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“I was really, really proud of Allie Stefanek,” Carroll coach Cecilia Grosselin said. “She’s been on varsity for four years and she had a little bit of a rough start this year. She just really blossomed tonight and put the team on her back.”
Stefanek’s scoring average this season is 6.7. While double-figure scoring nights have been more common the past month, Grosselin counts on her senior leader for a lot more than scoring.
“She’s such a tremendous defender, ballhandler,” Grosselin said. “Offensively she can shoot the three, she can drive and that’s what you want on the floor.”
Stefanek’s 18 against Valley View equaled a season-high and was one short of her career high.
“Early season I wasn’t really looking for my shot as much, and I didn’t have that much confidence in myself,” she said. “Recently I’ve been pushing myself and realizing that I can attack the hole. I’ve been practicing that more, and I have confidence in myself now.”
The Patriots (22-5) are high on confidence entering their second straight regional final. Last year they were the state runner-up. The only player missing from last year is Liz Bush, a guard who averaged 13 points a game. Sophomore Sarah Ochs is the new starter.
“We have a lot of chemistry, so it makes it easier going into the next season,” Stefanek said. “We knew that this year that we had lost a really good player Liz Bush, and we knew that we could replace her. This year we really came together even stronger than last year. We’re a really good team now.”
To get back to state the Patriots must find a way to stop Bacon (20-7) and 6-foot-3 center Clarissa Craig, who scored 23 points to lead Bacon to a 74-72 overtime win over visiting Carroll on Jan. 4. Carroll won the first meeting at home, 43-38, on Nov. 30.
“We can’t have a big head going into it,” Stefanek said. “They’re not just going to hand it to us. We have to practice and have that mentality like we did against Valley View and come out strong.”
The Patriots led 14-6 after the first quarter and 26-12 at halftime.
“I’ll tell you what happened,” Spartans coach Steve Dickson said pointing to the basket his team shot at in the first half. “I think they put a lid on that basket right there. In the first half we were 0-for-10 on wide-open 3-point shots. I don’t know if it was because of nerves, but, man, that was rough.”
Stefanek scored in the lane and made a 3-pointer to start the second half, and Valley View (22-4) never had a chance. Julia Keller led the Patriots with 21 points, and the duo of her in the post and Stefanek leading the guard charge was too much for the Spartans to overcome.
“They played great defense tonight,” Dickson said. “They were attacking the basket, they were making shots. You’ve got to do that in these kind of games. Keller and Stefanek what a great game they both had tonight, holy cow. We couldn’t have guarded Keller if we wanted to tonight. She was just on, and that’s how you’ve got to play in these kind of games.”
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