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St. Edward gains playoff momentum with win at St. Viator

St. Edward's girls basketball team couldn't have capped its regular season in much better fashion.

Just two days after a big win over Walther Christian to earn a share of the Metro Suburban Red, the Green Wave kept the momentum leading into the state tournament with a 46-43 victory at St. Viator, a Class 3A No. 1 seed at the Woodstock sectional.

Senior Madison Knott (12 points), senior Yssa Sto. Domingo (10), junior Hailey Niehaus (9), senior Mariel Franco (8) and senior Mallory Rejman (6) led the balanced attack for coach Michelle Dawson's club, which improved to 19-7 overall with an 11-1 mark in conference play.

Three-point baskets from Knott and Rejman along with 2-point buckets by Knott and Niehaus staked the visitors to a 9-2 lead they would never relinquish at Viator's Cahill Gymnasium on Saturday.

St. Edward built the advantage to 22-10 when Knott delivered her second 3-pointer with 1:58 left in the second quarter.

A 3-point play by St. Viator junior forward Bridget DeZellar (7 points) got the Lions (18-8) to within 22-13 at intermission.

"Our first half really helped us," Dawson said. "St. Viator is a very talented team and thank goodness their shooting was a little off today."

"We didn't shoot the ball well," said Lions coach Jason Raymond. "Unofficially, we were 16 percent in the first half and not much better in the second. But at same time some we had breakdowns defensively, especially at the start the game.

"I don't think we came into the game with the right attention to details on the defensive end."

The Lions pulled to within a point midway through the third quarter.

Saint Louis bound Myia Clark started the rally with a 3-point play, then the senior guard flipped a nifty behind-the-back pass to Maddie Fitzpatrick (5 points) for an easy layup to get to within 26-25.

But the Green Wave answered with a 3-pointer from Franco and led 31-28 after three quarters.

Domingo opened the final period with her second of three 3-pointers and the Lions never got closer than 3 points.

"We had watched a little film and knew their strengths and weaknesses," said Domingo, a Wisconsin-Whitewater recruit. "We just tried to balance our defense to make sure we stayed strong on both sides f the floor. Myia (Clark) and Olivia (Solimene, a DePauw recruit) are amazing players. I've played a lot against Olivia when I was at St. Hubert (Schaumburg) and she was at Holy Family Academy (Inverness)."

Clark scored 16 of game-high 18 points in the second half while Solimene finished with 13.

"We were pressing offensively the whole game but I thought Myia got more aggressive in the second half," said Raymond, who like Dawson, played basketball at the school he is coaching at now.

"She got knocked around couple of times in the first half but she was attacking and doing some good things in second half."

Raymond stressed his team needed to play better defense.

"You're not always going to shoot the ball well every game," he said. "But I felt like today we let down a little on the defensive end."

Dawson called it a great way to end the regular season.

"We got a lot of momentum with the conference win on Thursday," she said. "And now we've got this win to head into regionals. Our girls are playing strong basketball now and they're really confident. They are really stepping up and being leaders on the court which is fun to see.

"Mallory Rejman was huge for us this game with her rebounding," the coach added. "Mariel Franco had another great game and Mackenzie Wilson coming off the bench giving us such valuable minutes really helped spell Madison. This was a very nice team win."

"It's really great for our seniors to get a win in our final regular season games," Domingo said. "Winning back-to-back conference championships and getting this win is a fantastic way to go out."

The Lions will end their regular season on Wednesday at home for an East Suburban Catholic Conference test with Marian Catholic.

"St. Edward is a great program," Raymond added. "They were downstate last year (Class 2A). They are well coached and have lot of returning players. They execute and if you don't execute on the defense end, they are going to make you pay for it.

"These last two games are good tuneups and experience for the state tournament. This was a close game against a 3A team and now we have we have a strong Class 4A team with Marian Catholic. You can't get a better tuneup for the state tournament. Being the No. 1 seed in our sectional, we're going to have a target on our backs and we going to have to play like we have a target on our back."

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