Bishop Chatard High School girls basketball coach Kevin Sweeney had lozenges in one pocket and a small bottle of something called Entertainer's Secret in the other to soothe vocal cords worn thin by two rounds of sectionals.

He also had cards with all the team's offensive and defensive sets so he could flash them for the players rather than yell.

That plan lasted one possession.

With the Class 3A No. 5 Trojans scratching for every point against a well-prepared Roncalli team and the defense needing every scheme and adjustment in its arsenal, Sweeney was croaking and squeaking out instructions less than a minute into the game. He was going to lose his voice, but not the game.

"We had a walk-through this morning and my first word was, 'Stretch,' and I couldn't get it out; (the players) were laughing at me," said Sweeney, who took over a program that had never won a sectional and picked up the third in his four seasons with a 45-37 victory at Beech Grove on Saturday night.

"(But the cards) didn't last long. I thought I'd have the opportunity to use them but the game's too fast. I can't think that fast. I had to go ahead, suck it up and try to get some words out. I was pulling out all the stops."

Bishop Chatard (20-4) will play Rushville at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Mount Vernon Regional semifinals with the winner facing the Western Boone-Greensburg winner at 8 p.m. for a semistate berth.

Bishop Chatard has never won a basketball regional.

Anne Boese scored 16 first-half points to stake Bishop Chatard to a 25-18 lead but Roncalli adjusted its defense and held her to 1-of-6 shooting over the final 16 minutes.

Roncalli closed to within 33-30 with less than five minutes to play, but Caroline Schutzman, who averages 19.6 points but was held to one in the first half, hit a 3-pointer.

"She's always confident and she's got the green light from us, as long as she's balanced, out to 25 feet," Sweeney said. "We've got the kind of confidence in her that, after she misses five straight, we believe she'll drop 10 in a row."

Bishop Chatard -- Schutzman 3-6 4-6 11, Lee 0-0 0-0 0, Gardner 1-3 2-2 5, R. Kimack 0-2 0-0 0, Alerding 0-1 0-0 0, Crawford 2-6 2-3 6, N. Kimack 0-0 0-0 0, Shaughnessy 0-1 1-2 1, McKiernan-Allen 0-0 0-0 0, Boese 7-15 6-7 22. Totals: 13-35 15-20 45.

Roncalli -- Pederson 2-7 0-2 4, Elworth 3-8 1-2 7, Lorah 1-5 0-0 2, Feldman 0-0 0-0 0, Cahill 1-6 3-4 5, Hansen 0-4 0-0 0, Jordan 5-7 0-1 13, Opel 2-5 2-2 6. Totals: 14-42 6-11 37.

3-point shooting -- Chatard 4-14 (Schutzman 1-3, Gardner 1-3, Alerding 0-1, Boese 2-7); Roncalli 3-10 (Pederson 0-2, Elworth 0-4, Jordan 3-4). Rebounds -- Chatard 28 (Schutzman, Crawford 7); Roncalli 29 (Lorah 8). Turnovers -- Chatard 19, Roncalli 20. Fouled out -- Gardner.