BLOOMINGTON - Senior forward Syd Harris closed out her incredible high school career with 23 points, while fellow seniors Elle Evans and Macy Silvey also concluded their careers with 11 and 10 points respectively as a second-half rally by Edwardsville just fell short in a 56-53 loss to Bolingbrook in the IHSA girls basketball Class 4A super-sectional game Monday night at the Shirk Center on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington.
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Harris just barely missed a three-point shot at the buzzer to give the Raiders the win in a game that saw the Tigers trail by as much as 14 points in the first half, but rally in the second half to briefly go ahead early in the fourth quarter before Bolingbrook went back ahead and win, sending the Raiders to the state finals this weekend.
"We did a great job of fighting back," said Edwardsville head coach Caty Happe, "and even took the lead at one point. We never gave up, kept fighting back and gave ourselves a chance to tie or win the game at the end."
Bolingbrook took a big lead on the Tigers in the first half, outrebounding Edwardsville and getting many second-chance points in building a halftime lead before the Tigers came back.
"Absolutely," Happe said. "We knew playing them, they would get a lot of baskets on transition, off the rebound and in the first half, we did a poor job at that. It was a tale of two halves. If we had started the game in the first half the way we did in the second half, it would be a different story."
Despite the loss, Happe is very proud of her players for their efforts this season.
"I couldn't ask for better kids to work with," Happe said. "Not only great players, but great students and great people. I'm really proud of everyone."
The Tigers fell behind early on in the first quarter, and trailed 19-12 after the period, and trailed in the second quarter by as much as 14 before coming back to score the half's final five points to trail at halftime 33-24. Edwardsville scored the first six points of the second half to cut the Raiders' lead to 33-30 and roared back to trail after three quarters 45-41 and scored the first five points of the final quarter, taking a 46-45 lead on a pair of Ellie Neath free throws early on. The Tigers did outscore the Raiders in the fourth period 12-11 as Bolingbrook hit a pair of late free throws before Harris' bid to force overtime rimmed out at the buzzer to give Bolingbrook the win and the berth in the Class 4A Final Four.
The 23 points from Harris closes out her career with the Tigers with 2,024 points, the first Tigers' player ever to reach the 2,000 point mark, while Evans had her 11 points and Silvey also had five rebounds and five assists to go with her 10 points. Neath ended up with six points, Kaitlyn Morningstar had two points and Emma Garner scored a single point.
Bolingbrook is now 22-5 and returns to the Bloomington-Normal area for the second semifinal at the state finals Friday afternoon against Barrington, who defeated St. Charles East 64-33 in the South Elgin super-sectional at 4:15 p.m. The Tigers end the season 29-5.
"This one game doesn't define us," Happe said. "It hurts a little bit more, but they had a great season."
