Woodstock had just four points in the first quarter.

Facing crosstown rival Woodstock North in a Class 3A Woodstock North Regional semifinal Tuesday evening, the Blue Streaks went almost five minutes without scoring and trailed 17-4 after one quarter. It didn’t matter, though, as Woodstock slowly chipped away.

Behind smothering defense and clutch shotmaking by multiple freshmen including Reese Zawisza, who led with 15 points, the Streaks rallied to stun the Thunder 46-38 and advance to their first regional final in 11 years. Woodstock (14-18) will face Crystal Lake South for the regional championship at 7 p.m. Thursday.

“This is something we’ve been looking forward to for the entire season,” Zawisza said. “I feel like defense is 100% hustle and heart. We just wanted to put everything on the floor tonight.”

With Woodstock North leading 27-19 after the half, Gwen Lalor put in a 3-pointer near the start of the third quarter. It was the lone triple of the night for the fifth-seeded Thunder (10-16), who went 1 for 14 on 3s and 3 for 16 on free throws in the contest.

“When we had the space that we wanted, we were able to execute a lot better,” Woodstock North coach Jay Justice said. “I felt like in the second half, we lost that space and they were doing a good job of pushing us out of where we wanted to be on the floor. We didn’t do a good enough job of putting the ball in the basket.”

Playing four freshmen heavy minutes, Woodstock stormed back to tie the game early in the fourth quarter, where freshman guard Alex Nowacki buried a 3-pointer to even the score at 36-36. Soon after, freshman Rylee Zawisza drilled a triple to give the Streaks their first lead of the night. They never trailed after.

“We’ve talked all season about mental toughness,” Woodstock coach Juel Mecklenburg said. “We were down by eight at the end of the half when we played them last week and we kept telling them that it was a three-possession game. ... Our young girls who haven’t gotten a lot of court time did a nice job. They were huge for us.”

The fourth-seeded Streaks closed the game on a 10-0 run and held Woodstock North to 11 second-half points. Woodstock overcame a strong first-half effort from Thunder junior Abbey Ward, who had 12 points and five assists in that period alone. Ward led the Thunder with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

“I just really wanted to play for my seniors,” Ward said. “I watched a lot of film and I knew I had to go up stronger on layups, so that’s what I did. We kept switching our defense from a triangle-and-2 to a 1-3-1 in the first half, and our communication really helped.”

Top-seeded Crystal Lake South dominated its regional semifinal game Tuesday evening, beating eighth-seeded Crystal Lake Central 52-15. Gaby Dzik, who drained four 3-pointers including a banked-in 3 to start the third quarter, led the Gators (24-6) with 23 points. The sophomore added four rebounds and four assists.

“We were a little slow in the first half and we knew we needed to come together,” Dzik said. “Every game and possession counts. You never know when the last game’s going to be during this period.”

It was a 4-0 game after roughly five minutes, as the Tigers (8-23) sought to slow the tempo down against South’s alternating zones. Down 14-2 after one quarter, Central found a brief spark early in the second, where turnovers on bad passes allowed the Tigers to score six points in a row and bring the Gators within single digits.

South immediately responded, though, breaking off a 7-0 run behind Dzik, who canned a 3-point shot to get the Gators rolling. Showing 1-2-2 and 3-2 zones, South shut down a short-handed Central squad playing without four starters including Ruby Macke, who’s out with a torn ACL. The Gators led Central 32-8 at the half.

“We tried mixing up our defenses and slowing the game down a bit,” Central coach Joe Capalbo said. “I thought we did OK with that in the first four or five minutes. We didn’t want to get into a shooting match or a fast-paced game with them because South’s really good. We tried to slow it down and it didn’t really work out.”

Tessa Melhuish recorded 11 points and six rebounds, while Makena Cleary added 10 points for the Gators, who forced a running clock with a 52-12 lead after three quarters.

South is seeking its first regional title since 2016, and Woodstock its first since 2015.