On Feb. 11, Bishop McNamara’s Eliana Isom had her senior night spoiled with a 22-point loss to Joliet Catholic.

Just eight days later, Isom and her Fightin’ Irish teammates got another shot at the Angels in Thursday’s championship game of the IHSA Class 2A Bishop McNamara Regional.

They did not waste that opportunity.

Bishop McNamara (13-16) secured a second straight regional title with a 52-45 win over Joliet Catholic (14-16), flipping last week’s disappointing result on the same floor where it happened.

Isom finished with 10 points, seven of which came in the fourth quarter to help keep the Irish ahead.

“Senior night, that wasn’t us,” Isom said. “We didn’t play to our potential, but we played as a team today. It was real Irish basketball. I feel like everybody worked as a team for us to get the dub today and keep going.”

There was an early 2-2 tie followed by four lead changes in the opening minutes Thursday, but after McNamara’s Trinitee Thompson drilled a 3-pointer to put the Irish up 10-9. They did not trail again.

That lead grew to 16-9 by the end of the first quarter and 32-20 by halftime.

Joliet Catholic briefly saw its deficit grow to 14 points in the third, but managed to battle back and cut it to 39-33 entering the fourth quarter.

An Emma Napier 3-pointer made it a 39-36 game, but the Irish rattled off an 8-2 run to retake control for good.

Trinitee Thompson scored five of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter. She also finished with seven rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocks

“It feels really good to pull out the win, especially since the season didn’t really go the way we wanted to and nobody really expected us to win,” Thompson said. “Everybody came in off the bench and everybody played their role, and that’s the reason we won.”

Jaide Burse had six points and eight rebounds for the Irish. Freshmen Mahlyia Johnson and Dylan Pallissard were productive off the bench, with Johnson knocking down a pair of 3-pointers and finishing with eight points and Pallissard adding four points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Despite posting 12 fewer wins in the regular season this season than they did last year, the Irish still managed to peak at the right time.

Head coach Khadaizha Sanders, who has now led her alma mater to three regional titles after winning a state title with the Irish as a player in 2015, said this season’s group did a great job battling through more rough patches than past regional-winning teams had to deal with.

“This one means a little bit more because it wasn’t an easy season,” she said. “We were up and down, we struggled and had spurts where we were just trying to figure it out. I told them the regular season is one thing, but when postseason comes, everyone’s 0-0.

“There was no doubt in my mind that we would come in and win the basketball game. I told them that you’ve got to just keep believing at the end of the day.”

Isom and her teammates were certainly not ready for the season to come to and end on Thursday, and fully intend to keep believing until the season ultimately has to come to an end.

“It feels great because these are my sisters and its my last year playing with them, and I want to go to state with them,” she said. “I feel like we’ve got to keep going, and there’s more games ahead.”

For Joliet Catholic, freshmen Emma Napier and Makenzie Keltz led the team with 12 and 11 points respectively. Junior Abby Dulinsky added 10.

Senior Breanna Zafra, Allie Lesters, Ryan Stobaugh and Symone Holman had their careers come to an end.

The Angels have a young core set to return and build off this resurgent season in which they doubled last season’s win total under new head coach Matthew Adler.

“It’s a special group of girls with some senior leadership and young talent,” Adler said. “It was just a night where the shots weren’t falling our way, and compounded with free throw issues and finishing at the rim, it was tough to overcome.

“It’s been a really fun first year. I’m so lucky to coach at Joliet Catholic with such a special group of girls.”