Carmel freshman forward Ada Lindal doesn’t get the attention afforded heralded classmate Liv Johnson.
The 6-foot-2 Johnson is widely considered one of the best players in the state, and the daughter of former Illinois player Lucas Johnson has 11 college offers. The 5-9 Lindal comes off the bench and doesn’t have any starting experience with the Corsairs.
“It’s a lot of pressure to try to be good, but the whole team supports me,” Lindal said. “I want to be just like Liv. I want to be as physical as her and do it all like she does.”
Lindal got her chance during the Class 4A Rockford Guilford Sectional championship game on Thursday and came through for Carmel. With Liv Johnson sitting out the majority of the third quarter with foul trouble, Lindal scored all four of her points to help push the second-seeded Corsairs to a 38-35 win over top-seeded Libertyville, her older sister Elinor’s former team.
“I know all the girls at Libertyville because I did their feeder and everything,” Lindal said. “I still love the girls there. I knew a lot of girls on Carmel and came to visit and loved it.”
Lindal also had six rebounds for Carmel (25-9), which will play Rolling Meadows (21-10) in the Dundee-Crown Supersectional at 7:30 p.m. Monday. Johnson finished with eight points and 12 rebounds, and senior forward Maron Bowes had seven points and 11 rebounds.
Junior point guard Lily Fisher, who missed a potential game-tying 3-point shot at the buzzer, had a game-high 22 points, 13 rebounds, four steals and two blocked shots for the Wildcats (27-6).
This story will be updated.
Bobby Narang is a freelance reporter.