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Before Evyn Carrier and the Sycamore girls basketball team knew their opponent for the Class 3A Kaneland Sectional championship, the junior center said the Spartans were ready for either a rematch against Montini or an upset-minded Burlington Central team.
It turned out the Spartans will get a shot against the Broncos for the second straight postseason, but Carrier said the team would be ready no matter what because of the lofty expectations the team has.
“We’ll take it seriously whoever it is,” Carrier said. “We want state, and we want it bad.”
Sycamore earned its spot in the title game with a 53-29 win over Providence Catholic, while the Broncos beat former Montini player Taylor Charles and Burlington Central, 54-35. The winner will face either Carmel (24-7) or Deerfield (26-5) at 7 p.m. Monday in the Class 3A Dundee-Crown Supersectional with a state berth on the line.
The Broncos (25-8) and Spartans (31-2) met in a sectional final in 2020, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that eliminated the 2021 postseason.
Sycamore came from behind in that game and led in the fourth quarter only to lose to Montini, 61-55. The Broncos went on to finish third in the state.
Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said it’s a totally different Montini team – Charles had 13 points, eight rebounds and three steals in the win last time. The top scorer for each team in that game is now playing Division 1 college ball - Sycmaore’s Kylee Feuerbach for Iowa and Montini’s Taris Thornton at Eastern Illinois.
And even though three of Sycamore’s current starters saw significant playing time – Faith Feuerbach, Evyn Carrier and Ella Shipley – in that game, Wickness said the Spartans are different as well.
“It’s a totally different team,” Wickness said. “I think they have maybe one girls that played against us from what we’ve scouted. We have a totally different team. The girls have grown a lot from that game, and I know that that game has served as a motivation factor the past two years, and how hard they’ve been working.”
Carrier scored 27 points Tuesday against the Celtics. As a freshman against Montini, she came into the game and sparked a Sycamore comeback, earning a start in the second half.
Sam Mogilinski scored 20 points against Burlington Central, and Victoria Matulevicius scored 22.
Wickness said the Spartans used the long weekend to do some scouting of Burlington Central and Montini to be prepared if Sycamore won Tuesday, given the short turnaround to Thursday’s sectional title game.
“It’s going to hit home a little,” Carrier said. “They definitely aren’t the same team they were my freshman year, but from the film we watched they have a lot of good shooters. The defense we had tonight definitely needs to switch over to the game Thursday.”