Trinity Becomes Latest Revenge Victim

Unfortunately for the Trinity girls basketball team, revenge remained the story of the Class 4A York sectional.

All three sectional games saw the winner avenge a regular-season loss. Proviso East did so again Thursday night, knocking off the Blazers 55-47 to win the sectional championship in Elmhurst.

During the regular season, Trinity (28-5) beat Proviso East 64-60 on Dec. 28 in the Suburban Holiday Showcase at Niles West.

“It definitely was a lot more physical this time,” said Trinity junior forward Megan Podkowa, sporting a swollen bruise under her left eye from a shot she took in the second quarter that caused her to temporarily leave the game. “I don’t think it was anything like this last game, and I think the pressure that we felt from the aggressiveness that there was, we just didn’t perform to our level. We lost our composure and it all fell down.”

“The better team won tonight,” Blazers coach Ed Stritzel said.

Proviso East (30-2) reversed the outcome this time with unrelenting, pressure defense. The Pirates harassed Trinity into committing 25 turnovers and shooting just 30 percent (13 of 44) from the field.

“The key to everything is playing defense,” Proviso East coach Ezra PridGeon said. “If we don’t play defense, we can’t win basketball games. That’s my philosophy -- defense first. We know we can score, but we have to stop, and we stopped their best scorers tonight.”    

Podkowa, who averaged 20.7 points in three previous playoff games, finished with 14. Sophomore guard Taylor Nazon wound up with 12 after scoring 10 in the fourth quarter. Senior guard Taricka Linzy added 10. The Trinity trio shot a combined 10 for 29 from the field.    

“They take you out of your offense,” Stritzel said of the Pirates. “They did a wonderful job. We just didn’t play well offensively. Our offense was off the whole way.”

Trinity jumped ahead 9-3 even though it made only one field goal in the first quarter. Proviso East scored the next 10 points to start an 18-5 run that produced a 24-14 advantage.

However, the Blazers scored the last eight points of the half – five by Linzy – to pull within 24-22.

Holding a 32-29 edge in the third quarter, Proviso East took off on a 15-2 tear to build a 46-31 lead with 6:52 left in the game.

Trinity closed within 48-40 on Nazon’s three-pointer with 3:26 remaining, but the Pirates scored the next six points to take a 54-40 cushion into the final minute.

Ricquia Jones sparked the Pirates at both ends of the floor. The 5-foot-3 senior point guard made three three-pointers on the way to a game-high 18 points on seven-of-11 shooting from the floor.

“She’s something,” Stritzel said. “She put so much pressure on our guards.”

“We call her our little bulldog,” PridGeon said.

Illinois-bound guard Ivory Crawford contributed 12 points for the Pirates, who shot 41 percent (22 of 54) from the field.

Proviso East will meet Maine South in Monday’s Loyola University supersectional after surviving an overloaded York field that included Fenwick and Bartlett in addition to Trinity.

“The sectional obviously is brutal,” Stritzel said. “The IHSA really needs to be fair about it. There are other teams that are getting cakewalks to the super. To ask us to beat Bartlett and come back and beat Proviso is tough.”

It was difficult for the Blazers to see their season end, in part because they knew the winner would find a favorable path to the state final.

“It’s disappointing,” Stritzel said. “I’ve asked a lot of the girls all year. We’ve gone through the gauntlet. The last game is always hard. We have great seniors. We have great kids. They’re awesome kids. I feel terrible for them.”