Another wild finish for Wheeling
The spirited comebacks just keep getting better and better for Wheeling's girls basketball team.
After making up deficits of 11 and 9 points in recent wins over Hersey and Prospect, this time the never-say-quit Wildcats found themselves down by 13 points after three quarter against visiting Elk Grove on Friday night.
With another menacing version of its full court press, Wheeling wiped out the deficit in less than 31/2 minutes and went on to post a 47-42 victory in the Mid-Suburban East showdown.
The Wildcats (22-3, 6-2) began the final period with a 17-0 blitz and didn't allow Elk Grove (19-4, 5-3) a basket until Courtney Lindfors' 6-footer with 1:20 left in the game.
Lindfors (17 points) scored the Grens' only other basket on a 14-footer with five seconds remaining as Wheeling won the final eight minutes 22-4.
The dramatic triumph left Wheeling in first place in the MSL East, one-half game ahead of Hersey (17-6, 5-2), which visits Rolling Meadows today at 2 p.m.
"I don't know always how, but we did it again," said Stephanie Kuzmanic (14 points, 4 assists) of the big rally she helped energize with 2 buckets and 4 free big throws in the final 1:38.
"I think we like to keep it interesting," added Janelle Cannon, who added 15 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. "We came out flat again and we need to stop that. We always come out strong in the fourth quarter, putting pressure up on the full-court press and getting a lot of steals. Bianca (Szafarowicz) is great at pressuring the ball."
Cannon had a 3-pointer and 8 of her points the final quarter. Kellie Kuzmanic and Leah Malsom each had big buckets in period while Bianca Szafarowicz had 3 steals.
Cannon's 16-foot swish gave Wheeling the lead for good at 39-38 with 4:31 left.
"Ashley (Capotosto, who scored a game-high 22 points for Elk Grove) played great defense on me," said Szafarowicz, who scored 2 points. "She definitely shut me down on offense so I needed to play great defense. I just try to read the ball and the eyes of the player with it. Janelle and Stephanie definitely stepped up on offense."
Wheeling coach Shelly Wiegel felt her team played its worst half of the season in the first and then its best quarter in the fourth.
"I still don't know why we wait until the second half," she said. "I don't know if the girls do either. We'd like to see a full 32 minutes of what we do in those inspired stretches.
"But we are playing close games with great opponents. We've just got to figure out how to start playing better early."
Capotosto and Lindfors combined for 39 of the Grens' 42 points while senior Meghan Amann added a 3-pointer.
"Wheeling picked up its intensity level in the fourth quarter and we didn't match it," said Grens coach Ryan Kirkorsky. "They took Olivia (Roback, point guard) away from us and we have a hard time getting into the offense when that happens.
"I thought our game plan was pretty solid. But once they got that momentum, we couldn't slow them down. We tried to call time outs but it was like a snowball effect. The biggest thing I told the kids is that we've got to learn from this."