Maine West and Evanston to meet in sectional finals for the second time in three years

Maine West shrugs off slow start to beat GBS

Come late February and early March, there is no such thing as an easy game.

The top ranked Maine West Warriors, found that out the hard way in Monday night’s sectional semifinal as they struggled early on against Glenbrook South.

Fortunately for the Warriors and their unblemished record, a strong third quarter performance showed why they remain undefeated, as they defeated Glenbrook South 60-46 to advance to their third straight Sectional final.

The fifth seeded Titans started the game with an intent to slow down the Maine West offense.  The strategy employed by retiring coach Steve Weissenstein, initially worked to perfection as GBS held a one point lead at the end of the first quarter, and only trailed 15-14 at the half.

After the initial 16 minutes, an unimpressed Coach Kim deMarigny discussed the halftime talk to her team: “I really can’t say, I really couldn’t repeat what I said to them other than if you want it you better go take it because Glenbrook South is well coached and well prepared and they are not going to lay down for you.  It’s my job to let them know they better get with it.”

Whatever was said, it was clear that the team got the message especially Maine West junior Angela Dugalic who after being held to three points in the first half broke out to put up 14 points in the third frame which saw the Warriors jump out to a 44-28 lead at the end of three.

Maine West would go on to control the clock to easily see out the game, which happened to end the fantastic career of Coach Weissenstein.

In a more than 30 year career, Coach Weissenstein amassed over 500 victories with stints coaching both the boys and girls at Glenbrook South.

Evanston handles cold shooting Loyola

The second game of the evening saw a matchup between the #2 seed Loyola Ramblers and the #3 seed Evanston Wildkits.

What was expect to be a tightly contested matchup, saw Evanston take a comfortable 48-35 win after an untimely poor shooting performance from Loyola.

Much like the first game of the night, both teams spent much of the opening quarter getting their feet underneath them and figuring their opponent out.

Loyola senior Julia Martinez led the way early, scoring nine of her team’s 12 first quarters points while on the other side of things, Evanston was clearly set on getting the ball inside to 6’2” junior Ambrea Gentle.

After Loyola scored the first five points of the second quarter to take a 17-14, Evanston’s defense completely shut down the Ramblers, leading to a 12-0 run for the halftime lead. 

Loyola’s shooting woes continued well into the second half as they were unable to get anything going from behind the three point arc.

While Evanston weren’t scoring in bunches, Jayla Turchin (12 points) Tayler Mayne (10 points) and co. did more than enough to never see their lead cut below nine points for the rest of the night as Evanston’s defensive intensity never let up.

The two games sets up an all CSL sectional-final, the second meeting of this magnitude in the past three seasons.

Maine West has gotten the better of Evanston in their previous four meetings, but all bets are off once it gets down to the final 16.

Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM on Thursday at Beardsley gym on the Evanston campus.