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Warren’s hitting its stride

A pair of eye-rubbing results — 20/20 — has Warren’s girls basketball team seeing clearer than ever.

The Blue Devils, who have ample athletes who like to fly up and down the court, are focused on defense.

Seeing is believing.

For the second game in a row Thursday night, Warren held its opponent to 20 points.

“I got to hand it to them,” coach John Stanczykiewicz said of his Blue Devils, after they outlasted Carmel Catholic 29-20 in final-round action of Warren’s Blue Devil Classic.

When Grayslake Central defeated Niles North 34-32 in the evening’s finale, Warren had earned itself the tourney championship by virtue of its win over Grayslake Central on Wednesday. Both Warren and Grayslake Central finished 4-1 in the tournament.

“They like to play fast,” Stanczykiewicz added of his players. “All of them like to get out and run and push the tempo. But the last several games they’ve been disciplined enough and responsible enough to stay with the game plan.”

Fans were seeing 20-20 midway through the fourth quarter. That was the score after Carmel’s Jackie Meier took a Sarah McHugh pass and drained a left-corner 3-pointer.

But Jessica Prince sank 2 free throws to break the tie with 3:56 left, and Warren closed the game with a 9-0 run.

“This score is like an eighth-grade score,” Carmel coach Kelly Perz said. “I’m sure watching that game was like watching paint dry. But that’s what Warren wants to do. They want to slow the game down, limit the possessions, and hope they (score) more than you, and tonight they did.”

Warren (9-6) won its last four games of the tournament after losing to Niles North 44-43 in its opener. In their five games, the Blue Devils allowed an average of 29.4 points per game.

“In practice, we’ve been working on our defense,” said the 6-foot-3 Prince, who had 7 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. “We’re trying to hold our opponent to 30 points.”

The Blue Devils employed a zone against Carmel (9-6, 3-2), which shot just 24 percent (7 of 29), while committing 24 turnovers.

Warren played mainly zone in the tournament.

“It’s pretty fun, getting steals from teams trying to make pretty passes,” Prince said. “In the zone, it’s pretty easy because we’re pretty long and big, and we get our hands in the passing lanes.”

While Alyssa Phillips led Warren with 9 points and 3 steals against Carmel, Prince and Lexi Leneau represented Warren on the all-tournament team. Amanda Barger had 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals, and sank 4 of 5 free throws in the fourth quarter.

All-tourney pick Kathleen Felicelli scored a game-high 12 points for Carmel.

“I think we played really tough defense, but we could have done more in the offensive end,” Felicelli said. “Both teams were really aggressive on defense.”

Felicelli contributed defensively, too, coming up with 4 steals and 5 rebounds (all on the defensive glass). Midway through the third quarter, the fearless Felicelli threw her 5-8 frame in front of the much larger Prince on the baseline and drew a charge.

“I was really surprised I got the charge on that,” Felicelli said. “I thought my feet were still moving. It was really exciting.”

Carmel helped limit Warren to 32-percent shooting (8 of 25), and the Blue Devils turned the ball over 21 times.

“I thought we played well for 29 minutes of the game,” Perz said. “They got momentum in the end, and we didn’t stop it. We needed to get an easy bucket.”

Warren, which also got a key basket and free throw from Kristen O’Brien in the fourth, ends the calendar year with its longest winning streak of the season.

“I’m proud of the kids,” Stanczykiewicz said. “It’s a shame we have to take a week off now, because we’re playing with a great degree of confidence. We’re sure in our game plan and what we want to do.”

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