Girls Basketball: Katelyn Cahill leads Nazareth past St Francis

Updated: February 15, 2012 10:48PM

Katelyn Cahill wasn’t slated to be Nazareth’s starting point guard this year, but that changed when senior floor leader Tricia Masterson broke her wrist on the first day of practice.

Cahill, a 5-5 sophomore, was forced into the starting role earlier than expected but has made rapid progress, as evidenced by her play Wednesday night.

Cahill scored nine of her game-high 15 points and had all five of her steals in the first half to help the host Roadrunners eke out a 17-11 halftime lead en route to a hard-fought 42-32 victory over St. Francis in a Class 3A regional semifinal in LaGrange Park.

The win advanced Nazareth (11-14), which is seeded sixth at the Fenton Sectional, to Friday’s regional title game against No. 3 seed Glenbard South, which beat Robeson 49-25 in the other semifinal.

“Being a leader, I really like it a lot,” Cahill said. “We weren’t scoring a lot in the first half, so I thought I really had to step up. They weren’t great on help defense so we just had to drive a lot, draw fouls.”

Cahill’s steady play has allowed Masterson, who missed half the season, to come off the bench, providing some key leadership to the second unit. It’s a luxury few teams have.

“She’s come a long way over the course of the year,” Nazareth coach Charlie Rohlf said of Cahill. “She had her best game against Marian Catholic; 18 points against a state-ranked team. As a sophomore point guard, she’s made a whole lot of progress and she’s starting to feel confidence now.”

The Roadrunners finally were able to pull away a bit in the third quarter behind junior guard Molly Alberts, who scored eight of her 11 points in the period as Nazareth extended the lead to 32-20. Masterson had a three-pointer during the third quarter and helped the Roadrunners turn the screws defensively as No. 10 seed St. Francis (3-23) went scoreless for 5:29, part of a drought in which the Spartans went without a basket for 10:22 bridging the second and third quarters.

Masterson, who finished with seven points, then scored five consecutive points early in the fourth quarter to extend the Roadrunners’ lead to 14. The Spartans cut the deficit to 37-29 on a three-pointer by Claire O’Donnell at the 2:58 mark, but Cahill sank 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to ice it.

“When Tricia’s in, we’re both leaders,” said Cahill, who also had six rebounds, including five after intermission. “We had a really nice second half. [The win] was great. We had a lot of fans out there and it was awesome.”

Rohlf marvels at the fact that Masterson is even playing. She still has pain from a shoulder injury suffered last year, and she tore her ACL last spring playing soccer, her best sport.

“I’ve got nothing but great things about Tricia,” Rohlf said. “She’s battled all the injuries. She plays through an incredible amount of pain and you cannot tell. She plays her butt off every day.

“I couldn’t be prouder of her. She hasn’t been 100 percent in a long time but you can’t tell because she plays incredibly hard every night.”

Aly Germanos led St. Francis with 15 points and seven rebounds, while Ellen Hammes added six points and Lexi Riccolo had five points and 12 boards.

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