ROCHESTER | Coach Candy Wilson could chuckle after this one.
Her Boone Grove girls basketball team advanced to the championship game of Saturday's Rochester 2A Regional, and that's what the postseason is all about, right?
But geez, the way they did it.
The Wolves got 26 points from do-it-all Paige Aguilera, survived 10 second-quarter turnovers and outscored Whiting 31-17 in the second half for a 52-33 win.
"We always have one ugly quarter," Wilson said. "The girls told me that was their ugly quarter, and they got it out of their system."
This semifinal had ''rout'' written all over it as the Wolves jumped out to leads of 15-0 and 17-2.
The second quarter, however, was a nightmare as Wilson watched her team be outscored 14-6 and their lead cut to just 21-16 at the break.
In the third quarter, it was Whiting's turn to struggle big time. The Oilers had nine turnovers and were outscored 18-4, giving Boone Grove a lead that was never threatened.
"We just didn't match their energy," Oilers coach Kevin Moynihan said. "We didn't have the same passion and aggressiveness we played with last week.
"We had one person out there playing exceptionally well and trying to spark things."
That individual was spunky 5-foot-5 junior guard Citlali Lopez and her team-high 20 points.
Whiting (20-4) needed overtime to beat Boone Grove (18-6) earlier in the season, and in the rematch, Wilson relied heavily upon a 1-3-1 trapping defense that forced 25 turnovers. The Wolves had 21.
The win sent Boone Grove into Saturday night's title game with three-time champion Fort Wayne Bishop Luers, whose 13-11 record is deceiving.
"People talk about, oh, their record. But they play some very, very, very tough teams," Wilson said. "The record doesn't reflect anything.
"At this point, if you win by one, it doesn't matter, long as you move on."
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