The St. Edward Lady Wave narrowly lost to Bloomington Central Catholic 45-42 in the State Semifinal game. St. Ed’s senior and co-captain Katie Castoro led all scorers with 18 points, but ultimately it wasn’t quite enough to overcome Bloomington’s strong, all-around team attack.

Although the outcome didn’t go St. Edward’s way, there was still a large fan section who came out to support the girls.

They came out in a white-out to support the girls. Senior Eric Stepanovic had this to say after the game, “We knew the team had the potential to rally back. We were sticking with it and I think our fan section killed it. It was a tough loss but we’ll get them tomorrow.”

Both teams came out nervous and jittery in the first half. The teams combined for 24 turnovers before halftime. The two teams started to settle in about halfway through the second quarter, but the first half was a very sloppy mess.

The Lady Wave shot a lowly 21% in the first quarter, and they quickly got into a 12-6 hole early on in the second. Castoro stepped up and helped bring the Wave back into the game with six points in a three minute span. The Saints were starting to go on a big run and Castoro effectively ended that potential run.

The Wave went into the break down 18-16. Bloomington managed to shut down star point guard Maddie Spagnola, holding her scoreless with four turnovers. Spagnola and the Lady Wave had a hard time handling the Saint’s press.

The Saints came out of the break on fire, jumping out to a 10 point lead. After that, the second half was reminiscent of St. Edward’s Super Sectional game versus Illiana Christian. The Lady Wave stormed back and went on an 11-3 run to end the quarter.

Before the fourth quarter the Wave trailed 32-30. Spagnola was walking back onto the court and she made eye contact with her parents in the stands. She had been ice cold for the entire game, but you could sense that she had one big run in her.

Spagnola had 2 steals that resulted in break away layups at the start of the quarter. She was having a rough game, but she rode pure will power to turn the game around.

The score went back and forth for the rest of the game. That is until Bloomington’s Lauren Shanks hit a big three to out the Saints up 42-38 with 1:50 remaining. Unfortunately for St. Edward, Shanks shot was the ultimately the basket that put the Saint’s lead out of reach.

Spagnola had a chance at the buzzer to hit a miraculous, game-tying, deep three but it narrowly came up short. The Lady Wave lost 45-42 in a sloppy, defensive showdown.

Bloomington’s leading scorer was Ellie Stevens, who also led the team with 9 rebounds. Castoro led the Wave in scoring but St. Edward did not have anybody who could match up with the rebounding efforts of Bloomington.

Lady Wave Coach Michelle Dawson was proud of her team, say, “We never gave up. We got the tempo we wanted, and we forced turnovers. Unfortunately the ball just didn’t bounce our way a couple times, and a couple of times we just didn’t make smart decisions.”

The Lady Wave play again on Saturday for third place. The game is against Central-Southeastern at 5:30.

St. Edward had an incredibly rowdy fan section for their semifinal game and the crowd should be just as hyped for the third place game.