Bolingbrook Girls Basketball Team Heads To State 4A Semifinals

BOLINGBROOK, IL — The Bolingbrook High School girls basketball team is two victories away from a state championship and by now, the Raiders have one goal.

To defend Illinois.

The Raiders (24-5) received a hero’s escort out of Bolingbrook on Thursday morning as they head to Normal for Friday’s Class 4-A state semifinal against Barrington.

Bolingbrook advanced to the Final Four with a tightly contested 56-53 victory over Edwardsville in Monday night’s Supersectional. Titiana Thomas paced the Raiders with 24 points and Angelina Smith capped the victory with two free throws to send Bolingbrook onto the state semifinals at 4:15 p.m. at Redbird Arena.

“This is one of the tightest games we have had,” Smith told reporters after Monday’s victory.” All of our losses have been to teams from outside of the state, so we had to defend Illinois. We aren’t done yet, though. We still have two games to play.”

The winner of Friday's state semifinal game will face either Lincolnshire Stevenson (33-2) or Benet Academy (30-3). Bolingbrook finished in third place in the state in 2020 in its first state tournament appearance since 2011 when the Raiders won their third straight state girls basketball championship.

The Raiders were escorted from Bolingbrook High School on Thursday as Police Chief Mike Rompa and Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta were on hand for the festivities. The team send-off included a performance by the Bolingbrook High School marching band and staff and students filled the hallways to send the Raiders off in style.