Nazareth coach Eddie Stritzel had a specific message for his star senior Stella Sakalas in a conversation Friday morning before their state semifinal.

“Even when she’s not her best she’s really good,” Stritzel said, “but I told her I wanted her to end her career playing her best.”

Sakalas clearly took the challenge to heart.

The BYU recruit scored 30 points, 19 of them coming in the first half.

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Nazareth’s Stella Sakalas grapples with Belleville East’s Vanessa Stacy Friday, March 6, 2026, in the Class 4A girls state semifinal game at CEFCU Arena at ISU. (Alex T. Paschal)

Nazareth rode Sakalas’ huge game and its typical stingy defense to a 54-36 win over Belleville East in Friday’s first Class 4A semifinal at Illinois State’s CEFCU Arena.

Nazareth (34-3) advances to play Loyola (34-2), a 46-33 winner over Rolling Meadows, in Saturday’s 6 p.m. state championship game. It’s a rematch of the 2024 final won by Loyola and a matchup of the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the final Associated Press statewide poll.

What did Sakalas think about her coach’s game-day advice?

“It’s a really long season and our saying is always ‘peak in March’ – and it’s finally March,“ Sakalas said. ”We did all the work to get here and to be here, ending on a high note, we know what it’s like to not end on a high note. Playing the full 32 minutes and being proud of ourselves was what we were here to do."

Sakalas indeed is well familiar with the confines of the former Redbird Arena. She was a starter as a sophomore on Nazareth’s 2024 Class 4A runner-up.

She looked right at home early, scoring Nazareth’s first two baskets during a 12-3 start. When Sakalas was not scoring inside on passes from teammates, she took it herself.

Sakalas’ steal and coast-to-coast score was one of her three baskets during an 8-0 run in the second quarter that gave Nazareth separation at 31-19.

“I think we all feel pretty at home playing here,” Sakalas said. “We’ve been here a couple times before and we play here during the summer. I feel comfortable here out on the court and even more comfortable with these girls. Our ability to rebound and push the ball up the court helped.”

In the halfcourt, Nazareth seemed to make a conscious effort to feed Sakalas the ball – and early in possessions. Whether that was on cuts to the basket or catching the ball in the lane with the choice to shoot or drive, Sakalas was efficient.

She shot 13 of 17 from the floor for the game and had 12 of Nazareth’s 24 shot attempts in the first half.

“I knew she would step up and she had a monster game,” Stritzel said. “We wanted to get her some quicker shots. We thought the longer we had to run offense, the more beneficial to Belleville. We wanted good shots, but quick shots for Stella, and we felt it worked out well for us.”

Sakalas was not the only beneficiary of that early offense and paint touches. Freshman Mia Gage scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds, part of Nazareth’s 38 points in the paint.

“It is so fun to be here and I love my team and they gave me so much confidence,” Gage said. “It was a surreal moment.”

Belleville East (29-6), making its first state appearance since 2001 starting four sophomores, actually had moderate success scoring early.

The Lancers were within 23-19 with 4:05 left in the second quarter after a score by Denaya Bartelheim, who finished with 14 points.

But Nazareth scored the next eight points and led 33-21 at half on a Sam Austin putback in the final seconds.

Belleville East scored just five points over a 12-minute stretch bridging the second and third quarters. Nazareth took its biggest lead, 46-24, to the fourth quarter.

“Once the game gets close we kind of lock in to a not losing mentality,” Nazareth junior Sophia Towne said. “We lock in on defense and that sets up our offense.”

Sakalas had six steals, Gage three and Lyla Shelton two of the 14 total for Nazareth, which held Belleville East’s to its season-low point total.

“We read their defense pretty well, we knew their sets and we were very prepared to go into this game – and it showed," Shelton said.

Stritzel, coaching Nazareth at state for the sixth time in the last eight postseasons, believes they’re prepared for Saturday’s final, too.

“If we’ve done anything right the last few weeks is we have planned well,” Stritzel said. “Our sectional was a gauntlet. We had to play Whitney Young in the regional, and we tried to stay two days ahead of everything. The girls knew we weren’t looking past a team but we also didn’t want to get caught.

“Sometimes I’ve come here in the past and we’ve scrambled. We have work to do to prepare but I don’t think we’re scrambling.”