Little Jones comes up big for Pirates

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:16AM

Undersized Ricquia Jones came up big for Proviso East as the 5-4 guard finished with 18 points, five steals and four assists to lead the Pirates past Trinity 55-47 in the championship game of the York Class 4A Sectional Thursday night in Elmhurst.

The No. 9 Pirates, who had never won a sectional game before Tuesday, won their 18th game in a row since they lost to Trinity in December, and will play Maine South in a supersectional Monday night at Loyola University.

Jones, along with Illinois recruit Ivory Crawford (five points), used a 15-2 run ending the third quarter and starting the fourth to take a commanding 46-31 lead.

"I just want to be a leader and motivate the team so everyone plays with their heart," Jones said. "We lost to them [at Christmas], and we knew that to win. we had to bring it. All we worked on was defense."

"The key to everything is playing defense," Proviso East coach Ezra PridGeon said. "You have to do more than make baskets, to have to shut people down to win."

Crawford finished with 12 points. Trinity, which finished 28-5, got 14 points and six rebounds from junior Megan Podkowa, 12 from Taylor Nazon and 10 from TaRicka Linzy.

Despite being held to one field goal in the first seven minutes, Trinity led 9-6 before the Pirates ended the quarter and started the second with a 10-0 run to go ahead 16-9, Stacey Welch and Ashri Broadwater both scored four in the run. After Alyssa Dengler made a three-pointer for the Blazers, Proviso got a basket from Crawford and two three-pointers from Jones to go up 24-14.

But Trinity stormed back, Despite making just 4 of 8 from the line and missing the front end of two one-and-one chances, the Blazers closed with an 8-0 run to close the deficit to 24-22 at the break. Linzy had five points in the run.

"The better team won," Trinity coach Ed Stritzel said. "We played hard but Proviso was on their game. Our zone kept us in the game but we could never get a lead. Their length and athleticism was the difference."

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