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Photos: Ottawa girls basketball wins the Class 3A Regional title over Sterling
Photos: Ottawa girls basketball wins the Class 3A Regional title over Sterling
Photos: Ottawa girls basketball wins the Class 3A Regional title over Sterling
Photos: Ottawa girls basketball wins the Class 3A Regional title over Sterling
Photos: Ottawa girls basketball wins the Class 3A Regional title over Sterling
Marquette holds on, beats Dwight 65-56 to win first regional title since 2012
![A couple of months ago, Marquette Academy lost to Dwight by 30 points at home. Meeting again Thursday night for the Class 1A Amboy Regional title, it was a different ballgame. The Crusaders hit eight 3-pointers in the first half and closed things out at the free throw line to hold on for a 65-56 win.It is the first regional title since 2012 for Marquette (11-19), which was seeded seventh.The Crusaders advance to face Rockford Christian in an Indian Creek Sectional semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Kaitlyn Davis scored a game-high 24 points and went 8 of 12 at the line in the final frame for the Crusaders.“I told the girls all along, you get in the regional, you’re 0-0,” Marquette coach Eric Price said. “The previous stuff didn’t matter. We had a lot of struggles, low numbers early on.“You hear all the noise, ‘oh, they’ve got low numbers, they don’t have this. Their point guard’s hurt.’ You hear all the noise and sometimes you listen to it.”But the Crusaders continued to improve. It resulted in a regional title.“I told the girls before this one, we’re playing with house money. We’re the underdog, and they came out and they had a really good first half,” Price said. “We did what we had to do to win a game.”Marquette led 20-13 after the first quarter and 37-24 at halftime. Dwight (22-12) battled back in the second half, making it a 54-52 game with 2:14 to play.Numerous fouls piled up for both teams, and the Crusaders came out on the winning end of it. Marquette’s Kinley Rick (eight points) and Hunter Hopkins (10 points) fouled out and three others were playing with four fouls. Mikayla Chambers (15 points) fouled out for the Trojans, which also had two technical fouls.Playing with a short bench to begin with, Marquette didn’t waiver.“I thought even through all the fouls and free throws, they stayed pretty poised,” Price said. “Let me do the complaining, you just keep playing.”Marquette was 14 of 22 at the line in the fourth quarter as Dwight outscored the Trojans 23-22. “Dwight’s a good team, they play very physical,” Price said. “They offensive rebound really well. We played them previously in the year and they put it on us pretty good, so it was nice to get some revenge from that aspect.”Dwight’s Emily Ryan-Adair had 12 points and Madison Kozlowski scored six of her 11 points in the fourth quarter. Davis had the hot hand for Marquette before she was saddled with her fourth foul with 6:45 left in the third quarter. She came through at the line in the fourth after sitting most of the third quarter. “It got a little crazy at the end,” Davis said, “especially with the fouls, and everyone had four fouls.”Davis filled in at point guard down the stretch to help take home the hardware. “It means a lot, especially since we don’t have a lot of wins,” she said. “Getting this in the end is very good.“In the regular season, they beat us by 30. To come back from getting beat by 30 to winning, that’s crazy.”After two wins as the lower seeded team, Marquette is comfortable being the underdog. “There’s no pressure on us, we’re just playing,” Price said. “Nobody thought we’d be here, but we’re here. So let’s go out and play.”Dwight coach Max Sulzberger credited Marquette after the game. Sophia Buck scored 12 points and Addy Sulzberger had 10. “We didn’t play very well tonight,” he said. “We didn’t play well at any parts of the game. We prepared, we had a couple nice nights of practice before we got to the game tonight.“The girls were playing hard, but we weren’t playing well. They were sloppy, we missed defensive assignments and just weren’t seeing the floor very well. And we shot awful.”The Trojans continued to dig out of the the deficit, they just couldn’t get over the hump.“Foul count for both [teams] was really high,” he said. “We had some tough calls down the line. There were some questionable calls for sure. I’m not blaming the officials when we don’t play well.”](https://dehayf5mhw1h7.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2063/2026/02/20032647/AVCLDAANOFDVJLQA4Z673AMF5E820766-1024x577.webp)
Marquette holds on, beats Dwight 65-56 to win first regional title since 2012
Marquette holds on, beats Dwight 65-56 to win first regional title since 2012
Marquette holds on, beats Dwight 65-56 to win first regional title since 2012
