Crystal Lake South’s girls put themselves in position to win their basketball program’s first regional title in 10 years.

Makena Cleary put herself in her position on the court – outside the 3-point arc, on the right wing – where she gravitates toward.

“Once she gets hot, you got to give her the ball,” Gators senior Laken LePage said of her junior teammate and sharpshooter. “She’s got to keep shooting because she doesn’t miss.”

Cleary didn’t miss her first two 3-point shots Thursday night in the Class 3A Woodstock North Regional final, and that along with suffocating defense were enough to spark the Gators, who beat Woodstock 55-23.

Cleary, a 5-foot-9 guard, shot both 3-pointers from almost the identical spot. She later hit two more 3s, again from the right wing.

“My favorite spot right there,” Cleary said with a laugh. “All practice, that’s where I practice from.”

The victory earned Crystal Lake South (25-6) a berth in the Crystal Lake Central Sectional. The Gators, who are a No. 1 seed and whose regional title was their first since 2016, will play No. 4 Sycamore (23-10) in Tuesday’s first semifinal at 6 p.m.

“They’re a great team,” Hayden Williams, whose five points coming off the bench led Woodstock (14-19), said of the Gators. “They’ve got a lot of height on them.”

LePage scored a game-high 16 points and added six steals, while Cleary and 6-foot Gaby Dzik finished with 14 points each. Tessa Melhuish grabbed 11 rebounds and scored her only points on a putback that had South up 21-2 after one quarter.

Cleary’s two 3s opened the scoring, and the Gators led 10-0 before the Blue Streaks got off their first shot.

South led 19-0 before Williams scored on a layup with 1:14 left in the first quarter. The Gators shot 16 of 34 from the floor in the first half against Woodstock’s man-to-man defense in building a 41-8 cushion.

“We talked about coming out strong and sending a message, and that’s truly what they did,” South coach Mark Mucha said. “We were firing on all cylinders to start, and it was fun right from the get-go.”

Gracey LePage came off the bench and hit 2 of 3 shots, including a 3-pointer, in the first quarter, in which five Gators scored.

“We’re all really good shooters,” Cleary said. “I feel like if you’re hot, you’re hot, so shoot. Everyone played a huge part [in the win], defensively and offensively. Everyone contributed as best as they could.”

When she wasn’t creating havoc with her defense, Laken LePage was scoring in transition or hitting from the outside. She made all three of her second quarter shots and had 10 points at the break.

“We came out hot,” she said. “We let up at the end. We got really tired from the hot start.”

Up 41-10 at halftime, South scored only 10 points in the third quarter and four in the fourth. Mucha didn’t start pulling his starters until midway through the fourth, even though his Gators led 51-15 after three.

“I wanted [the starters] to enjoy the moment and share the moment,” Mucha said. “I also wanted to make sure to send a message that the plan is not for us to be done after this. We had things to work on, and we wanted to try a couple of different things. We know that Woodstock was in a different defense [zone], and we wanted to go against that. We tried a different defense as well.”

Woodstock, which was playing in its first regional final in 11 years, also received four points from Reese Zawisza. Aiyana Fourdyce, the Streaks’ 6-foot freshman, had six rebounds and three blocked shots.

“I think we showed up for what we knew we could do,” said Williams, one of five seniors on Woodstock’s roster. “I think we played our best. I think [South] came into [the game] just as excited as we were, and I think we were equally energetic.”