Dajour Miles and her West Aurora teammates had to concede defeat Friday night, but they still feel like winners.
Miles and fellow guard Kiyanna Rodgers made the all-tournament team at the 34th annual Bill Neibch Falcon Classic at Wheaton North.
They led the fifth-seeded Blackhawks’ surprising run to the championship game before being stopped 40-27 by third-seeded Glenbard South.
Miles, a 5-foot-6 junior, tallied a team-high 10 points, including a 3-pointer that gave the Blackhawks (11-4) a 5-2 lead.
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But Glenbard South (14-1) got a huge performance from 6-2 junior center Maggie Bair, who scored a game-high 16 points to go with 23 rebounds. Bair single-handedly outrebounded West Aurora, which had only 17 boards.
“(Bair) was taking us out, because the boxing out wasn’t really helping us,” Miles said. “She kept getting the ball and putbacks.”
Neither team scored during a seven-minute stretch of the first half, but Bair tallied eight points during the Raiders’ 16-2 run in the second quarter.
“We usually dominate on the rebounds,” West Aurora coach Connie Siljendahl said. “We really crash the boards and get after it pretty good. But we couldn’t box her out, she’s so quick.
“She just kind of crawls over your back. The girls were like, ‘I had her boxed out, but she reached over my back.'”
Yet the Blackhawks, who rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to upset top-seeded Wheaton North 47-45 in Thursday’s semifinals behind Rodgers’ 21 points, came back in the second half.
Essence Rayford’s baseline runner pulled West Aurora within 29-23 with 7:08 left in the fourth quarter.
“At that point I thought for sure we were going to win the game,” Siljendahl said. “I thought we were going to come back again. I think the game yesterday just took it out of us.”
But the Blackhawks, who shot 3-for-22 in the first half, came up empty on their next nine possessions, missing six shots and committing three turnovers. The Raiders scored the next eight points, including putbacks by Mady Carli and Bair, to put the game away.
Even so, Miles is confident heading into the new year.
“We’re still positive,” said Miles, who had four steals. “We’re not going to hang our head on this.
“We feel like we’re unstoppable right now and I feel like we’re going to do really good going into the second half of the season. We just have to keep pushing, and working.”
Skylar Doby added nine points and three steals for the Blackhawks, who also upset fourth-seeded Glenbrook South in the quarterfinals in their bid to win the tournament for the first time since 2000.
“I’m very proud of them,” Siljendahl said. “We’re not going to let this stop us.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.