Aurora Central, Yorkville advance

Updated: March 23, 2011 2:06PM

When Aurora Central Catholic girls basketball coach Mark Fitzgerald asked his team "Are you ready to finish this thing?" with five minutes left and a five-point lead against Sandwich in a semifinal of the Class 3A IMSA Regional, he still had Jacquie Cardona at his disposal.

Good thing the Chargers practice worst-case scenarios.

With Cardona on the bench after fouling out three minutes later, Fitzgerald needed some others to step up in replacement of the Suburban Christian Gold player of the year.

Ashley Wilk and Katherine Chandler combined to go 6-of-6 at the free-throw line following Cardona's exit and Alexia Goblet picked up a crucial steal in a three-point game as the No. 1 seed Chargers held on for a 53-46 victory over the Indians to advance to Thursday's regional final against Yorkville.

"We had a lot of jitters on us," Fitzgerald said. "It was an unusual position. We'd never been a one-seed and they've also never played in crunch time without Jacquie Cardona so when I take a look at all those minuses, I see a big plus at the end of the game because they were able to close it out."

Wilk scored a career-high 22 points to go with 10 rebounds, while Cardona scored eight of her 13 in the second half before leaving.

"It's a lot of pressure, but in practice we practice it over and over again," said Wilk, speaking of making important free throws after hitting 8-of-8 in the second half and 10-of-12 in the game. "We had to do it. Katherine made some really clutch free throws."

Sandwich got 16 points from Alexis Lawrence and 12 from Jessica Miller as the Indians (14-16) cut an 11-point lead to a one-possession game by forcing the Chargers (18-9) to fullcourt press break.

Lawrence hit three threes in the first half, but her tying attempt with 47 seconds was off and ACC was able to escape.

"We made it a game and made them panic a little bit," Sandwich coach Randy Malloy said. "We had a real good look at it. She's good from that spot. We tried to set her up in the corner, but it wasn't meant to be right now."

Katilyn Rosa had eight points and eight rebounds for the Chargers, but Rosa and Wilk also were in foul trouble with four apiece, something to be corrected prior to Thursday.

"I'm really happy we were able to pull through," Cardona said, admitting the jitters contributed to the foul trouble. "I was actually really nervous. We just have to calm down and we'll do a lot better."

Rosary 64, Yorkville 56, OT

Rosary senior Breann Maryanski was determined not to let the end of regulation haunt her or her team.

With just eight-tenths of a second remaining, tied at 55-55, Maryanski rushed a wide-open layup to win the game.

But Maryanski rebounded by putting in the first basket of overtime and fellow senior Brenda Rocha followed up two misses at the free-throw line with a coast-to-coast layup as Rosary inched out a 64-56 overtime win.

"I just wanted to shake it off and play harder in overtime and really just beat them," said Maryanski, who scored 14 points to go with 10 rebounds.

The No. 3 seed Royals blew an 11-point second-half lead, but managed to get timely buckets to keep No. 2 seed Yorkville (15-15) at bay, putting Rosary in the regional final against Aurora Central Catholic.

"They have a lot of good shooters and I was really worried," Rosary coach Dave Beebe said. "We just played with a little bit of confidence at the end."

Madison Richmond scored 17 for Rosary (12-14), which has now won six in a row.

Rocha scored eight points and had eight rebounds, while Courtney Bila scored nine and dished out seven assists.

Brittney Hutchinson and Karly Tate combined for 13 huge points off the bench.

The Foxes got 15 points from Jenny Taptich and double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds from Alicyn Hester.

Rosary has a day to rest its legs before facing the team they beat 62-25 last year, but lost to by eight a few weeks ago.

"We're just going to go out with our best, go out with our heart like we always do," Maryanski said.

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