Takahashi scores 30 in Lisle win against Westmont
Through the first half of Wednesday night's IHSA Class 2A regional semifinal, McKenzie Weaver and the Lisle girls basketball team seemed pretty comfortable.
The Lions led by as many as 8 points, forced 10 turnovers and limited Westmont's leading scorer, Sydney Pardy, to just 10 first-half points.
"We focused a lot on Pardy," Weaver said.
Westmont rallied. The Sentinels made it a 1-point game in the third quarter.
But senior Natalie Takahashi revitalized the Lions. Takahashi scored 11 of the Lions' 14 fourth-quarter points, as Lisle picked up a 45-35 win over archrival Westmont in Elmhurst. Lisle advanced to play host Timothy Christian on Friday for the regional title.
Takahashi added 4 rebounds and assisted Emma Rossin's 3-pointer in the fourth quarter.
"Our team gets really hyped up for Westmont," Takahashi said. "So we were like, 'Yes, we're going to go out, we're going to come out strong.' It's nice when I have teammates supporting me, encouraging me to take those shots."
Takahashi didn't want her senior season to end Wednesday.
"I didn't feel like losing tonight," Takahashi, who finished with a game-high 30 points, said. "I kind of went out there and left everything I had on the floor."
Pardy left it all on the floor for Westmont (9-17), too.
The senior scored 22 points, including all 8 of the Sentinels' fourth-quarter points.
"She's awesome," Westmont coach Rich Panitch said. "She's one of the best players I've ever coached."
Pardy and Takahashi went back and forth, trying to keep their respective seasons alive.
"I think (Pardy) might be one of the best players in the conference," Lisle coach Nick Balaban said. "As good as a player as she is, Natalie was better tonight, I thought, and that's not a knock on Pardy. Senior leadership, someone with that kind of skill set, really helped us win tonight."
Lisle (13-16) was stout defensively in the first half. Westmont had 16 first-half points and shot 6 of 18 from the field.
"I think it was just pressuring the ball," Weaver said. "We knew that (Pardy) was their top scorer and we practiced just helping and being there to help, because she's obviously their main scorer. Other than that, just ball pressure, forcing them to turn the ball over."
But Westmont found a bit of a groove in the third quarter. The Sentinels chipped away at the deficit. Westmont cut it to 28-27 with 32 seconds left in the quarter, when Allena Kraft found Aleksa Sekularac for a layup.
"I think it was definitely a wake-up call and we knew we had to step it up and get our act together," Weaver said.
Takahashi helped in that. Lisle's all-time leading scorer found Rossin for a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter, scored the first two baskets of the fourth quarter, assisted Rossin on another 3-pointer to give Lisle a 38-27 lead, its largest of the night.
"I made sure to take care of the ball, the shots will naturally come to us, just be confident," Takahashi said.
And they'll get a shot at Timothy Christian on its home court Friday.
"We got to play way better," Weaver said. "Timothy Christian is a strong team. They have a lot of height on us. We're a short team compared to them, so I think we got to work on our defense against them mostly."