St. Bede senior Lili McClain was nursing a sore back over the weekend, and coach Tom Ptak was concerned how she would play in Tuesday’s regional semifinals.

When Ptak heard she was going to be good to go, he said the Bruins got a big boost of confidence.

The Bruins carried that over to the court Tuesday night, outscoring Princeton 12-1 to end the second quarter and 12-3 to start the third on the way to a runaway 45-34 victory.

“You can’t deny it’s an advantage to host a regional. It’s a familiar environment for them,” Ptak said. “But we were a little worried. Lili had a little back issue Saturday. She didn’t play the second half and hadn’t practiced. When she said, ‘I can play,’ it raised our morale.”

“We knew we could do it. We wanted to do it. And just to come out here and play as a team like we did, everyone supporting each other, we got it done,” said McClain, who led the Bruins with 16 points. “It was great playing at home with all our fans bringing the energy and being someplace where we’re comfortable, it’s a lot easier.”

The Bruins (19-13) will play Alleman (15-17) for Thursday’s regional championship at 6:30 p.m. The Pioneers beat Kewanee 46-35 in Tuesday’s first semifinal.

“I’m excited. If we play like that, we can beat them. We can beat anyone,” McClain said.

“They’re tough. We have a battle, obviously,” Ptak said. “You can throw their record out, because they play stiff competition. We’ll watch film and make adjustments and figure out what we need to do. We’re in for a battle.

“We’re just glad to be playing for a regional championship. The 6 seed, we’re happy.”

Kiyrra Morris hit a 3-pointer to open the second quarter for a 15-12 Princeton lead. The Bruins scored nine straight and 12 out of the last 13 points in the quarter to go up 24-16 at the half.

Lili McClain hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the third quarter, turning the second into a four-point play when she was fouled with the charity toss to put the Bruins up 33-17.

“We started the second half with our size to see if we could get some inside looks, because I always believe the first couple minutes of the third quarter are always big. Get a couple buckets and extend the lead,” Ptak said.

Princeton’s Keighley Davis ended the half with a 3-pointer, but the Bruins took a 36-22 lead at quarter’s end.

“We had some really long spurts where we weren’t able to put the ball in the basket,” Princeton coach Tiffany Gonigam said. “One thing that we’ve been good at all season is turning defense into offense when we needed to. We had a tough time doing that tonight, too. Those two things together were not in our favor.

“St. Bede’s a really good team, and they’re really physical. They’ve got a lot of players that can shoot the ball well, and when you match that having to guard them inside, which you do, they’re a tough matchup for us.”

Ptak said things worked so well for the Bruins, they didn’t have to go deep into their playbook defensively.

“We knew we’d be in for a battle. Princeton’s a very good team. Their record indicates that, and we prepared for it,” he said. “We watched film and knew what their weapons were and kind of took care of them. We were prepared to go with the different defenses. We had three in mind, (but) our man was working.”

Sophomore center Payton Brandt led Princeton with 10 points. Davis added nine points to her all-time school scoring record.

For St. Bede, freshman Hannah Heiberger had eight points. Hanna Waszkowiak added seven and nine rebounds off the bench.

Gonigam and the Tigresses could only wonder how far they could have gone had senior standout and 1,000-point scorer Camryn Driscoll not been lost to a season-ending knee injury on Jan. 8. They were 14-0 with big aspirations, but then lost nine of their final 16 games with Driscoll out.

“Up to Christmas and that last game, I really felt like we were firing on all cylinders, but at the same time just scratching the surface, which was an amazing place to be,” Gonigam said. “Any player is hard to replace, but you’re talking about a kid who’s essentially played varsity since her freshman season (and started every game since her sophomore year). You’re replacing 32 minutes at point guard.

“It’s an impossible place to be in, but I haven’t seen a team rally around as much as this group did. We had our bumps, but we also had some really bright games, too. I thought every girl just started doing more.”

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Princeton's Madie Gibson knocks the ball loose from St. Bede's Lili McClain during the Class 2A Regional semifinal game on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026 at St. Bede Academy. (Scott Anderson)