A record-setting season came to a disappointing end for Manteno’s girls’ basketball team as the Panthers fell a few minutes short of claiming their first sectional championship in program history.
The game came down to getting the breaks and those favored the host Indians as they claimed the Class 2A Pontiac Sectional title with a 46-44 victory on Feb. 26.
“It was a very physical game,” Manteno coach Bethany Stritar said. “I think if we could have gotten a couple of calls and gotten to the line, it would have helped us. But it just wasn’t going our way.”
The game came down to the final few minutes as Manteno battled to try to hang on. Lila Prindeville sank two free throws to break a 37-37 tie, and Alyssa Singleton hit a 3-pointer with 3:38 left in the game to put the Panthers up 42-37. This was their biggest lead of the night.
Maddie Gesky, who was strong on the glass all night, scored on a put-back to give Manteno a 44-40 advantage with 1:39 to go. The Panthers were also in the bonus, which should have been an added edge down the stretch.
It didn’t work out that way. Pontiac scored the final six points of the game to claim the victory. The big shot was Bailee Branscum’s 3-pointer with 36 seconds left to put the Indians ahead 45-44.
Manteno was forced to foul four times in the final 25 seconds because Pontiac was not yet in the bonus. There were a couple of plays where it appeared the Panthers had created tie-ups, but the breaks favored the Indians.
“I wondered if some of those could have been a jump ball, but they knew we were trying to foul, too,” Stritar said.
Key to Manteno’s effort was the play of the guards. Teams know of the inside strength of Gesky and Emily Horath, but it was the play of the guards that kept this a see-saw contest throughout.
“Sometimes our guards don’t get enough credit for things they do,” Stritar said. “They stepped up today. Alyssa, Lila, Sophie (Peterson), Brooke (Blanchette), they all did their part and helped us out. They kept us in that third quarter, especially.”
Peterson hit a 3-pointer and Prindeville added another as the Panthers cut a nine-point deficit to 28-25 in less than a minute. Peterson added another 3-pointer in the final seconds of the quarter to give Manteno a 33-32 lead heading into the last period.
Gesky finished with a game-high 16 points for the Panthers, who finished 27-7. Prindeville added 10 points while Singleton and Peterson each scored eight points.
“That’s a school record for most wins, beating that from last season,” Stritar said. “We really wanted to win a sectional, we haven’t won one yet.
“We’re are happy and pleased with how our season went. We’re going to miss our seniors, we’ve got five of them and they’ve been wonderful.”
Boys
Hillcrest 51, Crete-Monee 34: The host Warriors dropped a Class 3A regional final on Feb. 27 to finish 13-17. Crete had snapped a five-game losing streak by beating Bremen 65-47 in the semifinals on Feb. 25 as Zyheir Gardner scored 22 points.
Seneca 58, Peotone 53: The Blue Devils finished 16-13 after falling 58-53 to Seneca in the Class 2A Wilmington Regional semifinals on Feb. 25. Alex Chenoweth led Peotone with 15 points and Nick Cronin scored 14, while Ethan McNeill and Nate Wehrmann both finished with eight. Tyler Walker grabbed six rebounds.
Coal City 45, Coal City 37: The Panthers (13-17) lost in the semifinals of their own Class 2A regional on Feb. 25.
Yorkville Christian 76, Beecher 40: Dominic DeFrank scored nine points for the host Bobcats (7-24) in the Class 2A regional semifinal on Feb. 25. Beecher had advanced with a 69-58 win over Carver on Feb. 23.
DuSable 71, Illinois Lutheran 35: Everett Storch had nine points for the Chargers (6-17) in the Class 1A St. Francis de Sales Regional quarterfinal loss on Feb. 23.
St. Francis de Sales 100, Grant Park 35: Rigo Venegas scored 11 points for the Dragons (2-24) in the loss to the hosts in a Class 1A regional quarterfinal on Feb. 23.
Jeff Vorva contributed to this story.