Blayr a blur for Hanover

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:26AM

It'll be Hanover Central and Wheeler clashing for the Class 2A Sectional 33 crown tonight after both teams prevailed in Friday's semifinal round.

Hanover's Blayr Poston did her best Reggie Miller impersonation in the opener, scoring seven points in just more than a minute of the fourth quarter - part of her game-high 19 points - to provide the decisive baskets in a 50-44 Wildcats' victory.

"We have a tendency to stand around sometimes and hope she takes over. Thankfully, she did that tonight," said Hanover coach Doug Nelson. "We have other players that can step up and make plays and we're going to need them to do that (today)."

A 9-0 run by Hanover late in the second quarter forced a timeout from Bishop Noll coach Doug Robertson.

"We had two choices: give up or fight back. We came out of the timeout and took it right to them," Robertson said.

Noll responded with an 8-0 run to close the half, with senior Rose Mullaney doing most of the damage. Mullaney finished with 18 points to lead the Warriors.

Still, the Wildcats held a 26-24 lead at the half.

A back-and-forth second half saw Bishop Noll take a 39-38 lead at the 3:50 mark of the fourth before Poston's heroics put the game out of reach.

In the second game of the night, Wheeler rode the momentum of two dominant quarters into the sectional title game, using a 14-0 run to oust River Forest from the tournament by a score of 47-31.

"We started to apply some full-court pressure to them," said Wheeler coach Mark Bruner. "We wanted to take away either (Mary) Salinas or (Katelynn) Buehler in the game."

Buehler did have a game-high 13 points, but Salinas only scored two points in the face of constant Bearcats pressure.

"(Buehler) is a player that our offense goes through and we started forcing passes to her," said River Forest coach Courtney Quigg. "They'd leave one of our players open to double her, and still we forced the pass to her."

Trailing 9-6 after the opening quarter, Wheeler outscored River Forest 32-13 in the next two periods, establishing a lead it never relinquished.

The Bearcats' depth hurt the Ingots all game. Tijana Raketic, Brooke Hutchins and Allison Urycki each finished with nine points to lead the Wheeler offense.

"It makes us harder to guard," Bruner said of his team's depth. "What we did tonight was find open players. When you pass the ball well, you're going to get that kind of balance."

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