OTTAWA – Points came at a premium for both the Amboy and St. Bede girls basketball teams during the IHSA Class 1A Marquette Regional Championship on Friday, Feb. 16 at Marquette Academy in Ottawa.

The Lady Clippers hung close and made a run, but they couldn’t get shots to go through the hoop when they were needed in the second half as Amboy lost 50-39 to end its season with a 24-8 record.

“Our shooting was horrible. It just was. You can’t beat a team that big without shooting,” Lady Clippers coach Mike McCracken said. “We didn’t shoot free throws. We didn’t do anything that we did in the semifinal victory over Putnam County.

“We got ourselves in foul trouble. I know they were in foul trouble. We just got to the point where shots wouldn’t fall, and we got frustrated.

“We’ve had nights like this, but you can’t have a night like this in a regional final.”

Amboy shot 10-28 from two, 4-28 from the 3-point line, and 7-17 from the free throw line, while committing 15 turnovers.

St. Bede (26-7) shot 14-36 from two, 2-11 from the 3-point line, 15-23 from the charity stripe, and had 18 turnovers.

The Lady Bruins, who entered the regional final on a 14-game winning streak not losing a game since December 28, took an 11-8 lead after the first, had a 22-14 advantage at halftime, and were up 35-26 after three frames.

In the opening minutes of the third quarter, Amboy went on a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to four but couldn’t get closer.

“We hit our only good shots of the night and made a little run. But they answered us, and we didn’t have an answer for them on defense,” McCracken said. “It’s good any time you have 24 wins. We didn’t’ do as well in the conference as we should. We lost some close games. We lost five close games, that’s how many we lost in the conference, you’re not going to win the conference like that.

“Overall, Meave Larson played with a bad knee down the stretch. We have two seniors, Larson and Elly Jones, and I feel worse for them.”

Junior Addison Pertell led Amboy with 13 points, Larson had nine, junior Emily Sachs scored six, Jones finished with five, junior Tyrah Vaessen made a 3-pointer, sophomore Kiera Karlson had two, and sophomore Bella Yanos made a free throw.