Libertyville's winning tendency continues

Stevenson's defensive perfection in the second quarter couldn't ruin the Libertyville girls basketball team's perfect season.

Instead, the visiting Wildcats overcame a hardly perfect 10-point half, which included 0-of-10 shooting in the second quarter, by turning to No. 10.

Valerie Van Roeyen, who last season was barely in Libertyville's top 10, elevated her game in the second half and hit shots on a night most players from either side couldn't.

Her 7 points, which included a clutch fourth-quarter 3-pointer, and spark off the bench helped Libertyville continue its dominance over Stevenson the last two seasons, as the Wildcats won 43-30 in Lincolnshire on Thursday night.

The win hiked Libertyville's record to 18-0 and 7-0 in the North Suburban Lake Division, while dropping Stevenson to 14-7 and 5-2. The victory also gave the Wildcats a sweep of the regular-season series for the second straight year.

Afterward, coach Tom Dineen was asked what Libertyville has that his Patriots don't have.

“More points,” he said.

Libertyville had no points in the second quarter.

Stevenson scored eight and went to the locker room up 13-10.

“We switched every screen we could,” Stevenson guard Anna Morrissey said of the Patriots' second-quarter shutout. “We knew we needed to lock down our defense.”

Libertyville, a usually good-shooting team, shot just 2 of 23 in the first half.

“(Stevenson) was switching on everything that we did, and we're not really used to that,” said Wildcats point guard Savannah Trees, who had a game-high 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals. “We had to adjust to that at halftime, and I think we did a good job.”

Libertyville finally started hitting shots in the third quarter and got within 21-20 heading into the fourth.

Van Roeyen's left-wing 3 came on a feed from Trees and after Olivia Wilcox (10 points) had snapped a 24-24 tie with a baseline jumper.

“That's her shot,” Trees said of Van Roeyen, who made 3 of her 5 shots. “She steps up at big moments. That's what she's good at.”

Van Roeyen, a senior guard and team captain, continues to be a key contributor, mainly coming off the bench.

“She's been huge this year,” Libertyville coach Kathie Swanson said. “I told her in the locker room that I'm so proud of her. She's come a long way. She saw that there was an opportunity this year and we talked to her about things she needed to do. She has been such a leader. She understands her strengths and weaknesses.”

Libertyville pulled away in the fourth, going 12 of 12 from the foul line and outscoring Stevenson 23-9.

The Wildcats hit all 18 of their free throws. Trees, Wilcox and Kaca Savatic (8 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals) each went 6 of 6 from the stripe.

Morrissey and Michelle O'Brien (12 rebounds) each scored 8 points for Stevenson, which didn't score in double digits in any quarter and shot just 10 of 43 (23 percent) from the floor.

“We just need to stick together,” Morrissey said. “We need to execute our plays and play like we did in the second quarter for 32 minutes.”

Dineen will take more defensive efforts like the one he saw from his team in the second quarter.

“I told the kids, ‘I don't believe that Coach Sandstead (assistant coach Ashley Sandstead) and myself have done anything differently the last couple of days at practice,' ” Dineen said. “I said, ‘This is the way that I believed that you could play defense from Day 1, and why you chose to do that tonight is beyond me. Great players and great teams do that every quarter, every night.' That's what I'd like to see out of them from this point on.”