Batavia, Geneva advance
Batavia senior guard Erin Golden didn't remember the specific play in her postgame interview, but her layup with 45 seconds left in regulation proved to be monumental.
With her team trailing by two in Tuesday's Class 4A Batavia regional semifinal with Willowbrook, Golden found a soft spot in the lane to drain a layup to tie the game and eventually force overtime.
Golden scored five more points in the overtime period to overcome the Warriors 69-63, and move on to face Geneva in Thursday's regional final.
"We're looking forward a lot to (Geneva) just because every time we've played them, we've had a big step and now we just want to finally take it away," said Golden, a McKendree recruit, who had 24 points and 4 rebounds.
Geneva (22-6) earlier defeated DuKane Conference foe Glenbard North 56-17 in the first semifinal for its third win over the Panthers this season.
Willowbrook chased Batavia until 3:40 left in regulation when the Warriors hit a layup to tie the game at 54-54, eventually taking a 58-55 lead with 1:37 left after Stephanie Dasbach's layup. But the Bulldogs battled back. Claire Nazos split two free throws to set the stage for Golden's game-tying layup.
In overtime, Golden hit a pair of free throws, and Nazos followed with a layup for a 62-58 Batavia lead. Tessa Towers converted a three-point play, and Golden hit two more free throws to push the lead to nine. But the Warriors hit a 3-pointer, followed by a layup from K'aliyha Herron, to pull within four. Golden and Katherine Polick each split free throws to close it out for Batavia.
Towers had 22 points and 16 rebounds with 3 blocks to help seal the win for the Bulldogs (11-17).
"We've talked about just trying to take one possession at a time; get a little better, a little better and a little better," Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. "It helps when you got somebody that you can just lean on. Erin and Tessa had great games. (Polick) had a couple key rebounds at the end (and) free throws. Every little thing."
"Everybody down the line had a part in it," Jensen continued. "Erin is pretty awesome. It's going to be a hard one to replace."
Willowbrook (15-14) received a key fourth-quarter performance from Annemarie Knudtson. The Warriors junior scored eight of her 18 points in the fourth quarter. Dasbach poured in 17 points and had 13 rebounds and 3 blocks, while Herron had 13 points and 3 rebounds.
"Got the lead; (then) we didn't take care of the ball when we needed to take care of the ball," Willowbrook coach Terry Harrell said. "We got down to I think two minutes; we take care of the ball right there, that's winning time."
"When you have the opportunity with about two minutes left, you've got to take care of the ball and you've got to do those important things like hit the free throws, make your layups and we didn't do it in the two minute span ... once they tied the game, we just couldn't get enough momentum; couldn't get enough stops."
In Geneva's big win, junior guard Kate Palmer led with 18 points, while Lindsay Blackmore followed with 13 points and 4 rebounds. Grace Hinchman had 9 points.
"We're just really excited about starting postseason, so we wanted to come out tonight with a good start," Hinchman said. "Get momentum; we wanted to push a lot in transition if we could, and I think we did a really good job of doing that."