Bishop McNamara heats up to down Peotone

KANKAKEE – Prior to Thursday’s trip to Bishop McNamara, Peotone head coach Shawn Bean told his six-win Blue Devils that about a quarter-century ago, boxer Buster Douglas shocked the world when he knocked out Mike Tyson, and that the Blue Devils needed to bring that same mentality to a Fightin' Irish team that just locked up a third straight 20-win season last week.

The Blue Devils threw the first punch, taking an early 8-5 lead on Mal Schroeder’s 3-pointer three minutes into the game. But once Bishop McNamara got gathered, the Irish scored the next 16 points and never looked back on their way to a 75-34 win on senior night.

The Irish improved to 21-7 with their ninth win in their past 10 games while the Blue Devils fell to 6-23.

Trinity Davis, who tallied a game-high 28 points for the Irish, said that the emotions that came with senior night had the team a little out of sorts early. But after a pep talk with head coach Khadaizha Sanders after the first quarter, they were able to dial in.

“At the beginning of the game, we were still kind of emotional knowing it’s our last game here,” Davis said. “Then it clicked, our energy. [Sanders] told us that we needed to lock in. It’s a game, and we’ve gotta win on senior night.”

Once the Irish started clicking, taking the lead for good when Leigha Brown split a pair of free throws to break an early 8-8 tie, the ability for them to get set in their full-court trap off of made baskets allowed the snowball effect to take place from there, allowing them to build a 36-16 lead by the half.

After Davis' show-stopping 28 points, which included a handful of 3-pointers, the Irish found balance in the scoring department. Trinitee Thompson tallied 14 points off the bench, followed by eight from Eliana Isom, seven from Brown and six apiece from Ella Langellier and Jaide Burse.

As they’ve recently reached the healthiest they’ll get all season – guard Kanai Jackson suffered a season-ending injury in the offseason – the Irish enter the postseason as undefeated Chicagoland Christian Conference champions and the top seed of the IHSA Class 2A St. Joseph-Ogden Regional.

Sanders, a 2015 McNamara graduate and former state champion with the Irish, is excited at the prospects of leading a potential run from the bench.

“I think the girls are in a really good spot,” Sanders said. “The girls are confident, they’re feeling good. It’s just time for us to get to business.”

A year removed from the program’s first-ever sectional championship, the Blue Devils came into the 2024-25 season with essentially an entirely new roster, led by a new coach in Bean after 300-game winner and athletic director Steve Strough stepped down from his coaching duties.

Bean, a 10-year veteran coach at Bloom, has seen his young team develop as the year’s gone on. After losing their first eight games and 14 of their first 15, the Blue Devils put together a pair of two-game win streaks after the holidays and played a much more competitive half of the Illinois Central Eight Conference season.

“I’m super proud of where the girls are from where they started,” Bean said. " ... There was no senior captain to lean on, a new coach, new system, new players, everything was new. Trying to adjust to the style and speed of the game when you go from JV to varsity is a big jump."

Schroeder had eight points to lead Peotone Thursday. Addison Brandau added five points, followed by four from Olivia Moe.