St. Francis builds momentum
While only one girls basketball team left Tuesday's nonconference game with a win, both sides left feeling pretty good heading into next week's Class 3A playoffs.
St. Francis held off a late surge from host Timothy Christian to prevail 43-36 and improve to 10-13 on the year with one more game before hosting a Class 3A regional next week. The Trojans, meanwhile, feel good about being able to trim a 16-point third-quarter deficit down to just four points on three occasions before coming up short.
"To get a nice win with a little bit of difficulty at the end gives us a lot of confidence," said Spartans freshman Mia Mazza, who scored 14 points. "I thought we definitely came out strong at the beginning and sometimes we have a problem with that."
St. Francis, powered by 7 points from Mazza, took a 15-6 lead after one quarter and built that margin to 28-14 at halftime, as Mazza and Caroline Pins combined for 20 points through two quarters.
The Spartans' lead grew to 35-19 late in the third quarter after Elinor Cycenas split a pair of free throws, but the Trojans (5-20) did not go down without a fight. Maty Huisman hit a 3-pointer in the final minute of the third quarter and Timothy Christian then opened the final quarter with a 14-6 run to close to within 40-36 before coming up short.
"They started making some shots and we maybe lost our focus on defense," St. Francis coach Mike Phillips said. "We haven't had a lot of games where we played from in front, and so we're just learning how to handle that."
It didn't help matters any for the visitors that 6-foot-1 center Kaitlyn Gehrke got on a roll, scoring three baskets down low in the final quarter to finish with 14 points and 8 rebounds.
"This is what we've talked about all year. We've struggled with our guards so our ballhandling has been a struggle," said Timothy Christian coach Michelle Strube, whose team had 17 turnovers in the first half. "We tell them to take care of the ball, slow down the offense, and look inside-outside. Tonight we did, and it helped that some of the baskets fell."
With a win over Fenton followed by Tuesday's strong finish, Strube likes the way her team is playing heading into Thursday's regular-season finale and then Monday's playoff opener in Elmhurst.
"I'm just excited," Strube said. "We won Friday versus Fenton, so we had a good win Friday and a great game today. They're doing it at a good time."
Phillips is also feeling good with the regionals just around the corner.
"I'm happy that the girls gave good effort and we're just trying to build some momentum before the playoffs," said Phillips, whose team has one final makeup game Thursday before hosting a regional next Wednesday against Chicago Noble Street Charter/UIC.