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Stevenson tops Lake Forest, will play for Komaromy title

Getting back to the championship game of the Dundee-Crown Komaromy Classic has been one of one of the goals for Stevenson's girls basketball team.

The Patriots had to get past some of their shooting woes and dealt with a North Suburban Conference foe Lake Forest for a second time this season.

Stevenson got its scoring together with a complete team effort late in the third quarter and rolled past Lake Forest 50-35 in the semifinals in Carpentersville on Wednesday. Barrington won the other semifinal 62-44 over South Elgin.

The Patriots (15-1) will play Barrington (11-4) in the championship game on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. while Lake Forest (10-6) takes on South Elgin (12-2) for third place at 5 p.m.

"We talked to our kids at halftime about having our backs against the wall a little bit," Stevenson coach Ashley Graham said. "Coming out we showed some resiliency and we faced some adversity. It was our mental toughness and experience showed. Two teams that are really comfortable with one another. We just did enough down the stretch."

Stevenson opened the game missing its first 8 shots and was down 7-0 and trailed 10-5 after the opening quarter.

The Patriots took over the lead in the second quarter as Bucknell-recruit Simone Sawyer scored 8 of her game-high 15 points that gave Stevenson a 24-18 lead at the break.

"We knew that (Lake Forest) was a good team and we had to stick together, especially after the first half," Sawyer said. "We really came together after that. Everyone played really well and the people off the bench. It was really competitive to play against Lake Forest. We did get on fire. After halftime, we regrouped and played well."

Lake Forest rallied back in the third quarter. Bella Ranallo scored 5 of her team-high 14 points and the game was tied 27-27 with 3:55 left.

The Patriots went on to score 11 unanswered points with Emory Klatt (13 points and 7 rebounds), Kendall Williams (9 points) and Ava Bardic (8 points) each hitting 3-pointers for a 38-27 lead going into the fourth quarter.

"We just stopped scoring and it's so hard to guard them because they have so many people that can score," Lake Forest coach Stacey Leach said. "If you take away a couple of their players you still have others to make baskets. That's what makes it so tough. We battled and gave it a run. Stevenson was a tough team to play. You have to play four good quarters. We just had three good ones."

The Scouts' Rachel Kaus added 11 points and 5 rebounds.

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