Girls basketball: Legacies push Libertyville to another regional title
Libertyville sophomore Lily Fisher missed a chance to watch older sister Emily play in person Thursday. Emily is a reserve guard for No. 21 Maryland, which beat Northwestern in Evanston.
“I saw her yesterday,” Lily said. “She gets to come home more than I get to go see her, but I see her a decent amount.”
It was an unfortunate conflict of Big Ten scheduling for the Fisher family, but Libertyville will be moving on to play again after a 59-35 victory over Carmel in the Class 4A Round Lake regional final. The top-seeded Wildcats (28-5) will face Rockton Hononegah on Tuesday in the Huntley sectional semifinals.
Libertyville legacies were the theme Thursday as 6-foot-2 senior center Madison Sears led the Cats with 23 points, which coach Greg Pedersen thought might be a season high. Sears is the niece of former Libertyville star Tami Sears, who went on to have a nice career at Northwestern. Her father, Marc, played football for the Wildcats.
“My brother played football at Libertyville too, so there's a lot of history,” Sears said. “I love Libertyville, it's awesome to play there. I've been on varsity for four years, I've had amazing teammates.”
Aunt Tami wasn't at this game but lives nearby.
“She's definitely been an inspiration,” Sears said. “She texts me before every game, so it's nice to have that support system, same with my dad.”
Sears was 4 inches taller than anyone on the court for Carmel, so she could vacuum offensive rebounds for putback baskets and also had the midrange jumper falling, hitting 9 of 16 shots from the field.
Senior guard Elinor Lindal added 13 points for Libertyville, while Fisher scored 11. Last year the Wildcats won their first sectional title in 30 years and are looking to repeat.
“(Sears and Fisher), they both come from family success and they both have become their own people,” Pedersen said. “I'm just so proud of them. Lily has not backed down from freshman year on. I know she's living in the shadow, but it doesn't seem like it to me. She's just out there doing her thing.”
Four years separates the Fisher sisters, so they never really played on the same teams.
“She's my older sister, whatever she did, I wanted to do,” Lily said. “So now I feel like I'm just making my own footsteps.”
Libertyville played stifling man-to-man defense for the first three quarters before switching to a zone in the fourth. The game was tied 6-6 in the first quarter when the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run, then kept slowly pulling away. While Sears controlled the paint, four teammates knocked down 3-pointers.
Carmel (15-18), which had just one senior among its top seven players, was led by junior Josie Hartman with 15 points.
“It's a hard loss, but I feel like we still played our hearts out today,” Hartman said. “The score didn't show it, but our growth throughout the season has been insane. I'm just excited for next season to get back to work.”