NORMAL, Illinois — Nazareth’s Mia Gage drove to the basket, was fouled and hit two free throws. Then she made a steal and went coast to coast for a layup.
That flurry during the Class 4A state championship game against Loyola on Saturday night was nothing new for the 6-foot freshman guard.
“Mia has been so good all season,” Nazareth junior guard Sophia Towne said. “We’ve put so much on her, but she’s done so much for us. We always forget that she’s a freshman because of how much she does.”
What Gage did early in the second quarter started a 16-0 run, and the Roadrunners rolled from there to prevail 55-23 and win their second state title. She finished with 11 points, five rebounds and five steals, and Towne scored a game-high 17.
“The fact that she can go out there and play her game and be able to put on such a performance is amazing,” Nazareth senior forward Stella Sakalas said of Gage.
Gage, who has three offers, including one from DePaul, credited her teammates.
“Knowing that they were there for me and I could lean on them when the game was getting hard helped a lot,” she said. “We know that we have five people that can defend, and that if I make a mistake, somebody is going to help me get back. If I don’t get this steal, it’s OK because my teammates are there to help me.”
The Roadrunners (34-4), who scored 40 of the last 50 points against Loyola (35-2), also won the Class 3A state title in 2023, when Sakalas was a freshman.
Freelance reporter Matt Le Cren contributed. This story will be updated.
