Carlson, Batavia stun St. Charles North 52-50 in final seconds
All Brooke Carlson needed was the slightest of windows to make her move.
She had to be choosy, though.
Tied with under 20 seconds remaining in the Class 4A Glenbard West sectional semifinal vs. St. Charles North on Tuesday, North Stars guard Alyssa Hughes took the inbound near center court. Moving to her left, Hughes attempted to feed Julia Larson waiting on the wing.
Carlson, the Batavia junior who had four fouls for the final 6:15, swooped in for the steal and hit the game-winning layup with 12 seconds left to send Batavia to a 52-50 win and Thursday's sectional final vs. Geneva in a frenzied fashion.
"I honestly was scared a little but [of a potential foul there]," Carlson said. "But I was like, I want the ball. I saw it right away and I was like, I'm just going to go get it."
The North Stars held a 49-48 lead until Batavia guard Addie Prewitt's go-ahead layup with 44 seconds left. Larson went 1 for 2 from the free-throw line with 29 seconds to go to tie it at 50. On the next possession, North Stars forward Reagan Sipla forced a backcourt violation to precede Carlson's steal.
Carlson (23 points, five rebounds) missed the ensuing free throw on the foul and St. Charles North (26-7) missed a layup in the closing seconds to end the program's best season since 2008, the last time it won a regional title.
Batavia (21-11), which has never won a sectional title, now faces rival Geneva, which defeated Lake Park handily in the first sectional semifinal on Thursday. The Vikings went undefeated in conference play.
"Player of the Year. Player of the Year," Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said of Carlson. "This [DuKane] Conference is so awesome. Us all being in this conference, it's getting us ready for these moments. There's all kinds of outstanding players everywhere. There's two potential Players of the Year on [St. Charles North]. There's two or three on Geneva's team. Brooke has had a heck of a year. The teams, the players here are amazing. She didn't want to go home. She didn't want to go home."
Carlson, who hit two consecutive 3-pointers to close the third quarter, gave the Bulldogs a 37-33 lead into the game's final eight minutes. The North Stars retook the 45-44 lead with 4:29 left on Laney Stark's (13 points) layup, but Bulldogs forward Sarah Hecht answered with a layup right back.
The North Stars were tagged with a travel and Prewitt (seven points, 10 rebounds) hit a layup for the 48-45 Batavia lead with 3:43 left. Sipla (10 points, six rebounds) added two free throws to cut the deficit to one and Larson (nine points, five rebounds) followed up with a layup to give the North Stars a 49-48 lead with 2:11 remaining to set up the frenzied finish in the final two minutes.
"Carlson hunts those passes and runs out. I think if we could have it over again, I'm sure we'd probably make a different decision, but I don't think one play finishes a game one way or the other," North Stars coach Mike Tomczak said. "I think it was a combination of a lot of things. A lot of people are going to focus on that last play, but you can find two points or a turnover anywhere in the game.
"There was no night where we went out there and we questioned the level of effort from anyone on our team. Anyone. The seniors set the tone for that. I've been coaching for awhile. You never get used to that feeling [after a loss]. Every group is different. Every combination is unique and they're special. In my time here, that's one of the most special groups we've had. That postgame speech is more about reflecting on things we did rather than what didn't happen tonight."