From the Ottawa Paper

METAMORA— Ottawa coach Mike Cooper felt the biggest key for his Lady Pirates heading into their sectional game Monday evening against a very good Galesburg team was getting through the first quarter. Ottawa wasn't able to do that, though. Galesburg came out and did what it does best — make 3s — as it hit five of its first nine attempts from beyond the arc in building a 15-point advantage just a little more than three minutes into the contest. That initial spurt by the Silver Streaks, coupled with a huge third period, propelled them to a 61-34 win over the Lady Pirates in the semifinals of the Metamora Class 3A Sectional. Galesburg (27-6) will square off versus No. 5 state-ranked Peoria Richwoods, a 56-35 winner over East Peoria in Monday night's second semifinal, in the sectional championship game Thursday at 7:30 p.m. "You can't fault the effort (by our kids)," Cooper said. "Maybe the result wasn't what we wanted, but our kids played hard." "(The final score's) misleading because Ottawa is much better than what they showed, and we're maybe not as good as what we showed," said Silver Streaks Hall of Fame coach Evan Massey. Galesburg got a handful's worth of 3-pointers in the opening three minutes, 20 seconds, including a pair from all-stater Jessica Howard. However, the Silver Streaks didn't score over the final 4:40 of the quarter. Meanwhile, Ottawa struggled breaking Galesburg's running and trapping defense, which forced 13 Lady Pirate turnovers in the frame. Ottawa could only a muster a field goal and two free throws and found itself down 11 points after the opening eight minutes of play, 15-4. "We turned it over early before we could really get into a flow (offensively), and before you knew it you look up (at the scoreboard) and it's 15-0," Cooper said. Despite falling behind double-digits, the Lady Pirates hung around in the second stanza — getting as close as seven points twice (24-17, 26-19) — behind Kelcie Rombach's eight points, but still trailed by 11 at the half, 30-19. "The last 12 minutes (of the first half), we outscored them 19-15, and we had opportunities (to get closer than seven points)," Cooper said. The Silver Streaks busted the contest wide-open in the third period, outscoring Ottawa 25-7 — which included scoring the final 18 points — on the strength of the inside play of Jamie Johnson, who had a monster quarter with 16 points. "The first couple minutes of the third quarter we hung in there, but the game eventually broke (open)," Cooper said. "(Galesburg's) good for a reason. They've beaten a lot of really good teams this season, and for two-and-a-half quarters, I thought we played them really tough." Johnson scored 25 points to lead Galesburg. Jessica Lieber added 10 points. The Silver Streaks finished the game 11-of-35 from 3-point range (8-for-28 in the first half). Included in those 3-point makes was one by Johnson at the 7:01 mark of the second quarter, which gave the Silver Streaks a new state record for 3-pointers made in a season, bettering their own mark of 365 last season. Galesburg has now made 371 3-pointers. Rombach had 18 points for the Lady Pirates. Allie Miceli was limited to eight points and four rebounds. Ottawa closed the 2010-11 campaign at 22-6. "(The girls have) just got to remember all the good things we did this season," Cooper said. "We may have exceeded expectations a little bit. The girls took it upon themselves to win a regional, win 22 games ... It was a remarkable run by this group of kids." Galesburg 61, Ottawa 34 GALESBURG (61) — Peachey 1 3-6 5, Howard 2 2-2 8, Young 0 0-0 0, Rodriguez 2 0-0 6, Johnson 9 4-7 25, Mangieri 0 0-0 0, Boyer 0 0-0 0, Sibley 0 0-0 0, Klinck 0 0-0 0, Anderson 0 0-0 0, Lieber 3 1-2 10, M. Diggins 1 0-0 2, S. Diggins 0 0-0 0, Hamilton 1 2-4 5, Junk 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 12-21 61. OTTAWA (34) — Carlson 0 2-4 2, Ortiz 1 1-2 4, Miceli 3 2-4 8, Kindred 1 0-0 2, Rombach 8 1-2 18, Sakakibara 0 0-0 0, Rice 0 0-0 0, Kistenfeger 0 0-0 0, Burgess 0 0-0 0, Phelps 0 0-1 0, Janis 0 0-0 0, Simpson 0 0-0 0, Hayne 0 0-0 0, A. Williams 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 6-13 34. Galesburg (27-6) 15 15 25 6 — 61 Ottawa (22-6) 4 15 7 8 — 34 3-point goals — Galesburg 11 (Johnson 3, Lieber 3, Howard 2, Rodriguez 2, Hamilton 1); Ottawa 2 (Ortiz 1, Rombach 1). Rebounds — Galesburg 31; Ottawa 23. Turnovers — Galesburg 22; Ottawa 26. Total fouls (fouled out) — Galesburg 14; Ottawa 16 (Rombach).