BELVIDERE – Every time she attempted a 3-pointer Friday, Sycamore freshman Quinn Carrier said she told herself that shot was going in.

She was right five of the six times she told herself that in the first quarter as the Spartans scored 24 of the first 26 points en route to a 68-38 win over Belvidere in the Class 3A Belvidere Regional championship.

“It’s confidence. I had to tell myself that shot’s going in,” said Carrier, who scored 15 points in the first quarter and 19 for the game. “The rhythm of the shots going in just kept me going.”

The Spartans (23-10) have won regional crowns in four straight postseasons and eight times since 2014. They’ll face Kaneland in a Class 3A Sycamore Sectional semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Sycamore.

On Friday they rolled from the start. Sophia Klacik opened the game with a 3-pointer, then Carrier hit 3s on the next three possessions. After Lexi Carlsen made a layup with 3:51 left in the first quarter, Belvidere coach Michael Bradford was forced to call his second time out. After the timeout and a Belvidere bucket, Carrier made her fourth straight 3.

“Quinn came out on fire and you keep feeding the hot hand,” Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said. “That set the tone for how the rest of the game was. ... She’s fully confident in herself and we’re fully confident in her as a playmaker and a player.”

The lead reached 24-2 with 36 seconds left in the first after another Carrier 3-pointer. The margin briefly reached 30 in the first minute of the third quarter on a Monroe McGhee layup, although the Spartans didn’t trigger the running clock until the final three minutes of the game, going up 66-36 on McGhee’s final layup of the game.

Carrier attempted only one more 3-pointer after the first quarter, missing it. But the Bucs started focusing on guarding the long-range shot, and that opened up the inside, where McGhee had a day. She scored 12 points in the second half, shot 8 for 8 on 2-point attempts, mostly layups, and finished with a game-best 20 points.

“Everybody was worried about the 3-point line, so when you stretch them out like that and then you start attacking the rim, it opens things up,” Wickness said. “Roe featured there in the second and third quarter when they started worrying about the 3-point line and all of a sudden things open up down low.”

Carlsen also focused on the inside, scoring eight of her 11 points on 2-point shots. She also had a game-high nine rebounds and a block.

McGhee said it felt great to not only win another regional title on a team with nine seniors, but to see Carrier step up. And even though the 5-foot-7 guard can shoot the 3, McGhee said she knew to turn her attention inside on Friday.

“I definitely have shot a lot of 3s the past couple games, but my main game is inside the paint,” McGhee said. “So I just wanted to get back to that. I saw they were playing us so uptight on the 3-point line, so I was like I can take my girl and I can finish.”

Wickness said keeping tabs on Belvidere’s Emma Pierson was a priority defensively for the Spartans. She led the Bucs with 12 points but shot 6 of 16, including 0 for 5 from 3-point range. Belvidere finished 1 for 13 from beyond the arc while Sycamore was 10 for 23.

The result was Carrier getting to lift a regional trophy in her first high school season.

“We did very good and I love playing with this team so much,” Carrier said. “It’s fun playing with them. ... It feels good, I love it and I’m so glad I got this opportunity to play up on varsity. Every game is just a new opportunity for me.”