Balanced attack, defense lead Providence girls past JCA for 20th win

JOLIET – It took a little while for Providence Catholic‘s girls basketball team to get going Tuesday night in a nonconference game at Joliet Catholic Academy.

Once they did get going, though, it was all Celtics (20-11) as they secured their 20th win of the season, 65-41.

Senior Molly Knight had the biggest scoring night for a balanced Providence attack, delivering 16 points. Eilish Raines, Liv Anderson, and Abbey O’Brien each scored eight points, freshman Kennedy Kotowski scored seven, and Taylor Healy and Sadie Webb both scored six.

“Twenty wins was one of our goals this season,” Knight said. “We knew it would be harder being in the GCAC Red with teams like Loyola and St. Ignatius in there, but it feels good to do it.

“We shared the ball really well. Taylor Healy did a good job of catching some of my passes, and we got to get a lot of girls some playing time. It was fun to watch them out there on the court because they push us so hard in practice.”

At the start, it was the Angels (6-25) pushing the Celtics.

After Raines scored the first basket of the game, JCA answered with six straight points – two each by Abigail Dulinski, Emma Birsa and Allison Lesters – to grab a 6-2 lead. Providence, however, countered by outscoring the Angels 10-2 the rest of the quarter, getting three points each from Knight and Kotowski in the run.

“It took us awhile to get going,” Providence coach Eileen Copenhaver said. “Give credit to JCA. They came out and played tough from the start. We had a good mix of scoring, led by Molly. She is coming off a big week at the GCAC Tournament and kept it going tonight.

“Once we were able to put some pressure on them, we were able to get some turnovers and get some baskets from our defense. That loosened things up for us.”

The Celtics carried their momentum from the end of the first quarter into the second, opening the period on a 13-2 run to move out to a 25-10 lead. Knight started the quarter with a long 3-pointer, then Healy scored six straight points. Knight followed with a driving basket, and Anderson capped the run with a putback basket.

JCA stopped the Celtics' run with a 3-pointer by Breanna Zafra to make it 25-13, and Dulinski, who had a game-high 19 points, scored at the buzzer to make it 33-17 at halftime.

Dulinski scored nine points in the third quarter to help keep the Angels within shouting distance, but Providence’s balance was too much to overcome. Raines scored twice off assists from Knight, and Knight made a 3-pointer and another basket, Kotowski and O’Brien each had a basket, and Grace Lustig added a pair of free throws for the Celtics as they built a 48-27 lead entering the fourth quarter.

On four occasions in the fourth quarter, Providence built the lead to 28 points, but JCA was able to avoid the running clock that starts when a team takes a 30-point lead. In the final few minutes, Providence substituted liberally and even got some girls from the JV team into the game.

“People think 20 wins happens all the time,” Copenhaver said. “But in the 52 years there has been girls basketball at Providence, this is only the seventh time we have won 20 games. Against the type of competition we usually play, 20 wins is pretty tough.

“It was nice to see us have good balance. Molly had a big game, but then we had three with eight, one with seven and two with six. The girls all did a good job of finding who was open and making good passes.”