'Oh my gosh, it happened'
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| Hall senior Kelle Nett gets a hug from her mother, Becky, following Thursday’s regional championship victory. (BCR photo/Kevin Hieronymus) |
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PRINCETON — For four years, the Hall senior basketball players have been playing St. Bede. And for four years, the Lady Red Devils had never defeated St. Bede.
That all stopped Thursday night.
The Lady Red Devils rallied from a 10-point deficit early in the third quarter to defeat their arch-rivals 52-48 to capture the Princeton 2A Regional championship at Prouty Gymnasium. The win avenged an earlier season loss to St. Bede, as well as last year's regional championship loss and all the other losses the years before.
"I've never beaten St. Bede my entire career. So this feels great," said Hall senior guard Liz Mosbach, who scored 13 points. "I'm just so happy. When that buzzer went off, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, it finally happened,'"
"The big difference was this was for regional championship. We were pumped up. We already lost to them once. That pumped us even more, I guess," said Hall senior center Kelle Nett, who led the Lady Devils with 15 points, 23 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.
Hall coach Dave Kain said his team never stopped believing.
"We never gave up. We could have folded," he said. "I've been telling them 'mentality, mentality' all year. I think they got it four games ago, tough mentality, and fought through it.
"I had a good feeling. I thought we could win. I said it in the (BCR). We came through, but it was a little tougher than I thought it might be. .. It's a long time coming ... it's a great win for Hall High School basketball, a great, great win."
Hall (19-11), which beat St. Bede for its last regional championship at Princeton in 2008, advances to the Rockford Sectional to face Stillman Valley (23-6) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
St. Bede coach Tom McGunnigal didn't believe the Lady Bruins got a fair shake in the officiating, calling the differences in free throws shot (35 for Hall, 14 for St. Bede) and fouls (23 to 12) called blatantly lopsided.
"It was unfair. No doubt about it," he said. "Now we we were fouling at the end, no doubt about it, but when you're not allowed to play basketball, it's not right. The regional championship game should be decided on the floor by the players."
He said his post players got intimidated because "we got pushed around inside because of what they were being allowed to do to us," and Hall was getting the benefit of the handcheck calls on defense while St. Bede was not.
"It sucks it has to end for those girls that way. It sucks," McGunnigal said. "I should be more emotional this season is over with a great group of girls and a great group of parents that I absolutely adore and love that will stay with (me) for the rest of their lives. I should be feeling different now, and I'm not. And that makes me mad. I should be telling them how much I love them, but I can't because I'm so mad right now."
Down 26-18 at halftime and 28-20 early in the second half, Hall got its rally on midway through the third quarter. The Lady Red Devils used a 9-0 run, including baskets by sophomore Becca Herrmann and senior Jaclyn Kain, a steal and layup by Mosbach and then a three-pointer by Nett to take its first lead of the game at 29-28 with 3:50 left in the third.
Kayla MacDavitt scored on a post feed from Carolann Barnes to put the Lady Bruins back up 40-38, but that would be their last lead of the game.
Hall closed out the third quarter on a 6-0 run with a Nett free throw, a steal and layup by sophomore Brenna Faletti and two free throws by Kain to go up 34-30 at quarter's end.
Mosbach said the Lady Devils had to break St. Bede's vaunted press and keep the outside open to be able to get the ball down low to Nett and Kain.
It looked like the Lady Red Devils would run away with it midway through the fourth quarter, scoring eight straight, including four free throws and a hoop by Nett to go 48-38 with 2:07.
St. Bede's seniors wouldn't go away without a fight, playing with the heart that McGunnigal has come to love over the past four years. A deuce by senior Milus and back-to-back threes from Taylor Miller (right corner) and Lydia Stariha (left corner) suddenly made it a 48-46 game with 1:04 to play.
"This team's got guts. They've got heart," McGunnigal said. "They've gone through hard practices; they've gone through long seasons. They've gone through it together. I thought for a moment we stopped believing early, but they never stop believing late. They thought they were going to get it."
They almost did. Hall had some anxious moments when Mosbach was only able to make one of six free throw attempts in a stretch from 1:12 to 29.1 Stevie Fisher missed on a baseline drive, but Milus sank a pair of free throws to make it 49-48 with 16.4 to play.
Mosbach came through with two free throws with 12.0 remaining for a 51-48 Hall lead. St. Bede threw a wild inbounds pass out of bounds at half court. Kain (14 points) clinched the win with a free throw, her second erased by a lane violation, to go up 52-48 and seal the win.
"I thought we might cave a little bit, but they never gave up. And the defense won the game," Kain said. "If we made some free throws, it would have give us a little more breathing room .... If we made some free throws, it would have give us a little more breathing room."
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Most Recent Comment wrote on ...
Wow, I've never seen a coach actually come out in the press and say something like that against the officiating! I'm not so sure this is the type of leadership I'd want my child following. I have a 10 year old boy here at home that whines about almost everything already, I sure don't need him in the future to be led by a coach that thinks that is acceptable behavior. |
