Rosary rallies late, beats Aurora Christian
Rosary's girls basketball team broke open a tight game down the stretch during Friday night's 49-42 victory over host Aurora Christian.
Trailing 39-36 with 4:09 remaining, the Royals went on a 12-0 surge over the next 3-plus minutes to take control and advance to Saturday's 4:30 p.m. championship game of the 13th annual Hoops Happening Tournament.
Rosary (3-0) will face Ottawa for the tourney title at Illinois Math & Science Academy.
"We like the competition and we like these games," said 6-foot-2 junior forward/center Zoe Ketterman, who scored a game-high 15 points with 5 rebounds for the senior-less Royals. "We have a really young team this year but everyone is playing pretty well together so far."
Sophomore Julia Rivera's 12-foot jumper pulled Rosary to within 39-38 before Ketterman's driving layup gave the Royals the lead for good at 40-39 with 2:42 remaining.
Baskets by Zoe Olsen (5 points, 9 rebounds) and Rivera stretched the lead to 44-39 before the Royals added 4 free throws to make it 48-39 with 20 seconds left.
"At halftime, we talked to the girls about them being on their heels," said Rosary coach Phil VanBogaert. "We told them to 'get on the balls of your feet and start playing defense.' They started coming around."
Rivera, who didn't play in the first half, came off the bench to pour in 11 points on 5 of 8 shooting, including a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the third quarter to put Rosary up 32-28 entering the final 8 minutes.
"She was a godsend when we needed it," said VanBogaert. "She hit some big shots for us."
VanBogaert was pleased with his young group which was supported by juniors Ella Havertape (8 points), Jessica Muckerheide (5 points, 7 rebounds) and Lauren Seger (3 points).
"Everyone who played tonight did a good job," said the coach.
Olsen also had the unenviable task of defending Eagles leading scorer Tori Henning for much of the night.
Henning scored 13 points and added 10 rebounds but was limited to a free throw in the fourth quarter.
"She (Olsen) did a heck of a job," said VanBogaert. "She has blossomed into a great player."
Aurora Christian (2-1), which will face Timothy Christian in Saturday's 3rd-place game, received a huge lift off the bench from freshman Lexi Lamanna.
The 5-5 guard finished with 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and a pair of steals.
"She's a freshman with a ton of swagger," said Eagles coach Burney Wilkie.
Sophomore Mia Richert added 7 points and 8 rebounds while freshman Thaya Luse had 2 points and a team-high 11 rebounds.
"Our young core is really good," said Wilkie, whose team lost senior center Dannielle Lopez to a torn ACL in Tuesday's season opener against U-High.
"So much of our offense runs through her that we've had to adjust on the fly. We've only had one practice (since then). When we needed something at the end of the game, it was a struggle. It's no one's fault - we just need to practice more."