Girls basketball: Gabi Bednar leads Providence Catholic past JCA on senior night

NEW LENOX – Thursday was senior night for Providence Catholic. And, if the Celtics needed any more motivation, they were playing archrival Joliet Catholic Academy.

Fittingly, Providence senior Gabi Bednar stole the show, scoring a game-high 21 points and grabbing 12 rebounds to help lead her team to a 71-48 victory.

Early on, the game didn’t look like the easy Providence win that it turned into. JCA (1-9) got three points from Symone Holman (11 points) and a 3-pointer by Abby Dulinsky (7 points) to move out to a 6-4 lead before a 3-pointer by Bednar put the Celtics ahead 7-6, and they never trailed again.

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Providence’s Elaina Utz sprints upcourt against Joliet Catholic on Thursday, Dec. 7th, 2023 in New Lenox. (Gary Middendorf/gmiddendorf@shawmedia.com)

The Celtics started all five seniors on their roster – Bednar, Bella Morey, Sydney Spencer, Gia Perme and Elaina Utz – and they played the first half of the first quarter. At the 4:33 mark, regular starters Eilish Raines and Molly Knight entered the game, and Knight was assigned to Holman. The Angels’ sophomore was limited to three points the rest of the first half with Knight as her primary defender.

“That girl is so fast,” Bednar said about Holman. “So, so fast. Molly did a great job of staying in front of her on defense and not letting her get to the basket. We take a lot of pride in our defense, and we worked well together tonight.

“To get to play JCA at home on senior night in my last year, it’s great. It’s always fun to beat them, and to do it on senior night was special.”

The Celtics (4-4) moved out to a 17-10 lead at the end of the first quarter, thanks to seven points from Bednar. Knight (16 points) drained a pair of 3-pointers and a free throw in the second quarter, while Raines (7 points) scored five as the Celtics stretched the lead to 38-23 at halftime.

“We were consistent tonight,” Providence coach Eileen Copenhaver said. “JCA played very hard and very tough. It was a typical Providence-JCA game.

“I am proud of Gabi Bednar for her game tonight. She’s going to go on and play at University of St. Francis, but we remind her that we have games we have to focus on here first. She did a great job tonight. Molly Knight also did a tremendous job on [Holman].”

JCA did not go down without a fight, as a 3-pointer by Sophia Mihelich (team-high 16 points) and a basket by Holman cut the lead to 45-34 with about four minutes to play in the third quarter. Providence countered with a basket by Knight, a 3-pointer by Bednar and a basket by Spencer (8 points) to move the Celtics back to a 52-34 lead en route to a 58-36 advantage heading into the fourth.

“We kept within ourselves, and our communication was good,” Bednar said. “It was super fun, and all the girls really worked hard. I am so proud of everyone tonight.”

In the fourth quarter, about the only drama was whether Gia Perme, the only senior to not have scored to that point, would be able to get into the scoring column. She had a shot at a 3-pointer late, but it missed the mark. Still, the enjoyment wasn’t lessened.

“We really wanted Gia to score,” Bednar said. “That would have made the night perfect. We were trying, but it just didn’t happen.”