IC wins consolation championship

Immaculate Conception coach Aubree Lawrence felt much differently after the fourth quarter Thursday than she did after the first quarter.

Despite a terrible start her Knights rallied to claim a 23-22 victory against Newark and the Lisle Holiday Cage Classic consolation championship.

“That’s pretty good. I’m proud of the kids,” Lawrence said. “... To go 3-1 in a tournament like this and lose to the team that won, there’s no better place to be. Not even to be the losers in the last game. This is a better place to be.”

The Knights (11-8) missed all eight of their first-quarter shots and trailed 11-2, and they heard about it from Lawrence between periods.

“They don’t really see that side of me too often,” Lawrence said. “I don’t like to be like that. I’m not a yeller. I’m competitive and intense, but I’m not a yeller unless I have to. I felt at that time they didn’t really understand the urgency of it, that fire, that fight. They weren’t giving it to each other, so I felt like I should give it to them.”

It worked. Newark (13-3) didn’t score again for more than 12 minutes, with IC taking a 16-11 lead midway through the third quarter.

“They understand,” Lawrence said. “We were very clear that the offense was going to come from the defense, and Allie got a couple of really nice steals and was able to finish.”

Knights senior Allie DiVito led all scorers with 9 points and was named to the all-tournament team.

Both teams struggled with their shooting, the Knights finishing 8 of 33 and Newark 9 of 32.

“We got off to a great start,” Newark coach Dale Skelton said, “but this four games in a row against good competition wears on you. I think we noticed it tonight in this bracket here we had a lot of low-scoring games. People’s shooting was off.”

Newark tied the game at 17, but Grace Vitek scored on a putback to give IC the lead for good with 2:43 to play.

“It was a low-scoring game, but it doesn’t matter,” Lawrence said. “We got a little bit of our pride back.”