Nazareth’s girls basketball team has a way of humbling opponents. Even foes that walk unto the court with gaudy resumes.
Such was the case Feb. 20 at Nazareth. The occasion was a Class 4A regional final, and the sectional third-seeded Roadrunners were hosting Hinsdale Central, the sixth-seeded team.
The Red Devils came in 23-7, which shows the depth of the Lyons Sectional. They left having shot 21.4 percent, being outrebounded 28-15 and forced into at least a dozen turnovers.
Nazareth’s 55-20 winning margin to advance to 31-2 included the final four minutes in a running clock. In other words, the Roadrunners dropped the anvil on the Red Devils.
“We want the good games,” said junior Stella Sakalas — whose 11-point, 14-rebound showing in the middle led Nazareth — of her opponents.
The 23-point outburst by Valparaiso-bound point guard Allia von Schlegell was another beacon. Her 7-of-10 3-point shooting was as beneficial to the hosts as was Salakas’ inside game.
“The team always gets me the ball,” von Schlegell said. “I attribute all seven makes to them. And Stella’s a threat to score at all times.”
“Allia is the heart of our team,” Sakalas countered. “Point guard, first option to score, best shooter, and she’s the top of our defense.”
Structurally, the key to the Roadrunners’ game is, fittingly for their moniker, speed. Defensively, they’re on you like duct tape, and every player seems to have four arms. Only Grace Dolan, with 11 points, was in double figures for Hinsdale, and that was largely negated by Sophia Towne’s 10-point effort for the Roadrunners.
Quickness was how Nazareth jumped out an 18-4 lead less than 12 minutes in. By this point, Salakas had pounded inside for six points and von Schlegell had hit the first of her threes. It was 29-6 at the half, and it didn’t matter how many timeouts the Red Devils called. Nothing was slowing Nazareth down.
“We wanted to control the tempo,” coach Ed Stritzel said. “Hinsdale likes to press themselves, and we thought we’d like to play a little faster, so we wanted to speed the game up a little bit.”
This dominance is nothing new for the Nazareth. A Class 3A title in 2023 and a 4A runner-up placing last year, their second in three years and third in the last seven, underline the program Stritzel has built.
“There’s a lot of good teams, but we’re a dangerous team,” Stritzel said. “We prepared well for this game.”
Of this year’s team, only von Schlegell is exiting, and Stritzel said some solid eighth-graders are on the way in.
“We’re young,” Stritzel said.
That’s just what everyone in the East Suburban Catholic Conference didn’t want to hear.