Illinois Preps Insider’s girls basketball top-20: Post-sectionals

One thing that I have to constantly remind myself of is no score during this stage of the playoffs should be a surprise.

Despite the initial shock of seeing some scores roll in, you quickly remember that every team is here for a reason.

While it may not be much of a consolation prize, some of the teams that took the favorites to the brink during their sectional games were rewarded with a big jump.

I said it over twitter though, experience matters. It showed in Maine West’s overtime win over Evanston, Benet’s dismantling of a young Montini side, and with McAuley doing just enough to get past HF.

Finally, congrats to Marshall on their back to back state championships and Dorothy Gaters on her 10th career state title, that’s a lot of wins.

The only person I can see coming close to the titles record is Rob Smith if he stays at Simeon for an extended amount of time, but I have a hard time seeing him pass Gaters career wins total.

1. Maine West 1 (32-0) 1

Survived an excellent challenge from Evanston

2. Benet (27-5) 4

The Benet team we expected to see all season

3. Mother McAuley (32-2) 2

Made winning plays down the stretch

4. Nazareth (30-3) 5

Only Fenwick’s twitter account was able to block Annie Stritzel

5. Montini (30-5) 6

Ran into a Benet buzzsaw

6. Evanston (24-8) 11

Almost had Maine West

7. Fremd (29-5) 7

Season comes to an end earlier than expected

8. Whitney Young (25-6) 3

Couldn’t slow down Benet

9. Loyola (24-8) 8

Picked a bad time to go cold

10. St. Ignatius (24-9)  9

Really solid season for the Wolfpack

11. Wheaton-Warrenville South (23-8) 14

Lowest seed remaining

12. Lake Forest (28-7) 19

Completed the upset bid over Fremd

13. Simeon (21-11) 13

No games

14. Homewood-Flossmoor (21-9) 17

Ran out of gas in the fourth quarter

15. Lincoln-Way West (26-5) 12

Most of their starters will be back

16. Oswego (24-7) NR

Benet is going to be an absolute handful

17. New Trier (24-6) 15

No games

18. Marist (22-9) 18

No games

19. Thornwood (26-3) 10

HF slowed them down

20. Kenwood (20-12) 20

No games