Rockford Lutheran’s girls basketball squad headed into the final week of the regular season undefeated in Big Northern Conference play and poised to take back the league crown.
Win out this week, and the league championship trophy they won two years ago would be back in hand.
By midweek, however, the Crusaders suffered two losses and were out of the BNC title picture, while defending champ Byron worked its way into contention.
It now comes down to Dixon and the Tigers in the regular-season finale Friday night.
“We’re excited. We always have confidence, but we knew that everybody kind of looked at three or four other teams ahead of us this year,” said Byron’s seven-year head coach Eric Yerly, who has led the Tigers to three conference titles, and back-to-back state championships.
They will win a share of another BNC title with a home win over Dixon.
“It’s been quite a different kind of year, but now we’ve got a shot at another conference title, and they want it,” Yerly said.
Byron, which graduated five seniors from last year’s state-title squad, upended Lutheran 48-46 Monday on a pair of free throws by Tamya Vaultonburg with five seconds left in the game. The Crusaders then fell to Dixon 46-40 the next night.
It was the fifth time this year that Lutheran (18-10, 8-2 BNC) lost back-to-back games, but this was the most damaging. The Crusaders were in the BNC driver’s seat entering the week, but now must focus on making a strong postseason run.
“We knew it was going to be a tough week, but we just did not play a full 32 minutes in either of those first two games,” said Lutheran coach Joni Carlson, whose team defeated Byron 54-31 the first time the two teams played in an early-season, non-conference game. “It’s just been the desire to win — that will to win. When there is a conference championship on the line, you have to really want it.”
But even with sophomore star Ambranette Storr (23 points per game) leading the conference in scoring, the Crusaders could not finish the job this week. Byron’s Megan McCarey scored a career-high 15 points in the Tigers’ upset victory.
Now Dixon (23-4, 9-0) heads to Byron (16-11, 8-1) on Friday, and if the Dukes pull it out, they will clinch the conference title. A Tigers’ victory would force a share of the title, and that would be just fine for Byron, which was 8-8 at one point this season.
“We went through a really tough stretch, and I’ve seen that break teams before, but not this one,” said Yerly, whose team fell by four points to Dixon earlier this season. “We’re playing our best ball of the season right now, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Jay Taft: 815-987-1384; jtaft@rrstar.com; @JayTaft
Big Northern Conference girls basketball standings
Team BNC overall
Dixon 9-0 23-4
Byron 8-1 16-11
Lutheran 8-2 18-10
Rock Falls 6-3 13-15
Mendota 4-4 13-10
Winnebago 4-5 13-12
G-K 3-5 12-11
Stillman Valley 3-5 9-15
Oregon 3-6 11-15
North Boone 1-8 6-19
Rockford Christian 0-10 3-14