Bloomington Central Catholic has held off a late Quincy-Notre Dame comeback attempt to claim the Class 2A girls state basketball title with a 64-58 victory.
Allie Norton calmly hit four straight free throws in the final 18 seconds Saturday night at Redbird Arena in Normal. She closed with a game-high 27 points for the Saints (32-1) while teammate Jess Reinhart added 19.
The Lady Raiders (30-3) had rallied from an earlier double-digit deficit and trailed 62-58 after a Leigh McLaughlin’s driving layup, her third in the final two minutes. But Notre Dame got no closer and Norton preserved the victory with her late free throws.
Karly Gengenbacher led the Lady Raiders with 25 points, Jordan Frericks had 15 and McLaughlin added 11.
Hinckley-Big Rock 38, Jacksonville-Routt 32 : Jenna Thorp scored 14 points as Hinckley-Big Rock claimed its second straight Class 1A girls state basketball championship with a 38-32 victory over Jacksonville-Routt.
The Royals (33-2) hit 7-of-11 free throws in the final 3 minutes and 27 seconds to slowly pull away from the Rockets Saturday. It was the third-lowest-scoring Illinois championship game since tourney play begin in 1977.
Kelly Lonergan had a game-high 15 points, including four three-pointers, to lead Jacksonville-Routt (28-7). Maxzine Rossler added nine points and 15 rebounds for Hinckley-Big Rock.
The Royals closed the season with 17 straight victories and are 64-5 over the past two seasons.
