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Aurora Central upends St. Joe to earn date with Nazareth
Westchester, 02/12/13--Despite being surrounded by Payton defenders, Nazareth Academy's Tetre'anah Cross drives to the basket for a layup. Nazareth Academy played Walter Payton College Prep in a girls basketball Class 3A regional semifinal game Tuesday evening. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 19, 2013 2:53PM
WESTCHESTER — Aurora Central got outrebounded 46-29 and committed 25 turnovers during Tuesday’s Class 3A St. Joseph Regional semifinal contest against the host school.
Normally that would prove devastating to a team, but somehow, some way, Aurora Central never lost its composure, made enough free throws and knocked down several big 3-pointers to stun St. Joseph 71-66 in Westchester.
“If you would’ve told me that we were losing seven players from our state team and we’d be back playing for a regional title, I would’ve told you that I hope you’re right,” Aurora Central coach Mark Fitzgerald said. “But that’s because I believe in these kids and am very proud of what they did tonight.”
After sharing five ties in the first half, which included a 23-23 deadlock, Aurora Central scored the final 11 points of the first half to take 34-23 lead into halftime. Aurora Central converted 13-of-19 free throws in the first half.
Aurora Central continued to attack the basket in the second half. Realizing it didn’t have an answer to equalize the rebounding game while surrendering far too many putbacks, it turned to Lisa Rodriguez (20 points) and Gabi Alfaro (19 points) to attack the basket while Alex DeCraene proved deadly behind the 3-point arc, draining four on the night to finish with 17 points.
“We kind of figured that this could be our last game so we played like we didn’t want it to be our last,” DeCraene said. “It was rough. Their big girls were doing a lot of bumping and shoving and we were just trying to get the ball to shoot on our end.”
St. Joseph didn’t go away easily and fed off its loud fans. A 6-0 run to close the third quarter reduced its deficit to 47-41.
“They kept coming back but we also did what we had to do,” Alfaro said. “We looked for the open man after getting rebounds, we made enough shots and we put in our free throws.”
The hosts kept chipping away but never got closer than four points.
Aurora Central will face Nazareth at 7:30 p.m. in the regional title game. Nazareth knocked off Payton 50-30 behind Kayla Freeman’s 14 points.
“We have six sophomores and one freshman and they all played tonight along with our seniors and one junior,” Fitzgerald said. “They’ve had all this season to grow and make mistakes, and now things are paying off with the composure they showed tonight. They’re not there yet totally, but they’re getting there.”
Chanel Brown and Emilie Liotine led St. Joseph with 13 points apiece. Brown also collected a game-high 13 rebounds while Amber Brooks had 11 boards.
Junior Kietta Saunders scored 11 points and pulled down nine rebounds with two assists. Junior Deja Horn, after sitting out practice for the last week due to injury, didn’t miss a beat with 12 points, two steals, four deflections and two assists.
Freshman post Amber Brooks, brought up for the tournament, stepped in with 12 rebounds to go with her 4-for-4 from the field. Sophomore wing Emilie Liotine had 13 points on 6-for-11 shooting.
With two starters serving a suspension for violating team rules, St. Joseph’s starting five featured three juniors, a sophomore and a freshman.
