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Bolingbrook ends Naperville North's season

Erin Colletti looked back on her first season as Naperville North girls basketball coach with pride and joy.

"I could not have asked for a better first-year experience," she said. "I don't know how I can top this. Like I said in the locker room, we have a lot of youth coming back, but the seniors that we're losing, they're irreplaceable."

Bolingbrook left Colletti and the No. 3-seeded Huskies (24-6) no choice but to look ahead to next season with Tuesday's 53-42 victory in a Class 4A Benet sectional semifinal. The No. 2-seeded Raiders (22-7) will meet No. 1 Benet (29-2) in the sectional final at 7 p.m. Thursday.

After a first quarter that saw six lead changes, Bolingbrook took command in the second. A 12-2 run put the Raiders ahead 28-17, and they led 31-22 at halftime.

"I think we finally got into a little rhythm in the second quarter, help us go on a run and made some adjustments and got some easy shot opportunities," Bolingbrook coach Chris Smith said. "If we could convert some layups it could have got a lot easier."

Using its length and quickness against a young Naperville North team, Bolingbrook forced 8 second-quarter turnovers, 19 for the game.

"Coming into that we knew they were going to be athletic," Huskies junior Greta Kampschroeder said. "We knew we had to rebound, and that definitely got to us tonight. I think that was the difference in the game. That's something we've got to work on in the future for next season when we play teams like that."

"That was kind of the plan, we were hoping to apply a lot of ball pressure and just hopefully create some opportunities to get them to give up some bad passes," Smith said

Bolingbrook features three players committed to Division I universities and two more being widely recruited. That talent level showed.

"We just had a string of turnovers," Colletti added. "We knew that they were going to have intense pressure, and it's like you've got to ride the waves and keep your composure was the game plan tonight. We executed the game plan except for a couple of snippets of those offensive possessions that were wasted because of turnovers.

"And we talked about how we have to value every single possession, and then we gave up some offensive boards that were huge. That's where you count those (11) points."

Naperville North tried to rally, cutting the Bolingbrook lead to 43-36 on senior post Jada Wilmington's basket off a Kampschroeder pass with 4:15 left in the fourth quarter. Bolingbrook responded with the next 7 points to put the game out of reach.

Kampschroeder, an uncommitted Division I recruit herself, led all scorers with 20 points adding 12 rebounds and 4 assists, including a no-look pass on a 3-pointers by freshman guard Layla Henderson with a minute left in the second quarter.

Treasure Thompson, a 6-foot-2 senior forward going to LSU, led Bolingbrook with 14 points. Guard Jayden Marable, an NIU recruit, scored 11 and sophomore point guard Kennedi Perkins, a transfer from Hinsdale South who also is being recruited, scored 10.

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