Arie Garcia-Evans and her Waubonsie Valley teammates were on the ropes after absorbing more than a few literal body blows against Bolingbrook in the Class 4A sectional semifinals on Tuesday.
But the junior guard made sure the Warriors, who reached the state semifinals last year, were not counted out on her 17th birthday. Garcia-Evans got into a scrap after diving on the floor for a loose ball early, and it lit a fire under her.
“I think it helped motivate me,” she said. “I got heavy in my energy after the half.”
Indeed, Garcia-Evans scored 14 of her 15 points in the second half and also had seven steals and six rebounds as the second-seeded Warriors rallied back from a 14-point deficit to beat the third-seeded host Raiders 57-44.
Junior guard Danyella Mporokoso, who scored 17 of her game-high 24 points in the second half and had a team-high 13 rebounds, was thrilled that Garcia-Evans could deliver for Waubonsie Valley (30-1), which advances to play top-seeded Benet (29-2) in the Bolingbrook Sectional championship game at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
“We couldn’t have done it without her — the energy she brings, all the juice she’s got,” Mporokoso said. “She played such a huge role. Defensively, we really needed her.”
Bolingbrook (20-12) ran roughshod in the first half, using their physical play and accurate shooting to take an early 18-4 lead. The Warriors absorbed the initial surge but trailed 32-18 early in the third quarter, and Garcia-Evans was still seething about the early confrontation.
“She took it personal,” Waubonsie Valley coach Brett Love said. “She asked me, ‘Are we up pressuring?’ I asked her, ‘Do you want to get up?’ She said ‘yes,’ so we let her get up and pressure the ball. Everybody else stayed back and kind of cut off passing lanes, and she went to work.”
That began paying dividends for the Warriors midway through the third quarter. The Raiders led 36-24 when Garcia-Evans made a steal and a layup to start an incredible 21-4 run in which she had 12 points and three steals.
“It felt good,” she said. “Coming out of the halftime, we knew we needed to pick it up because we were down. I didn’t want to go home. None of us wanted to go home, so we picked it up, and it felt good.”
Mporokoso’s driving layup capped the huge run that gave the Warriors a 45-40 lead. Bolingbrook answered with a basket, but Waubonsie Valley senior forward Lily Newton hit a 3-pointer, and then Garcia-Evans got a rebound and went coast to coast for a layup
Thirty seconds later, Garcia-Evans was knocked to the ground after grabbing a rebound. That led to Mporokoso’s pull-up jumper that made it 52-43 with 2:21 remaining.
“Defense, I would say, was the main thing to get my ignition going,” Garcia-Evans said. “That helped a lot.”
Garcia-Evans’ help was what the Warriors needed to extend their winning streak to 20 games.
“I don’t know what we would do without her,” Mporokoso said. “She did amazing. I’m just so happy we turned it around.”
Waubonsie Valley did it with a team effort. Junior guard Maya Cobb had 10 points and four steals, and Newton added six points, four rebounds and two assists.
“We just realized how much this means to us, how much going to state means to us, so at halftime we just wanted it more, and we came out and showed that,” Garcia-Evans said. “We’ve all played with each other for a couple years, so that helps, and we have older people on the team that can help calm us down when we need it and get us to where we need to go.”
Garcia-Evans knew exactly where she was going next after her teammates serenaded her with a rendition of “Happy Birthday” during the postgame celebration.
“I’m going to go out to eat and spend time with my family,” she said. “I haven’t been home all day.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
