Northwestern girls fall to Wilson in CL playoffs

Coming into the Colonial League playoffs, the plan for Northwestern was to work its way past Wilson and Notre Dame and then seek revenge against top-seeded rival Southern Lehigh in the championship game on Friday. Unfortunately for the Lady Tigers, those plans went off the rails Saturday night when the Warriors came to town and upset Northwestern 70-67.

Wilson went for the long ball, hitting nine three-pointers, many of them from well beyond the arc. Ashley Errico led the way with five three-pointers, all of which came in the second and third quarters, leading her to a team-high 21 points. Teammate Ally Quinn hit on three three-pointers and finished the game with 20 points for the Warriors. It was Quinn who got things going with her first shot of the night, when she hit from three-feet beyond the arc to bring Wilson within one at 7-6.

Northwestern led by as many as 10 points in the first quarter, but the Warriors cut it to 17-11 at the end of the first eight minutes. From there, Wilson went on a 19-5 run and took its first lead with 4:17 left before halftime and outscored Northwestern 26-13 in the second quarter. The Tigers tied the game 27-27 on a put-back by Leighanna Lister with 2:50 left before the break, but again, Wilson went on a run and led by seven at the half.

“We just couldn’t cut their run short,” said Deutsch. “Everything that we tried just didn’t work and they did everything right, hitting threes, hitting foul shots, they played a phenomenal game.”

The Lady Warriors worked their way to an 11-point lead early in the fourth quarter and just as it looked like Northwestern was going to go on a run of its own, Quinn nailed three successive foul shots and Gaby Vega hit a three-pointer to put the lead back to 11.

Both Gabby Sevrain and Sydney Sevrain got into early foul trouble, with three fouls in the first half. Sydney Sevrain fouled out with 7:16 left to play and her sister Gabby collected her fifth foul a little more than a minute later. Even with two starters out of the game, Northwestern seemed determined to pull the game out and scored seven unanswered points. Lister, who finished with a game-high 24 points, hit two free throws and then drove the lane to cut Wilson’s lead to just one with 33 seconds left to play.

Wilson calmly hit foul shots, with Errico and Quinn making on seven of their eight foul shots in the final quarter, leaving the Warriors up by three with just seven-seconds left to play. The Lady Tigers weren’t able to get an open look for a three, so they worked the ball down low hoping for a basket and a foul, but neither happened and the buzzer sounded the end of Northwestern’s league playoff run.

“It’s tough to play with two of your starters in foul trouble for much of the game, but I was proud of our effort,” said Deutsch. “If you would have told me we were going to score 67 points, I would have felt pretty good about how the game would end up, but you can’t give up 70 points and win too many games.”

YOUNG GUNS ... Deutsch saluted freshmen Alexandra Lister and Emily Sekerak, who came off the bench and played well when the Sevrain sisters got into foul trouble. Lister helped out defensively, while Sekerak hit for four points in the fourth quarter.

NOT DONE YET ... While a Colonial League championship isn’t going to happen for Northwestern, the Tigers are qualified for districts, which begin next week. Deutsch will use the added time off to give his girls a bit of a rest before getting back to work and possibly putting a few new wrinkles into their game.

WILSON

G. Vega 3-6-9-12, K. Pope 3-0-0-6, E. Foulk 0-0-0-0, S. Gillen 1-1-2-4, A. Errico 6-4-5-21, A. Quinn 5-7-8-20, A. Goodman 3-1-3-7. TOTALS: 21-19-27-70.

NORTHWESTERN

A.Lister 0-0-0-0, L. Lister 10-4-6-24, A. Chisdak 1-3-4-5, G. Sevrain 4-1-1-9, S. Sevrain 3-1-1-7, E. Sekerak 2-0-0-4, J. Williamson 4-9-12-18, S. Christopher 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 24-17-24-67.

Wilson 11 26 13 18 - 70

Northwestern 17 13 13 24 - 67

Three-pointers: Wilson - A. Errico 5, A. Quinn 3, S. Gillen 1; Northwestern - J. Williamson 1.