JCA girls hang on to top Wilmington in regional semifinal

COAL CITY – Throughout the regular season, Joliet Catholic Academy suffered some tough losses. Of course, that will happen when you combine the fact that JCA is a young team and that the East Suburban Catholic Conference features so many powerhouse programs.

Those trials by fire in the regular season, which resulted in the Angels entering Tuesday night’s Class 2A Coal City Regional semifinal with a 6-25 record, came in handy as playoff preparation. JCA beat Wilmington 36-33 to advance to Thursday night’s regional championship game against Reed-Custer, which upset top-seeded Coal City in the other semifinal.

“Our schedule really helps us,” said JCA sophomore guard Abby Dulinsky, who led all scorers with 20 points. “After playing all those big, tough teams in our conference, it makes the teams easier to guard when we get into regionals.

“Going against pressure defenses in our conference helps, too. We work on it a lot during practices and try to make each other better.”

The Angels used defense and rebounding to control the first half. Dulinsky scored five of the team’s seven points in the first quarter, and the defense did not allow Wilmington to score until a basket by Sami Liaromatis – who led the Wildcats with 14 points – with 1:35 to play in the first.

Joliet Catholic carried a 7-2 lead into the second quarter and extended it to 17-6 at halftime behind five more points from Dulinsky, three from Emma Birsa, who finished with 10 points and 15 rebounds, and two from Allison Lesters.

“In the first half, our defensive intensity was through the roof,” JCA assistant coach Matt Adler said. “We had a few nervous jitters offensively early. Our rebounding in the first half helped us limit Wilmington to one shot on a lot of their possessions.

“Give credit to Wilmington. They continued to fight hard. That’s playoff basketball, and the schedule we played all year helped prepare us for this.”

Wilmington, which finishes with a 20-10 record, got its offense going midway through the third quarter. Trailing 23-13, the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run to tie the game as Liaromatis scored six of those points and Alaina Clark and Nina Egezio each scored on a putback basket.

Joliet Catholic got the lead back on a free throw by Birsa, but Wilmington got a pair of free throws by Melia Hincherick to give her team its first lead 25-24. JCA’s Brenna Zafra scored on a nifty reverse layup late in the third, and Dulinsky capped the period with a pair of free throws with 1.3 seconds left, sending JCA into the fourth with a 28-25 lead.

A basket by Liaromatis put the Wildcats ahead 33-30 with just over 2:00 to play. JCA began its rally with a pair of free throws by Birsa at the 1:55 mark, then took the lead 34-33 on a basket by Dulinsky with 51.6 seconds remaining. Wilmington’s next shot attempt missed, and Dulinsky grabbed the rebound, getting fouled with 5.9 seconds left. She sank both free throws to ice the game for the Angels.

“I was a little nervous,” Dulinsky said about the free throws, “but we practice situations like that all the time in practice, and we do it at the end of practice when we are tired like we would be in a game.

“It feels really good to be playing for the regional title. We’re excited.”

“It’s nice to have a player like Abby,” Adler said. “She’s a very mature sophomore, and she can play a high level of basketball.”

Reed-Custer 48, Coal City 33: Reed-Custer, seeded seventh in the subsectional, beat the top-seeded Coalers on their own floor. Alyssa Wollenzien led the Comets with 22 points, while Gwen Stewart scored 10.

“It was awesome,“ Reed-Custer coach Shelby Zwolinski said. ”Just seeing the emotions on every single one of my girls’ faces walking through the lines and in the locker room, it’s just so exciting.

“I told the girls before the game that the first four minutes of the first quarter and first four minutes of the third quarter will make the difference, and I think it really did. I was watching the clock tick very slowly in the fourth quarter until it got to something I knew we were comfortable with. It was 32 minutes of the girls battling hard.

“We played our game of basketball. We didn’t have to do anything crazy, just played simple, made easy passes, just played our game.”