DIXON — Rochelle’s Abby Lundquist and Stillman Valley’s Anna Broski are quite familiar with one another. They’ve played with each other through the AAU program, and it’s no surprise the two high school standouts took center stage when the Lady Hubs varsity basketball team faced Broski’s Cardinals in the IHSA Class 3A Regional Quarterfinals at Dixon High School on Monday.

Lundquist led No. 8 seed Rochelle with 17 points, five rebounds and three steals, while Broski totaled a game-high 18 points for No. 9 seed Stillman Valley. But Lundquist and the Lady Hubs held Broski to seven points over the final three quarters, and key shots late in the fourth quarter helped Rochelle (12-16) outlast Stillman Valley 40-37 to reach the semifinals.

“I play with her on AAU so she knows my weaknesses and I know hers,” Lundquist said. “She can drive and she can shoot, but we kept ourselves in front of her. She’s bigger than me so I tried not to get bodied up by her.”

Broski stole the show in the first quarter, hitting three 3-point shots and scoring 11 points in the quarter to help Stillman Valley lead Rochelle 16-15. Monday’s game then turned into a defensive battle, with both the Lady Hubs and Cardinals scratching and clawing for baskets. Senior Cesca Vardman’s steal and score in the final seconds of the second quarter gave Rochelle a 23-22 lead at halftime.

“We definitely knew not to underestimate them,” said Vardman, who scored nine points and totaled six rebounds and five steals. “We knew they were going to come back angrier and a lot harder so we did our best to avoid that ‘we’re going to win’ mindset. We needed to keep them in front of us because they’re very quick and agile.”

Monday’s regional quarterfinal was a rematch of Rochelle and Stillman Valley’s regular season game on Feb. 2, when Lady Hub senior Jacie Wyatt sunk two free throws with 0.3 seconds remaining in the game to lift Rochelle over the Cardinals 53-52. Given their seeds and the result of their first contest, fans expected Monday’s game to go down to the wire once again.

And that’s exactly what happened. A low-scoring 10-8 third quarter in favor of Stillman Valley gave the Cardinals a 32-31 advantage after the third quarter, but Rochelle swung momentum in its favor when Vardman made a 3-pointer from the left corner to give the Lady Hubs a 38-35 lead with 1:36 to go.

“The kids dug deep and they forced contested shots which was huge for us,” Rochelle head coach Tony Rowan said. “We were able to clean up defensive rebounds when we needed to the most.”

Both teams split a pair of free throws twice in the final minute of competition, but the Lady Hubs made one final defensive stand as time expired to seal the quarterfinal victory. Stillman Valley’s Georgia Ballard pushed the ball down the floor for a quick layup, but Ballard lost control of the ball out of bounds at the buzzer, prompting a loud burst of excitement from the Rochelle bench.

The Lady Hubs will face No. 2 seed Dixon on its home floor Wednesday evening. Rochelle played the Duchesses on its Senior Day this past Saturday, with the Lady Hubs winning 54-45. However, the girls are focused for their rematch with Dixon, and they’re looking to carry their same mental approach from Monday’s win into the regional semifinals.

“We can’t underestimate them and we need to come back harder than we played them the first time,” Vardman said.