran scored the final 4 points of the period, capped by Rachel Milani's putback at the buzzer, to seize a 12-9 halftime advantage as both teams struggled with their shooting.

"Defensively, we wanted to hold them under 15 (points at the half) and we did but we only had 12 ourselves," said Crusaders coach Joni Carlson. "I thought they (the Royals) had a good defensive scheme. They sagged in on us and worked their tails off.

"We had some good looks in the first half but didn't knock them down," added Carlson, whose team captured its third sectional championship (2001, 2011).

Rockford Lutheran likely wouldn't have pulled away if it weren't for the second-half offensive heroics of sophomore guard Kailyn Strawbridge.

After misfiring on all 6 of her first-half shots as well as 2 free throws, Strawbridge finally ended her personal drought and capped an 8-0 run with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 20-10 late in the third quarter.

"Everyone kind of took a deep breath after that one," said Carlson. "It might have been our first outside shot of the night."

When the Royals crept to within 30-25 on a 12-foot jumper from Kellett (7 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds), Strawbridge answered with 6 of the next 8 points as the Crusaders built their largest lead of the night at 38-25 with 54 seconds left.

"For a sophomore, she played beyond her years," Carlson said of Strawbridge, who finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. "She was huge tonight."

Despite giving up several inches inside, the Royals battled throughout, winning the rebounding battle (36-32) but also paying a physical price.

At one point midway through the third quarter, the Royals' training staff treated Megan Conlin (7 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals) and Smith behind the bench while Kellett left the game briefly after losing a contact lens (inadvertently poked in the eye).

During the first 2 minutes, Kellett suffered a broken finger during a loose ball scrap.

"After watching them play Monday, we knew it was going to be a physical game," said Terrell.

"It was real physical but what was cool about the other team was that it never got dirty," said Kellett, 1 of 4 seniors who played their final high school basketball game. "It was just a good, hard-fought game.

"The way we came out and competed against a team of that high caliber, I'm just so proud of everyone. We did whatever we could to get here."