Amboy falls to St. Edward in Class 1A sectional championship

HINCKLEY – St. Edward crashed the glass hard against Amboy during Thursday’s Class 1A Hinckley-Big Rock Sectional championship.

Earning multiple second-chance scoring opportunities from such efforts, the Green Wave took down the Clippers 54-44.

“Elgin St Edward is a good team,” Amboy coach Mike McCracken said. “Well, they had nine regular baskets and nine 3s, and the high-low in the second quarter kind of bothered us. So we had to pack it in more than we wanted and didn’t get to defend 3 as much as we wanted to.”

St. Edward (25-10), which advanced to Monday’s Class 1A Harvest Christian Supersectional against Willows Academy, is vying for its first trip to state since taking third place in Class 2A in 2017.

Sophomore Savannah Lynch led the Green Wave with 26 points. She earned 10 of those points via second-chance opportunities, including two of her four 3-pointers.

“I mean, honestly we knew that if we crashed the boards we would be able to get open shots and I think us doing that, all of us benefited,” she said. “All of us got free for 3s and that opened our lead and gave us the confidence so we could keep building it. I think getting boards is one of our biggest strengths, and I think we kind of stunned them which was to our benefit.”

Junior Jillian Anderson’s lone basket of the game followed by a three-point play from senior Emily Sachs (nine points, eight rebounds) gave the Clippers a 20-13 lead with 5:23 remaining in the second quarter.

Amboy (26-8) couldn’t extend its lead, though. The Clippers only mustered a free throw and basket from sophomore Alexa McKendry (nine points) to close out the half, yet only trailed 27-23.

Lynch’s 3-pointer with 6:27 in the third quarter accounted for the first points of the second half and sparked a 9-0 run as the Green Wave began to seize control of the game.

“We had a lot of shots early, but they just weren’t going in, especially right around the basket,” St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said. “It was definitely something we talked about at halftime, to have the confidence to back each other up and the next play mentality. And then in the second half we were able to get into our flow of the game a little bit better and push transition. We got a couple transition buckets and it opened things up a little bit and gave us a little more room to work the offense.”

St. Edward junior Ginger Younger made a free throw with 4:21 left in the third quarter to extend the Green Wave lead to double digits for the first time at 33-23. While Younger missed her second free throw attempt, junior Jordan Sauls (six points, six rebounds) ran down the rebound and sent a pass back beyond the arc to Lynch who knocked down the 3 for a 36-23 lead seconds later.

Amboy senior Tyrah Vaessen (nine points, nine rebounds) finally ended what amounted to a 23-3 Green Wave run with a couple free throws with 3:55 left in the third quarter.

The Clippers wouldn’t cut their deficit to within single digits until senior Addison Pertell (seven points) made two free throws with 43.9 seconds left to play.

Pertell had broken her thumb during the second game of the season before returning late in December. She didn’t play nearly 100 days ago when Amboy dropped a 55-27 game to St. Edward on Nov. 23 either.

“We definitely always tried to stay positive about everything since the very beginning of the season,” she said. “It’s been a rough run at times, but we’re so close as a team so we just persevered through it. I think we made a really really good run and winning the regional was huge, and to get as far as we could, we did great.”

Lynch simply was too much to handle for the Clippers.

“In our regional championship we contained Marquette’s best player really well and held her to only four points,” Pertell said. “We kind of tried to do that again and sometimes it doesn’t work.”

Senior Elizabeth Leadley scored 11 points for the Green Wave.

A lot of things worked this year for the Clippers. They just happened to run into the Green Wave without any surfers.

“When you’re 4-5 early and you get up to (26) wins, that’s a good comeback,” McCracken said. “We beat the first two private schools and couldn’t get the third one down.”