One way or another, they were going to crown an unlikely state champion Saturday night.
It was either going to be Bartlett, which didn’t even exist a decade ago, or Peoria Richwoods, a school from the wrong side of the tracks.
The tracks, in this case, encircle the Chicago area. No girls basketball team outside that acreage had won the Class AA title since Peoria Manual did it in 1986.
This metropolitan monopoly had become so entrenched, in fact, that you worried the Illinois High School Association might assign the big Chicago-area schools to a new Class AAA just so a Downstate team could finally haul home the AA title hardware.
Saturday, though, it was Richwoods that was in a class by itself, defeating Bartlett 52-48 at Illinois State University.
If Peoria Richwoods was trying to overcome history, Bartlett didn’t have much of it. The school opened in 1997 with freshman and sophomore classes. It played its first varsity schedule a year later and went 1-26.
About that time, though, a student mentioned to Bartlett coach Denise Sarna that her sister was a pretty good grammar school basketball player. When Sarna finally got her first look at Lindsay Schrader, she knew better days were coming soon.
“You could tell she was a unique athlete,” Sarna said.
For almost two games here, Schrader didn’t fully show that, but early in the fourth quarter of Bartlett’s semifinal game against Bolingbrook on Saturday afternoon the 6-foot senior guard-forward demonstrated why she has scored more than 2,400 points and signed with Notre Dame.
With Bartlett leading 33-31, Schrader took over, scoring all eight of her team’s points during a four-minute period when it stretched its lead to 41-36 with 3 minutes 21 seconds to play. Schrader wound up with 23 points and 12 rebounds in Bartlett’s 47-40 win.
In the championship, she made just 6 of 24 shots on her way to 18 points, but tied the record for most rebounds in the title game with 18 as Bartlett almost fought back from an 18-point first-half deficit.
“We’re all heart,” Schrader said. “Every one is all heart, but it wasn’t enough.
“But second feels like first right now.”
Schrader is an elder stateswoman, of sorts, the only senior among Bartlett’s 11 players. That has made her leadership as important as her remarkable skills, versatility and explosive athleticism.
“Lindsay’s leadership definitely helps us a lot to pull through adversity,” said junior guard Kim Ebbesen, whose fourth-quarter layup and second-half defense on standout Bolingbrook sophomore Brittney Thomas helped get Bartlett to the finale. “She’s an amazing player, and it’s really a privilege to play with her.
“She’s the heart and soul of the team.”
Schrader’s heart shows through in a ferocious competitiveness that makes you think maybe she should play football instead of hoops for the Fighting Irish. Her dominance of the boards against Richwoods showed a refusal to lose, even if her team eventually did.
“It just shows the kind of heart these guys have,” Sarna said of Schrader’s play. “It kind of says it all.”
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Richwoods’ title-game victory gave it a triple crown of sorts. It had Elite Eight victories over Chicago-area powers Fenwick and Young before defeating Bartlett, answering any doubters who had attributed its perfect 38-0 record to a less-than-imposing schedule.
Richwoods performed here like a team that not only wanted a championship trophy but wanted to make a statement while winning it.
“Beating both Fenwick and Young really said something,” said senior guard Megan McGann, who has played the last month with a painful stress fracture above her right ankle. “Peoria made a point. We can play with them.”
Richwoods coach John Gross had been this way before, leading Bartonville Limestone to the 1992 title game, where it lost to Marshall 48-46. He was forced out as Limestone coach in 2001 over an apparent personality conflict and returned to the title game in his first season at Richwoods.
“I think these kids just believed from Day One it was their destiny, so to speak, that they could get here and get it done,” Gross said.
“I’ve always thought we play fairly good basketball down here. It takes a lot of luck to do what we’ve done, but it takes a lot of good play too.”
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