Newman starts rally too late against Riverdale

Unfortunately, it wasn't until the fourth quarter, when they already trailed by 17 points. The end result was a 50-42 Riverdale victory, sending the Rams to Monday's Class 2A Somonauk Sectional semifinal against Byron.

"Their shots were falling, and we couldn't get ours to go down," Newman senior Jaimie Hurd said. "We finally got things going there in the fourth quarter, but they just had too big a lead and we ran out of time."

Riverdale (24-2) scored the game's first 11 points, but when all-time scoring leader Hannah Nimrick went to the bench with her second foul late in the first quarter, the Comets rallied. Newman (15-12) cut the deficit to four (12-8) by the end of the opening period, and trailed by five with 31 seconds left in the first half.

But Jess Corson hit a shot with 4.2 seconds left in the half, giving the Rams all the momentum heading into the locker room.

"That last shot of the half killed us," Newman coach Jay Howell said. "We were right there in it, then they score right before the buzzer and it deflated us a little bit."

Riverdale built a 39-22 lead with a 12-2 run to end the third quarter and start the fourth, even with the Comets putting the clamps on Nimrick. Corson, Lauren Claus and Elle May all scored during the spurt.

"We worked as a team on both ends," Riverdale junior Sydney Mericle said. "We moved our feet and helped each other out on defense, and we kept working the ball around on offense. We know when they take away one person, we've got other girls who can score."

Newman wasn't finished, though, as Jaimie Hurd hit a 3-pointer before Mary Alice Oswalt hit a 2 and two free throws to get the Comets within 10 (39-29). After Riverdale pushed its lead back to 43-29, Rachel Hageman nailed a 3 and Oswalt hit a runout layup.

But the Rams sank their free throws down the stretch, and Oswalt's 3 with 11.3 seconds remaining still left Newman down by eight. Hannah Erickson's putback at the buzzer followed two Nimrick free throws and provided the final margin.