Mary Cormier of the Ramblers handles the rock during the Loyola Academy Regional final. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGE PFOERTNER
Loyola’s Maeve Stanton sets up defensively during regional final action against Glenbrook South. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGE PFOERTNER
Game night turned into movie night for the Loyola Academy girls basketball team last weekend. A power outage at the academy postponed a Class 4A regional championship between LA, seeded fifth, and Glenbrook South, seeded fourth, for 19 hours.
Ramblers suddenly had the night of Feb. 19 off, many of them meeting at junior guard Madison Kane’s house for popcorn. The pick-and-pop plays would have to wait until the next day. They watched The Best of Me, a 2014 flick starring Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden. It is a romantic drama, rated PG-13.
The players participated in a matinee on their home court the next day.
Glenbrook South, alas got the best of Loyola Academy, 43-33, on Feb. 20.
“We were in control there, for a while, in the third quarter,” Ramblers senior guard Mary Cormier said.
LA trailed 22-13 at the break. It then scored the first seven points of the third quarter, four via senior forward Liz Satter free throws and three via a Kane trey (rated G, for Good!). In control. The host school enjoyed another surge spanning the third and fourth quarters, turning a 31-22 deficit into a 32-31 lead in Wilmette. LA senior reserve guard Erin Dowdle nailed a rather lengthy three-pointer from somewhere in Winnetka to close out the scoring in the third quarter. (Another trey by Dowdle, at the 0:42 mark, was disallowed because of a three-second violation.)
LA (22-8) struck for the first seven points (Satter free throw, Satter trey, Kane trey) of the final frame but tallied only a Kane freebie in the final 3:49.
Glenbrook South (24-5) advanced to play in a scheduled sectional semifinal against host New Trier on Feb. 23.
“Great season, great group of girls,” LA coach Jeremy Schoenecker said. “The girls gave it their all for 30 games.”
Satter, 6-foot-2 and bound for the University of Pennsylvania, finished with team highs of 14 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Satter earned all-Girls Catholic Athletic Conference honors along with Mary Cormier and Maeve Stanton.
“The gym is her home,” Stanton said of the team’s productive inside-outside threat. “Liz improved, a lot, from her sophomore year to this year. Consistent. She was consistent, a good word to describe one of her strengths as a basketball player.”
Cormier, a future arts and sciences student at Northwestern University, got all geological when she assessed Satter after the playoff loss last weekend.
“Such a rock,” Cormier (four points, seven rebounds, three steals) said. “It was always nice knowing she was on the court, on our team. We felt OK, under control, when she was out there with us.”
Parents of players came up with a nickname for Cormier. One day, after Cormier had stolen pass after pass in a game, a parent said, “Thief.” A parent later informed Cormier of the moniker. It did not exactly stick.
“I still call her ‘Mare’ when I see her,” Stanton said.
Mare and Maeve stood outside their locker room last weekend, a pair of 5-foot-9, defense-first seniors. M&M reflected, answered a few questions. They laughed. They wanted another shot at Glenbrook South. One noted they enjoyed serving the varsity as heart and hustle players. M&M … H&H. They wished their final season at LA had not ended on the home court.
They walked, together, up a flight of stairs, loved ones and friends and teammates waiting in a lobby to console them, to congratulate them on a 22-win season.
Roll the end credits.
Notable: Ramblers junior guard Madison Kane tossed in seven of her 10 points after halftime in a 43-33 loss to Glenbrook South in the Class 4A Loyola Academy Regional title game on Feb. 20. Ramblers freshman guard Julia Martinez finished with seven rebounds and four steals. … Loyola Academy downed visiting Taft 53-23 in a regional semifinal on Feb. 16, behind Liz Satter’s 18 points and 11 rebounds and Kane’s 13 points.
With Maeve Stanton in the background, LA’s Mary Cormier battles GBS’s Lizzy Shaw. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGE PFOERTNER