After Bolingbrook had registered its 28th victory of the season with a 46-38 victory over Hinsdale Central in Tuesday’s Class AA sectional semifinal at Downers Grove North, Jenee Graham needed no reminder as to her team’s next opponent.
“Benet, yeah,” a charged-up Graham said. “It was the only loss we had so, you know, revenge, payback–we’ll see how it goes.”
She and her teammates get a chance to see how it goes in Thursday’s sectional final. Here’s how it went on Dec. 5: Benet beat the Raiders 36-32 in overtime.
“I know for a fact that we did not want to lose that game,” the Iowa-bound senior said. “We’d have a perfect record right now.”
Of course, Bolingbrook had to get past 2002 state champ Hinsdale Central and it wasn’t exactly easy. The Raiders jumped to a 10-0 lead, but Hinsdale Central (19-11) came back to tie the game 26-26 on Kristen Wilk’s three-point play with 4 minutes 4 seconds left in the third quarter.
But Bolingbrook was not going to let this one get away. Leading 32-31 after three quarters, the Raiders went on a 7-0 run to open the fourth and stayed in control.
Graham and Britteny Thomas each scored 18 to lead Bolingbrook while Kristen Wilk paced the Red Devils with 13.
Benet did its part in setting up the rematch with a 52-28 victory over Wheaton Warrenville South (20-11). A 15-1 run by Benet (26-5) in the first half erased any chance the Tigers had of coming up with an upset.
“It was our defense,” said Benet senior Chandra Smith, who had eight of her 11 points in the second quarter. “It wasn’t that good in the first quarter. Then we finally got a hand up in their face and started pushing the ball a little more.”
A sequence from Smith helped Benet wrest control from the Tigers, who trailed only 13-12 at the end of the first quarter. With 5:35 left in the half she drove the lane, faked a pass, scored and was fouled. Her free throw made it 23-13. About 30 seconds later, she assisted on an Amy Hunckler three-pointer for a 13-point lead, which Benet stretched to 40-18 at the half.
Hunckler led the Redwings with 13 points, Kaitlin McInerney added 10 and Molly McGue came off the bench for nine. Libby Passiales’ 11 points were high for the Tigers.
