Girls basketball: Nazareth routs St. Ignatius 60-32 to win IHSA Class 3A sectional title

CHICAGO – Nazareth coach Ed Stritzel said something Thursday night that other teams in the Class 3A postseason didn’t want to hear.

The Roadrunners are hitting their peak.

It’s hard to say that a team like Nazareth, whose only loss of the season is to a team from Wisconsin, hasn’t hit its peak already, but the Roadrunners have shown just how well they could play together during their postseason run.

Nazareth continued that dominating postseason against St. Ignatius on Thursday, taking down the Wolfpack, 60-32, to win the Class 3A Goode STEM Academy Sectional and its 27th straight game.

“I think tonight, we all played really well together,” Nazareth senior Gracie Carstensen said. “We just all knew what this game meant to all of us and we all brought it today. I’m proud of all the girls.”

The Roadrunners (32-1) showed just how well they could play together at the beginning of the second half by taking their game to another level. Nazareth led 19-10 after the first quarter and went into halftime with a 32-21 lead, but the Roadrunners wanted to put the game away for good.

Nazareth started the second half with a 15-1 run thanks to six points from Carstensen and five different Roadrunners scoring to take a 47-22 lead with 3:34 left in the third quarter.

“We needed to finish the game,” Carstensen said. “They’re a really good team and could come back at any time. So we knew we needed to keep pushing and pushing, and just finally bury it.”

Carstensen led the team with 21 points while Danielle Scully added 15 points and nine rebounds. Olivia Austin finished the night with 10 points and five rebounds as seven different Roadrunners scored in the win.

The Wolfpack tried to take away the Roadrunners’ size by mostly playing within the arc, daring Nazareth to shoot the 3-pointer. The Nazareth coaching staff prepared its team for this and the Roadrunners made the most of their open looks, knocking down eight 3-pointers.

“We’re a multi-dimensional team,” Stritzel said. “We can shoot it, our big kids can shoot the 3. We’re a tough matchup.”

Thursday’s high scoring output was just the latest dominating offensive performance for Nazareth. The Roadrunners have outscored their opponents 210-93 in three postseason games. Nazareth won its opening playoff game by forfeit.

The Roadrunners are looking for more despite winning their fourth sectional title in the past five postseasons. Nazareth is looking to win a state championship after losing in the state title game last season and making their third state finals appearance since 2017.

Nazareth will take on Fenwick in the supersectional for a second straight postseason on Monday in the Class 3A Concordia University Supersectional after taking down the Friars 46-30 last year.

The Roadrunners are hitting their stride at the right time, and they’re ready to make the most of it this time around.

“I’m just really excited to spend these last three games with these girls.” Carstensen said. “I’ve been playing with them since I was little and we’re just focused on getting better until the final game, playing our best game, then we’ll see what happens.”