Girls Basketball: Nazareth completes dominating season, beats Lincoln for first IHSA state championship

NORMAL – Olivia Austin lingered for a moment alone, then joined her Nazareth teammates in a jubilant mob scene near midcourt.

The wait is over.

Nazareth’s disappointing end to last season proved to be only a dream deferred.

The No. 1-ranked Roadrunners capped a near-perfect season in familiar fashion with a dominating 63-52 win over previously unbeaten No. 2 Lincoln in the Class 3A final to win Nazareth’s first state basketball championship.

Austin, a junior who was part of Nazareth’s first state volleyball championship in 2021, led the way with 23 points and 12 rebounds. The Roadrunners (35-1) finished the season on a 30-game win streak and unbeaten against in-state opponents.

“We’ve been using last season as fuel,” Austin said. “Everyone on the team knew what it felt like. Although we knew the talent we had, we couldn’t expect to make it here. We decided to work hard all year and never let up.”

DePaul recruit Grace Carstensen, Nazareth’s lone senior starter, also reflected on the pain of losing last year’s final to Carmel. It burned in this group a hot desire to come back and seal the deal.

“That was probably one of the moments I am going to remember for the rest of my life, probably one of the most devastating moments of my basketball career,” said Carstensen, who scored 11 points with five steals in her final game. “These girls as well. It sticks with you. Coming back over the summer together, we all wanted to come back here and do this.”

Nazareth, with three starters either 6-foot or 5-foot-11, held a distinct size advantage over a Lincoln team that had no starter taller than 5-9.

It played out as one would expect.

Nazareth doubled Lincoln’s scoring in the paint, 36-18, and made it a priority to get shots near the rim from the jump.

Austin had 10 points and fellow post Danielle Scully six in the first half alone as Nazareth took a 31-25 edge into halftime.

“Before the game we saw that we had a size advantage and we wanted to capitalize off that, especially going in and out with their collapsing defense,” Austin said. “We wanted to take advantage of the high-low.”

Austin is an unusually gifted and versatile athlete.

A hitter in volleyball, she also was the leading scorer on Nazareth’s soccer team last season. She showcased varied skills on the basketball court March 4, aggressively pursuing rebounds, driving through the lane for layups while only missing one shot – and even making five free throws, an ability she’s made progress with.

“I’ve told other people I think Olivia is one of the best-kept secrets around,” Nazareth coach Eddie Stritzel said. “A couple years ago, she came to us as a raw, raw athlete. She is realizing her potential. She is just a tremendous, tremendous athlete. The best part is at the beginning of the year we didn’t want her at the free-throw line and now we’re comfortable with her there.”

Leading by six at halftime, Nazareth found another gear out of the break.

Carstensen and Mary Bridget Wilson 3-pointers ignited a 13-0 run. Wilson’s second 3 gave Nazareth its biggest lead at 47-27.

Lincoln (36-1) chipped away, but never got closer than nine points.

“I said to the girls, the first couple minutes let’s extend this,” Stritzel said. “There is nothing schematically we did different, but I told the girls let’s try to put an end to this. They listened and we got it to 20. We knew Lincoln would make a run. I told the girls they’re not 35-0 for a reason.”

Lincoln was 35-0 coming into the state semifinals, in large part because of the excellence of junior guard Kloe Froebe.

Froebe, averaging 28 points a game this season, set an all-class state finals record with 45 points in Lincoln’s semifinal win over Deerfield on March 3.

But she was held to 19 points by Nazareth and attempted only seven shots. Froebe got to the free-throw line 16 times and had seven assists, but Nazareth made it a priority to not let her go off. Guards Amalia Dray and Wilson, at the top of Nazareth’s zone, constantly had eyes and hands not far from Froebe.

“We call it our ‘lemon’ defense. We were just trying to squeeze her. Basically get the ball out of her hands,” Scully said. “We knew the other girls could score, but we wanted to keep it out of her hands.”

Wilson added 11 points and Dray had 10 for the Roadrunners, part of a talented junior class that helped bring Nazareth to the top.

Stritzel came to Nazareth in the 2016-2017 season and in short order turned the Roadrunners into one of the state’s elite programs.

Nazareth took second in Class 3A in his second season and third the next year in 2019. The Roadrunners, after the loss to Carmel last season, came back better than ever this year.

Of their 35 wins, including Stritzel’s 400th career victory, only three came by single digits.

“Last year ended with a bitter taste in our mouth. We told them we had a great chance to win this year, but we’re not going to let it get to us. We’re going to play loose and we’re going to coach loose,” Stritzel said. “We’ve taken on all comers. This is an amazing, amazing defensive effort. I’ve been around basketball my whole life and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better defensive team than we have been all year.”

Nazareth returns almost its entire lineup, save Carstensen. Lincoln has an all-junior starting lineup.

Stritzel noted there won’t be a Class 3A rematch next year. Nazareth will be moved up to Class 4A.

The goal won’t change.

“We are going to try to repeat in Class 4A,” he said.