For a brief moment, Huntley appeared primed for the upset.
Taking on No. 1 seed Libertyville during Tuesday’s IHSA Class 4A sectional semifinal at Guilford, senior guard Aubrina Adamik drove inside for a go-ahead layup to give the No. 2 seeded Red Raiders a 34-33 advantage with 3:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.
It would be the second-to-last field goal of Huntley’s season, as the Wildcats overcame a lengthy scoring drought and went on a 9-0 run in the game’s final minutes. Despite a buzzer-beating triple from Adamik, who led the Red Raiders with 12 points, Libertyville held on for a 42-37 victory in an intense semifinal matchup.
“Libertyville is a great team and I think we held our own,” Adamik said. “We’ve been the underdogs all season and I think that, in every game, we’re just trying to give it our all and play together as one. I wouldn’t want to be with any other team for my senior year.”
The Wildcats (27-6) will advance and face either Hononegah or Carmel for the sectional title on Thursday. Junior guard Lily Fisher recorded 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead Libertyville, which held Huntley (24-10) without a field goal for about the first six minutes until Avery Suess made a cutting layup on an Adamik bounce pass.
“It was just awesome to be back out there and play tough for my teammates,” said Suess, who played through an injured knee and gave Huntley four points, three rebounds and two assists off the bench. “I wanted to play well and grab every loose ball for them.”
The Red Raiders were equally active on defense, creating turnovers with active hands and jumping passing lanes to steal the ball away. Both teams remained tied 6-6 entering the second quarter, where Libertyville’s Ella Pawelczyk sprinted down the floor and made a transition layup off a Red Raider miss to spark a 6-0 Wildcat run.
A mid-range jumper from Adamik at the 3:26 mark of the quarter quelled a long scoreless run for the Red Raiders. Huntley brought the Wildcats back within five after sophomore Evie Freundt found a cutting Luca Garlin for a layup to make the score 17-12. Freundt finished with 11 points, five rebounds and six made free throws.
“We knew going into this game that everybody needed to do their part because they have a Division I prospect in [Lily] Fisher,” Huntley coach Steve Raethz said. “They space the floor incredibly well so they present some difficult matchups with what they do offensively. I thought our kids really stuck to the game plan of staying connected defensively and being gap disciplined.”
Trailing 19-14 after the first half, Huntley found its action toward the basket in the third quarter. Multiple players, including Freundt, made driving layups as the Red Raiders sought to curl more girls toward the rim against Libertyville’s active man-to-man defense.
“We really looked for each other,” Freundt said. “We looked to get downhill more, get into the contact and finish hard. It started with togetherness, finding each other and knowing where we are on the court. I sometimes shied away from the contact in the first half, but with the help of my coaches, I attacked and finished hard.”
A triple by Freundt off a pass from Suess, who put in a layup soon after, helped Huntley bring the Wildcats within three, 31-28, after three quarters. Libertyville briefly switched to a 2-3 zone early in the fourth, but behind Freundt and Adamik, the Red Raiders made it a one-point game before taking the lead on Adamik’s layup.
“We made some adjustments coming out of halftime,” Raethz said. “I thought we did a better job of taking pressure to the basket with cuts and with the dribble. We started to do a nice job of spacing the floor and as a result of that, it created some driving lanes and gave us some opportunities to get some finishes around the rim.”
Garlin collected six points and two assists for the Red Raiders, who defeated Guilford 35-33 last week to win their 13th regional title in program history. Pawelczyk, who made two second-half triples for Libertyville, aided the Wildcats with 12 points Tuesday night. The sectional championship game will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.