McMahon steps up for St. Francis

St. Francis' girls basketball players knew who should get the basketball, and East Aurora knew who would get the ball.

And Fiona McMahon, well, she just had a ball.

McMahon scored 26 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter to lift the Spartans past the Tomcats 52-42 at the Willowbrook Thanksgiving Invite on Wednesday night.

“We've got to work on getting other people to step up, but she's certainly stepping up big-time,” St. Francis assistant coach Mike Phillips said of his 6-foot-1 senior.

McMahon also added 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. She made 11 of 14 shots.

“The idea was to make her turn to one side, but our post players weren't disciplined on making her turn to her weaker shoulder, and she was able to get good inside position,” East Aurora coach Bill Anderson said. “It's probably the best I've seen her play.

“She shot a pretty high percentage this evening, was under control, kept her balance, didn't force a lot of things, played actually a smart game.”

The Spartans led all the way, taking a 27-17 lead with 5:47 to play in the third quarter. But East Aurora scored the next 5 points, and the lead didn't hit double digits again until the very end of the game.

Three times in the fourth quarter East Aurora (2-4) cut the margin to 1 point, but the Spartans found an answer each time, twice getting baskets from McMahon to keep the lead.

“We stepped it up,” McMahon said. “The first half wasn't that great, but the second half we seemed to pull it together.”

It helped that St. Francis had success at the free-throw line while the Tomcats struggled. The Spartans made 13 of 17 free throws, including 7 of 8 in the final eight minutes. East Aurora finished 12 of 24.

“We made some fouls to put them in a situation where they were at the line,” Anderson said. “Fouls to us are turnovers. They shot a high percentage at the free-throw line. We're young. There were some key mistakes that we made executing. We were able to get to the paint. We shot 24 free throws, didn't make a lot of them. That's pretty much the outcome of the game.”

The Spartans are 4-1 on the season despite a lot of new faces.

“We're just trying to learn how to play together,” said Phillips, who filled in for coach Jeff Gerdeman. “One of our key players didn't play last year. She's back playing. We've got a couple of young kids playing mixing in with McMahon and trying to get the ball in to her. So every game we're trying to learn how to play a little bit better, and little by little we're getting there.”

Senior guard Kelly Reinke, who missed last season with an ACL injury, added 13 points for the Spartans.

“Every time we play she's getting a little closer to where I think she wants to be,” Phillips said about Reinke.

Sophomore Tyshee Tawner came off the bench to score 17 for East Aurora.