Girls Basketball: Lyons rolls past Mother McAuley, reaches sectional final

LA GRANGE – On the surface, one might say the Lyons girls basketball team was simply too much for Mother McAuley on Tuesday evening.

Too much size. Too much strength. Too much speed. Too much aggressiveness. Heck, too much everything, especially for a Mighty Macs team that started three sophomores.

Lions coach Meghan Hutchens begs to differ.

“I don’t know if it’s too much, but it’s enough, right?” quipped Hutchens, following her team’s 58-37 dismantling at home of Mother McAuley, to improve to 28-3.

With the win, Lyons advanced to Thursday’s sectional final against Whitney Young, which beat Kenwood 64-53. The Lions, with a win there, would win the program’s first sectional title since 1999.

“It’s enough to make us really balanced,” Hutchens said. “Every game we have a different focus. For them to be able to adjust and then play that way and stick to that gameplan, that’s a credit to them.”

Hutchens might be too modest. Her team rolled from the outset, securing a 30-18 halftime lead and never looking back in the second half.

But it was a 12-2 run midway through the fourth quarter that sealed this one up like a Christmas present for the Lions. The spurt was led off by back-to-back three-pointers from senior guard Hailey Markworth and sophomore guard Elin O’Brien with five minutes to go in the game. It was capped by a layup off a steal by junior guard Ally Cesarini with 1:13 to go.

By that time, it was way too late for the Mighty Macs, who concluded their season at 19-11.

Mother McAuley did make it somewhat interesting in the first half due to the hot shooting of one of those sophomores, guard Grace Gambotz, She had 14 in the first half, including a pair of three-pointers.

But consider that the Lions were most concerned coming in about 5-foot-11 senior forward Isabella Finnegan. While Gambotz was doing her thing, LT held Finnegan to exactly nothing in the first half, outside of two rebounds. In fact, outside of Gambotz’s efforts, the Mighty Macs could only muster two buckets in the first half.

“We just knew that (Finnegan) was going to be a big problem coming into the game, knowing she was a good player,” said Lyons’ senior forward Izzy Lee, who had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. “Our focus was her, so when (Gambotz) stepped up, we weren’t as focused on her.”

Markworth led all scorers with 19 points, while Cesarini chipped in 13 points and four boards.

“I think coming out into the game we were definitely really nervous,” said Cesarini, who drew the unenviable assignment of clamping down on Finnegan, who finished with nine points. “I think that was more for us, because we used that nervous feeling, I guess.”

“We started off well, which was a big thing and then we just kept adding on,” Markworth added. “I don’t really think there was a moment where we really doubted ourselves and held back.”

It also helped that LT’s in-your-face defense and a stifling press caused the Mighty Macs to turn the ball over 16 times — which, ironically, was the same number of rebounds they had.

Gambotz paced Mother McAuley with 18 points.