St. Viator rallies to advance to sectional final
An 8-point deficit a minute into the second quarter wasn't how St. Viator's girls basketball team planned to start its sectional semifinal against Resurrection. But the Lions soon found their rhythm and pulled away to a 48-38 win at the Class 3A Crystal Lake South sectional semifinal Tuesday.
The Lions will play Grayslake Central, a 58-32 winner over Deerfield in the evening's first game, for the sectional title on Thursday.
Emma Morrisey and Joy Bergstrom scored 14 points apiece for St. Viator. Bergstrom reached the 1,000-point mark for her career with 2 late free throws.
"We got the lead back in the first half, and coming out in the second half we knew that we should be able to pull away," said Bergstrom. "I think the momentum from the first half carried over to the second half."
She wasn't as concerned with the personal milestone as she was with the sectional victory.
"I just want to win," she said. "It's not really about that."
A rare 4-point play seemed to ignite the Lions. With St. Viator trailing 13-5, Morrisey was knocked down while draining a 3-pointer and made the free throw. That ignited a 16-4 run to close the first half.
After Aubrey Horbach scored on a putback, Morrisey drilled another 3-pointer to give the Lions their first lead. The Bandits briefly retook the lead, but 2 free throws sandwiched around a Horbach bucket put St. Viator ahead to stay. Morrisey's third 3 of the quarter made it 21-17 at halftime.
"I was missing in the first quarter but I just kept shooting," Morrisey said. "Eventually they started falling and I started feeling it, especially after that and-1 on the 3. That really got me going."
After hitting just 2 of 12 shots in the first 8 minutes, the Lions drilled 5 of 7 in the second period.
"It's always good to knock down some jumpers against the zone, so I think that got us going a little bit," said St. Viator coach Jason Raymond. "Our defense was a little bit better as the game went along, but we got beat big-time on the boards and on 50-50 balls, and that can't happen in a sectional game."
The Lions stretched the lead to as much as 14 in the second half before Resurrection came back to life. The Bandits got as close as 44-38, but the Lions came up with some big stops down the stretch and made just enough free throws to salt it away.
Horbach finished with 11 points. Morrisey had 9 rebounds and 5 assists, and Nora Ahram contributed 8 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and a block for the Lions.
Madison Dorband almost single-handedly kept the Bandits in the game in the second half, scoring 14 of her game-high 19 points after the break.