Girls basketball: Regina Dominican thrives, advances in Class 2A opener
Style points have nothing to do with Illinois High School Association playoff basketball.
The mantra is: Survive and advance.
Regina Dominican instead thrived and advanced. In the first of two Tuesday semifinals at their own girls Class 2A regional in Wilmette, the No. 2 seed Panthers beat understaffed Cristo Rey St. Martin 64-17.
Wide margin or not, Regina coach Bob Newton was grateful to move on.
"It's the most important game we've played so far because it was the first game of the state tournament," said Newton, an Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee now in his second stint with Regina.
"And it doesn't matter who you play, because if you don't win you're going home and turning in your uniform. So we are happy to be moving into a second game."
That comes in the regional final 7 p.m. Thursday. Regina (16-10) hosts No. 5 seed Chicago Math and Science Charter, a 34-28 winner Tuesday over Clemente.
Regina seeks its 16th regional title and a duplicate of Tuesday's technique.
"I thought the pass work tonight was beautiful," Newton said.
"It's nice when you can take what you work on over and over and over in practice and then see it in a game and feel how good it is. I think that's what we learned tonight, that it feels good when you do it the right way," he said.
No. 6 seed Cristo Rey St. Martin (11-6) was hamstrung by having only seven of its 11 rostered players dress. Knights coach Fred Bradley said the short bench was due to a corporate work study program that kept some girls from making the game.
"Very difficult for a playoff game. It'd be nice to have a full team, unfortunately we didn't have that today, but no excuses. A tough team we played, I wish them luck moving forward," Bradley said.
It actually was a successful season and a positive if brief playoff run for Cristo Rey St. Martin, which on Saturday won its first playoff game since 2015. Last season it forfeited its opener; in 2019, Regina beat the Knights 71-6.
"We've got a young team, we'll get back," Bradley said.
Freshman Alexy Chapa scored 15 of Cristo Rey St. Martin's 17 points, but by the time she swished a long 3-pointer Regina led 9-0.
Another freshman, Regina's Jillian DeFranza, made a 3-pointer 23 seconds into the game, post player Kendall Williams scored twice inside, and Natalia Cerrado followed with a layup.
"It's always great to get the first shot, and even if we don't we can still pick it up later on," said Williams, a senior who scored 10 points. "We always just need to be calm, relax - even if the other team scores just relax, shake it off, run the plays slowly. And we'll be good."
Very good on this Tuesday. Pressing full-court from the start, Regina forced 8 first-quarter turnovers and led 25-7 at the end of the quarter.
Paced by DeFranza and Cerrado, who each finished the game with 13 points, the Panthers made 11-of-20 first-quarter shot attempts, 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
"Just throughout the season we've been able to play more as a team and know when each other's going to be there and where we like to play as players. I think that's really shown in this game and I hope it continues to show in the state tournament," said Regina junior Maddie Witchger, a team co-captain with Williams.
Forcing 10 more turnovers and grabbing 7 offensive rebounds in the second quarter, Regina had the luxury of missing its first 12 shots before DeFranza's fastbreak basket midway through the quarter, assisted by Payton Olszewski.
Holding Cristo Rey St. Martin scoreless, Regina led 37-7 at halftime.
When Williams capped a 10-1 run halfway through the third quarter, Newton called a timeout and removed his starters.
"I think we learned that we can execute when we want to and when we take our time, and that's what we've been working on," he said. "We tend to get ahead of ourselves a lot, so being able to see things pan out the way we talk about them and draw them is great."
All 12 Panthers who played scored. Reserves such as Sarah Anichini, Bella Cavey, Abby Lynch and Stella Ozenbaugh drew cheers from excited teammates when they made the score book. Also, Regina players twice helped opponents to their feet after they'd tumbled onto the court.
"During these four years I feel like the teams have been good, but I feel like we haven't been as close as we are this year," Williams said.
"This year we're so close that when we go out there we just give it our all. We pick each other up, we get on each other when we're doing bad. I feel like that energy is what we need."