Girls basketball: Evyn Carrier gets 27 as Sycamore dispatches Providence Catholic, reaches sectional final

MAPLE PARK – Faith Feuerbach had 10 points in the first quarter for Sycamore in a Class 3A Kaneland Sectional semifinal against Providence Catholic on Tuesday.

But coach Adam Wickness said Feuerbach and the Spartans noticed the Celtics had no answer for 6-foot-3 post Evyn Carrier. So Feuerbach never scored again, but Carrier scored 23 of her 27 points in the final three quarters of a 53-29 win.

“Tonight, Evyn was our advantage,” Wickness said. “The girls did a really good job of recognizing that and put the team before them. They noticed that they couldn’t stop Evyn so Faith, even though she had a hot quarter to start the game, she recognized that and started feeding the ball into the post. And that’s what really great teammates do.”

The win puts the Spartans into the sectional finals for a second straight postseason, against Montini at 7 p.m. Thursday.

The Celtics (27-7) scored first on a 3-pointer by Kelly Knight, but the Spartans (31-2) scored the next 10, capped by a Feuerbach 3-pointer.

Providence pulled to within 17-15 in the second quarter, but the Spartans scored 13 straight and were up 30-18 at half. Carrier had seven points in the second quarter before exploding for 10 in the third.

“Their length definitely bothered us. We didn’t get as many looks as we usually get,” Providence coach Eileen Copenhaver said. “We didn’t get as many looks as we usually get. Obviously, we felt like we could have done some things better but they did a fantastic job.”

Carrier also had six of the Spartans’ eight points in the fourth quarter. She finished with 27 points and eight rebounds to go with a block and a steal.

“By now, this late into the season, everybody has developed fully into their role,” Carrier said. “Everybody knows what they need to do, what they don’t need to do. Everybody stepped up, it didn’t matter who had the most points or the most rebounds. Everybody did their part individually.”

Carrier said the team has remarkable chemistry, and that’s how they were able to shift so fast from relying on Feuerbach on offense to feeding it inside to Carrier.

“We’ve all been playing together since third together, and what works, and who to get the ball to at the right time,” Carrier said. “We’re really good if one person is getting shut down, the next person steps up. We all add something to the table and it’s so enjoyable.”

Carrier said the team’s defense, however, was far more impressive. Annalise Pietrzyk led the Celtics with six points. The 29 points they put up were the second fewest they’ve scored all year.

Wickness said the defense was so effective by handling the ball screens of the Celtics.

“They shoot the ball really, really well especially coming off those ball screens,” Wickness said. “Our coverage on them was great. We did a good job getting over screens and making sure Evyn was active and all over the place. She got a ton of rebounds and obviously on the offensive end they didn’t have an answer for her.”

Copenhaver said she thought the discrepancy in foul calls – Sycamore was only whistled for six in the game while Providence was called for more than that in the first half alone – didn’t help her team in trying to battle from behind.

“When you’re in these games, hanging around by about 10, maybe you don’t get this call, that call – that’s a tough turnaround to take,” Copenhaver said. “So we weren’t big enough, physical enough to withstand the little things not going our way. ... They’re good, but for them to only have six fouls the entire game, it didn’t sit well with me.”

Copenhaver said she was happy with the season as a whole and will miss the group of seniors – they spent more than 20 minutes in the locker room after the game.

“We’re going to miss our eight seniors,” Copenhaver said. “We have a lot of good kids and that’s what took us so long in there. Fantastic young ladies. And I like the kids coming up. I think we’re going to try and reload and start over.”