Winnebago 57, Morrison 45: Winnebago is known for its height advantage. So when the Indians were getting outrebounded by a much smaller team from Morrison at halftime Tuesday, they took it personally.

“We know we have the size, we just needed to box out,” Winnebago senior forward Jake Doty said. “That’s a big key for us.”

The Indians came back after halftime and redeemed themselves to beat Morrison 57-45 in the Plano Sectional semifinals.

Winnebago (29-0) will face the winner of tonight’s semifinal between Lutheran and Elgin St. Edward in Friday’s 7:30 p.m. championship game.

Morrison (24-8) outrebounded Winnebago 17-7 in the first half. Travis McBride, a 6-2 forward, had 11 rebounds and single-handedly outrebounded Winnebago’s four biggest post players. After a halftime speech that was short and sweet, Winnebago outrebounded Morrison 14-11.

“We just talked about how we weren’t boxing out,” Winnebago coach Joe Murphy said. “That, and we just had to relax. We felt like we were doing what we needed to do, but you have to get those block outs. That’s all there was to it.”

After clinging to a 26-20 halftime lead, Winnebago had two key putbacks from Chas Cross (13 points, nine rebounds) and a 3-pointer from Jeff Sartorius in the third quarter to spark the Indians. Winnebago pulled away for good on a 6-0 run to start the fourth on baskets from Cross, Brad Reinke and A.J. Thomas.

Russ Fiori added 11 points for Winnebago. Jason Smith led Morrison with 18 points, and McBride finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

- Emily Tropp, rrstar.com