Lincoln-Way West girls basketball team hopes depth will lead it past familiar foe

It’s hard to beat a team three times in the same season. That’s what everyone says, anyway. The Lincoln-Way West girls basketball team acknowledged the difficulty of the task after accomplishing the feat Thursday night.

The Warriors are hoping, however, that it will be an especially hard task Tuesday as they look to avoid losing to Lockport for the third time this season.

The Warriors had the unenviable task of battling Lincoln-Way East on Thursday night in Frankfort with the regional championship on the line. Although Lincoln-Way West knocked off the Griffins 50-42 Jan. 7 and 52-42 Jan. 30, this was for a chance to make the Class 4A Rich Township Sectional semifinals.

It wasn’t easy as the Griffins fought throughout and actually led at one point in the fourth quarter. The Warriors were able to accomplish a difficult task, however, and win the contest 48-42.

It was a challenge that saw the entire team contribute. Mackenzie Roesner led the way with 12 points, but Molly Finn and Caroline Smith scored eight apiece, Reagan McCracken scored nine, and Ava Tisch chipped in seven.

Even those without big stat lines stepped up big. Heaven Ward was asked to come in during the fourth quarter with Smith on the bench for a stretch and came up big with four rebounds and a few clutch free throws to keep the Warriors ahead.

“I wasn’t even feeling the pressure,” Ward said. “I was just out there, and I shot it.”

Having a multitude of contributors has helped the Warriors stretch their record to 22-11. Coach Ryan White said that depth was built up when Smith went down with an injury for several games, forcing them to adapt.

“We lost Caroline earlier in the year and we didn’t perform well, but I almost feel like that’s come back to help us,” White said. “They didn’t panic when Caroline went out tonight, and we got great minutes from Heaven Ward.”

Smith, too, believed that the unity of the Warriors has helped lead them to regional semis.

“Everyone in practice works as hard as we can,” she said. “We get along very well outside of basketball, too. Having that confidence and connection in each other has really helped a lot. We trust each other. ... It’s very critical for us to have [depth]. Anyone can make great plays. There’s a different stat leader every game.”

Lincoln-Way West is the third seed in the Rich Township Sectional, while Lockport is the second seed. In that sense, it wouldn’t be much of an upset if the Warriors win when the two meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Richton Park.

Anyone who has followed the season series, however, will know it would be a massive win.

The first time the Warriors and the Porters faced off, it was Jan. 18 and the Porters had little trouble, reeling off a 40-28 win. The second time, however, it took the Porters overtime to win 51-47. From a rough outing to a tough loss, Lincoln-Way West will be fighting to make the third time a victory.

“The further you go in the playoffs, the tighter the defense needs to be,” White said. “Lockport is very good defensively. ... We’re going to have to rebound and play at the level that teams like [Lockport] are able to do. If we’re able to do that, we’ve shown we can play with a lot of people.”

Revenge would be nice, but a trip to the sectional finals would be much nicer. For what it’s worth, the Warriors aren’t thinking of Tuesday as a revenge game. It’s just business as usual against a team they’re familiar with.

One they’re confident they can beat this time.

“We’ve already played them,” Finn said. “As long as we have energy and motivation, I think we can definitely beat them.”