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RICHTON PARK — With a little more than 10 seconds to play in Tuesday’s Class 4A Rich Township Sectional semifinal, Lincoln-Way West had the ball and trailed Lockport by a point.
A pass to the Warriors' Molly Finn was deflected and went into the backcourt. Finn ran it down and headed back toward the Warriors' side of the floor.
A passage opened up through the middle of the lane, and Finn took it. She drove to the basket and laid the ball up. It bounced first off the backboard, then once on the rim before falling through to give her team a 49-48 lead with 2 seconds remaining.
Lockport could not get a shot off and the Warriors (23-11) advanced to Thursday’s title game against Marist.
“It was so stressful,” Finn said about tracking the ball down and getting it to the basket. “I saw a lane open up and I went through it. I was a little nervous when it bounced on the rim, but I was so happy when it went in.”
The play nearly didn’t happen.
“When we got it in the backcourt, I had my hands up and ready to call timeout,” Lincoln-Way West coach Ryan White said. “Then, I saw the lane open up and decided to trust my players.
“Molly did a great job of getting to the basket.”
At the start, it looked like a hot-shooting Lockport team wouldn’t give the Warriors a chance to be close at the end. The Porters got three 3-pointers from Laura Arstikaitis to spark a 13-0 run that turned a 4-4 tie into a 17-4 Porter lead.
In the final 30 seconds of the first quarter, though, Lincoln-Way West got back-to-back baskets by Caroline Smith, who led all scorers with 18 points, to close to 17-8 at the end of the quarter.
That momentum carried over into the second quarter as the Warriors scored the first seven points of the period to close to within 17-15. Suddenly, the rout was a dogfight, and Lockport held a slim 27-26 lead at halftime thanks to a pair of free throws with no time on the clock by Evelyn Ingram.
“After we fell behind so big so early, it might have been easy for our girls to hang their heads,” White said. “We saw what happened in the first game tonight [a 68-31 win by Marist over Sandburg], but our girls settled in and were only down one at halftime.
“We switched things up on defense between a 2-3 and a 3-2 zone. Once Lockport figured out the 2-3, we went to the 3-2 and kept switching to keep them off balance.”
Lockport, which finishes its season with a 28-5 record, was able to build a 33-28 lead midway through the third quarter, but West rallied and cut it to 38-37 entering the fourth.
The Warriors got a steal and layup by Finn (13 points) to start the fourth before she made 1 of 2 free throws and reserve guard Kaitlyn Weaver drained a 3-pointer for a 43-38 lead with 5:58 to play.
Lockport then scored the next five points, tying the game on a putback by Lucy Hynes (12 points, seven rebounds). Smith then hit 3 of 4 free throws before Lockport got a free throw by Alaina Peetz (13 points, eight rebounds) and a basket by Arstikaitis (13 points) to tie it at 46.
Hynes made a pair of free throws for a 48-46 Lockport lead with 53.2 seconds to play and Smith hit 1 of 2 with 47.1 left, setting up the final sequence.
“We had lost to Lockport twice earlier this season,” Finn said. “We used that as some extra motivation. It’s hard to beat a team three times in a season, and we were able to pull this one out when it mattered. You get a win like this and you start to think maybe this is our year.”
For Lockport, it was the end of a magical season that saw it improve from 13 wins a season ago to 28 this year.
“We did everything but win this one,” Lockport coach Darien Jacobs said. “The girls played their hardest. We knew Lincoln-Way West could catch fire and make a lot of shots in a hurry, so we weren’t taking it easy when we had a big lead early.
“It’s like looking in a mirror when we play Lincoln-Way West. They are balanced on offense like we are, they play good defense like we do and they don’t give up.”