To beat River Forest, Marisa Esquivel knew Griffith needed to be better. What’s better than scoring 1,000 career points? A sectional title.

Marisa Esquivel had no intention of allowing River Forest to deny Griffith another championship.

The senior guard scored 14 points Saturday night as the Panthers topped the Ingots 47-28 in the Class 3A Griffith Sectional final.

River Forest (7-17) pulled the upset on Griffith (15-7) with a 48-42 decision on Jan. 19, costing the Panthers a share of the Greater South Shore Conference title with Bishop Noll and Lake Station.

The rematch for Esquivel — who earlier this season became the program’s all-time scoring leader and who eclipsed 1,000 career points Saturday — and Griffith was different.

“We came more prepared,” Esquivel said. “We came with a mindset that we were not going to lose this game. We were going to win.

“We did everything better. We played defense better. We played offense better. We just did everything well.”

The Panthers won their second straight sectional title. They will play West Noble (7-17) in the semifinals of next Saturday’s Jimtown Regional.

“This feels so much better because we’re seniors now and we did it ourselves,” Esquivel said. “We feel like we accomplished something.”

Senior guard Cierra Pipkins led Griffith with 16 points and senior forward Ella Rasberry added 12.

Ken Anderson, in his second season as Griffith’s coach, said it took time for this seven-player senior class to “establish an identity” after graduating three senior leaders.

He praised this group’s development.

“It’s been an effort,” Anderson said. “We’ve had sickness, we’ve had COVID, we’ve had injuries. But this team fought their way through.”

Senior guard Aiyanie Troutman paced River Forest with 10 points.

In Friday’s semifinals, the Ingots beat Hanover Central 34-28, having lost to the Wildcats 46-29 on Dec. 11 and 51-22 on Dec. 28. That win was indicative of the progress River Forest, which lost 14 straight games to fall to 1-14 before winning six of eight until Saturday’s loss, made under coach Colleen Cary.

Cary — a 2016 graduate who played basketball, volleyball and tennis — took over earlier in the season after third-year coach Brad Redelman resigned. Her first game was the eighth of the season, Dec. 3 at Wheeler.

“When I got them, they were super divided,” Cary said. “They were nitpicking each other. But we came in and tried to build a team.

“This group knows what to expect next year. We’re going to work hard through the summer. We wanted this (Saturday) really bad, but there were a lot of positives. We’re going to be ready next year and hopefully we’ll be cutting down that net.”

This time, again it was Griffith, turning around its regular-season loss to River Forest.

“It was the most disappointing game I’ve ever been involved with in my career in any sport,” Anderson said. “ … We had the same scouting report, but we just had a different focus in this game. It’s about as much as you can ask for.

“All I wanted was focus, effort and energy and everything would take care of itself. This group came out with focus, effort and energy. I don’t know if the coaches wanted to play River Forest. We matched up better with Hanover. But these kids wanted to see River Forest, and that’s a good thing.”

Esquivel became Griffith’s career scoring leader in a Jan. 22 loss to Portage, passing her sister Ariel, who graduated last year and is a freshman at Calumet College. Marisa reached 1,000 points on an offensive rebound with 7:42 left in Saturday’s game.

Anderson complimented Esquivel for becoming more of a driver and less reliant on 3-pointers.

“She really bought in,” he said. “She did exactly what we asked of her. I couldn’t be more proud of her.