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Girls Basketball: Westminster Christian advances past Willows
Updated: February 13, 2012 10:40PM
Westminster Christian advanced to its first sectional final appearance with a thrilling 51-44 overtime victory over Willows Academy Monday night in Des Plaines.
Senior guard Whitney Vanden Bos (14 points, 4 rebounds, 5 steals) took over for the Warriors in overtime, knocking down two three-pointers and scoring eight of Westminster Christian’s 10 points in the extra frame.
“She’s made about 150 threes this year, she’s been a great shooter for us,” said Westminster Christian (22-8) head coach Ken Flickinger. “In that last time out, I just told her its time for her to make a couple of shots. She was huge for us.”
Senior center Porsche Griggs led the Warriors with 17 points and 7 rebounds off the bench. Griggs made a layup with eight seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 41-41.
On the ensuing Willows possession, Griggs blocked Eagles (21-3) forward Emily Hunt’s last second shot attempt, and the game went into overtime.
“Some of our leaders stepped up, and we got into each other faces late in the game,” said Griggs, who’s playing with a partially torn ACL in one of her legs. “We said look ‘I’m not done playing yet, you’re not done playing yet, we have to win today to keep playing. I don’t know if you guys understand that, but we have to, so let’s get this done so we can practice tomorrow.’”
The Warriors led 19-14 at halftime, and jumped out a 33-24 lead late in the third quarter.
However, the Eagles responded with a 10-0 run, including five points in the final 20 seconds of the third quarter, and Willows Academy took a 34-33 lead with five minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The game went back and forth from that point on, as the lead changed hands six times in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
Eagles guard Keelin McNally knocked down a free throw to give Willows a 40-39 lead with 25 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
The game was then delayed for nine minutes as emergency personnel were called in to treat a member of the crowd. The fan was taken out of the gymnasium on a stretcher.
After play resumed, sophomore Bethy Hunt split a pair of free throws to extend the Eagles lead to 41-39 with 21 seconds left in regulation.
Griggs’ layup and subsequent block then sent the game into overtime.
“It was just a hard-fought basketball game. They wanted it, we wanted it,” said Flickinger. “The environment was so great, but we were a little rattled and turned the ball over way too much. Every time we seemed to get a little bit of a lead, we let them right back in it.”
McNally led the Eagles with 13 points, while senior forward Monica Hinderer notched a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Hinderer scored nine of her 10 points in the fourth quarter.
Westminster Christian will play Seton Academy or Ida Crown Thursday night at 7:30 in the final of the Class 1A Willows Academy sectional.
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