Girls basketball: Galesburg pulls away from La Salle-Peru down the stretch in 3A regional semifinal

STERLING – For much of Tuesday night’s Class 3A Sterling Regional semifinal between Galesburg and La Salle-Peru, it was a lot of 4 on 4.

Galesburg’s No. 4, Kiarra Kilgore, and L-P’s No. 4, Brooklyn Ficek, traded baskets quite a few times throughout the game. But Kilgore and the Silver Streaks used runs early in the third quarter and midway through the fourth to pull away for a 63-43 victory at Musgrove Fieldhouse.

The Streaks advance to Thursday night’s regional title game against Dixon, which overcame a long shooting slump to defeat rival Sterling 29-21 in the other semifinal.

“I’m just happy that the girls are so excited about the win,” Galesburg coach Evan Massey said. “You don’t want it to be just business, so I thought their reaction to the game was certainly positive.”

It was a late surge by Galesburg (22-10) that turned a tight game into a 20-point final.

Ficek nailed a 3 after a crossover dribble to gain some space from her defender to open the fourth quarter, bringing La Salle-Peru (18-11) within 47-42 with 7:14 remaining. On the next trip down the court after a defensive stop, Ficek again had a look at a 3, this one from deep on the left wing, but it was off target, and the Streaks were off and running.

Abigail Davidson took a feed from Kilgore for a post basket, then Kilgore scored a runout layup after a steal and feed from Capre Ferguson. Kilgore then assisted Kadynce Lydic’s runout layup 24 seconds later, then Ferguson went all the way to the basket for a layup before feeding Abby Lingafelter down low for a three-point play.

In the span of 1:58, Galesburg’s lead went from five points to 16, 58-42, with 4:29 remaining.

“We attacked, we made the extra pass and just moved the ball really well,” Kilgore said about the late surge. “We looked for the open person, and we got good shots. We knew we had it at that point, we just had to keep doing the things that were giving us those opportunities.”

“When it’s 47-42, if Brooklyn hits that 3, it might be a whole different ballgame,” La Salle-Peru coach Hollis Vickery said. “We made a few mistakes at the end there, some of the cross-court passes cost us, and they scored some points off of turnovers on us. They played well. Galesburg’s a good team, and we just needed to play a little bit better.”

It wasn’t the first time in the game where the Cavaliers made things close, only to see the Streaks pull away.

Ficek closed the first quarter with two 3-pointers in the final 58 seconds, the second one a half-court buzzer-beater to pull L-P within 16-13. She then fed Jenisis Greening for a 3 early in the second to make it an 18-16 ballgame.

But Galesburg’s Abigail Davidson scored on a putback, Grace Nelson scored a runout layup, and Alexis Edgerson scored on a baseline drive before Kilgore had a strong take to the hoop and then hit two free throws for a 26-17 lead.

A 3 by Angela Smudzinski again brought the Cavaliers within 26-22 with 1:15 left in the second quarter, but Lydic’s putback with 34 seconds left gave Galesburg a 28-22 lead at halftime.

“Early in the game, I thought both teams had jitters; I certainly know we missed a lot of shots that we should make,” Massey said. “I think then once we missed shots, our pass selection wasn’t great and we had some turnovers with it. The first half was definitely kind of a sloppy game offensively.”

The Streaks cleaned that up out of the locker room. Davidson scored inside, then Kilgore nabbed one of her nine steals and fed Lingafelter for a runout layup. After an L-P timeout, Davidson scored a layup on a Lingafelter feed from the high post after a crisp pass from Lydic to start the play, and Galesburg led 35-22 with 5:12 left in the third.

But Ficek scored on a putback and drive to the hoop, then Addison Duttlinger scored off a Bailey Pode assist before Ficek nailed a 3. Duttlinger assisted on a Pode post bucket, then hit a pair of 3s in the final 1:27 to bring the Cavs back within 47-39 to close the third quarter.

“Our energy really got us together, and it just helped us play hard,” Ficek said. “Most of our shots come from outside, so that’s what we get our energy from and that’s how we all come together and push off each other’s energy.”

Defense was the name of the game most of the way. L-P committed 24 turnovers thanks in part to 13 Galesburg steals, but the Cavs packed in a zone defense to make sure drives into the lane by Kilgore and the height advantage of the 6-foot-1 Davidson didn’t hurt them.

“Our 2-3 [zone], we kind of stay inside and guard the paint more than the outside,” Ficek said. “Other teams can shoot, but we’d rather not have them shooting layups, even if it means giving up some 3s.”

For their part, the Streaks did the best they could to bottle up Ficek, whose ball-handling skills and ability to find her shot inside and outside were on full display.

“No. 4 [Ficek], we tried our hardest to limit her touches, but she’s just really, really good,” Massey said.

“We were able to get up and put pressure on the ball, and be in help side for No. 4, because obviously she’s great – she can handle the ball, she can shoot, she can attack – so we had to really make sure we were up in the passing lanes ready to shoot the gap, and help on her,” Kilgore added.

Kilgore had 26 points, four rebounds, three assists, nine steals and a blocked shot, while Lydic added 11 points and four rebounds for Galesburg. Davidson had eight points, three boards and two blocks, and Lingafelter finished with seven points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Ficek finished with 22 points and three assists, hitting four 3s for L-P. Duttlinger had all nine points and all four rebounds in the second half, and Greening added five points and four rebounds. Pode also pulled down four boards for the Cavs, who spent quite a big of time on the court over the final month of their season.

“The second half of the season just wore us down. We had 13 games in 25 days prior to this, and we had 11 days off before we started that, and that’s no way to finish the season,” Vickery said. “We struggled during the season, I thought a lot of our conditioning fell apart. It’s hard to figure out what to do with one or two practices every two weeks.

“But it’s a great group of kids. One of our mottos the whole year was ‘Play so hard the other team never wants to play you again,’ and I think we did that tonight.”