Girls Basketball: Lisle has no trouble with Cristo Rey

Updated: February 9, 2012 10:09PM

Lisle and Westmont will need no introductions when they meet Saturday night in the championship game of the Class 2A Lisle Regional.

It will be the fourth meeting this season between the two Interstate Eight rivals and the third straight year they have met in the regional finals.

Westmont eliminated the host Lions in each of the past two seasons, but Lisle has won two of the three meetings this year. The second-seeded Lions (20-9) secured their spot in the title game with a 59-22 semifinal rout of No. 3 seed Cristo Rey on Thursday, a couple hours after Westmont (18-11) knocked off top-seeded Tilden 56-36.

“It’s just going to be heart at this point,” Lisle senior guard Shelby Kretman said. “It would be amazing [to beat Westmont]. I’m really pulling for it.”

Kretman made sure the Lions advanced by scoring a game-high 13 points to go with four steals and four rebounds. She tallied nine points in the first quarter as Lisle, which scored the first 16 points of the game, grabbed a 17-2 lead. The hosts extended that to 33-4 before Lisle coach Dan Murray went to his bench.

“Every game, every possession counts,” said Kretman, whose four first-quarter baskets all came on assists from Kelly Urban. “Since we got a big lead we wanted to work on our zone offense. It was nice to see that everyone got to play and mostly almost everyone scored.”

For Murray, who picked up his 200th career win, the game was tricky.

“It’s one of those things where you want to make sure they stay sharp,” Murray said. “It’s a good opportunity to work on a couple things but you don’t want anything to happen to any of your players.”

The Lions got a scare when Urban was accidentally elbowed and had to leave the game with a bloody nose, but she is expected to play against Westmont. Skylar Tomko and reserve Leah Reeves both scored eight points for the Lions, who received six points from Emma Buchholz, five points from Kristina Fernette and four points each from Darian Payne and Kate Twaddle.

Luisa Franco led Cristo Rey (17-9) with 10 points and nine rebounds, while Guadalupe Banda added four points and five boards.

As for Saturday’s game, Murray thinks it will go down to the end.

“It’s our fourth time against each other,” Murray said. “One game they beat us by one. We beat them by two, so it’s always a battle between us and I expect the same here on Saturday night.”

Both teams are looking forward to it.

“I feel like we’re best friends with them,” Westmont point guard Jackie Elzakhem said. “It’s always fun to play them. The crowd gets into it and it’s really fun.”

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