NORMAL — All day long, Nazareth’s Sophia Towne kept telling her coach not to worry.
And then she went out and backed up her talk.
The junior guard scored a game-high 17 points as the Roadrunners raced past Loyola 55-23 in the Class 4A championship game on March 7 at CEFCU Arena.
It was one of the most dominant performances in the almost 50-year history of the IHSA state finals. Nazareth’s 29-point winning margin was the biggest for a Class 4A champ and was the second-largest for a big-school winner after Fenwick’s 32-point win over Neuqua Valley in Class AA in 2001.
Remarkably, the Roadrunners (34-3) did it without a big night from their best player, BYU recruit Stella Sakalas. She picked up her fourth foul midway through the third quarter and finished with seven points, four rebounds and three steals.
The scoring slack was picked up by Towne, freshman Mia Gage (11 points), senior Lyla Shelton (eight points) and junior Samantha Austin (seven points).
And Gage led a ferocious defensive effort with five steals as Nazareth limited Loyola to 8-of-35 shooting overall and 1-of-16 from 3-point range.
All that helped Towne’s prediction come true.
“She just will not lose,” Stritzel said. “She told me all day, ‘Coach, we’re not losing. We’re bringing this home.’
“And you want to believe her, but you never know. Loyola is a really good team. But I think we showed everybody in the state we’re the best team in Illinois.”
It was the second state title for the Roadrunners, who won in 3A in 2023 when the current seniors were freshmen. They lost by four to Loyola in the 4A final in 2024 and were beaten by a point by eventual 4A champ Kenwood in last year’s sectional..
“We’ve been waiting all year for this — since last year, too,” Towne said. “We were so close. So we always just had this in the back of our minds. And ‘peak in March’ is what we always said.”
Gage wasn’t around for that earlier title or for the close calls the past two seasons. She heard about the history from her older teammates. but there wasn’t a lot of looking back by this group.
“It’s all about what’s next,” she said. “You don’t stay in the past.
“And I think that we all wanted this so bad this season and we worked for it. And that’s what we got.”
Loyola (33-3) was within 15-13 in the first minute of the second quarter, but then Nazareth took over. The Roadrunners went on a 16-0 run extending into the third quarter to lead 31-13, and they were up 42-17 entering the fourth.
Avenging the 2024 title-game loss was nice, but the Roadrunners didn’t make that the night’s top storyline.
“I think we focus on us every game,” said Austin, who grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. “And that’s our thing. We run our race, it’s kind of our motto.
“So playing Loyola, yes it was cool to have that matchup again. But I think we made sure that it was important that we stay focused on what we do on offense and defense and all of those things.”