Will helps Prospect repeat at York
Taylor Will went out in style after competing at the York girls basketball tournament for the past four years.
The Prospect senior helped lead the Knights to their second straight tourney championship as they wrapped up 4-0 showing with Wednesday's 70-45 victory over Wheaton North in Elmhurst.
Will's game-high 29 points moved her into second place (1,323 points) on Prospect's all-time scoring list behind Colleen Grant (1,352).
The Knights led 20-12 after one quarter and then outscored the Falcons 18-4 in the second period.
"I really liked how we started out the game," said Prospect coach Ashley Graham. "I thought the girls were really ready to go."
Taylor Will and classmate Catherine Sherwood (17 points) were selected to the all-tourney team.
Junior Nikki Matters chipped in 12 points for the Knights and sophomore Haley Will had 6.
"All the kids off the bench did a nice job," Graham added "I've been impressed with all 12 girls the last four games and we are excited to get started in conference play."
Conant 53, York 28: Conant finished with a 3-1 record in the York tournament after its final win over the host Dukes.
Haley Anderson scored 17 points and grabbed with 5 assists and 4 rebounds to lead the way. Alissa Wachal chipped in 8 points and Nireet Dhillon had 7 with 5 rebounds and 3 assists for the Cougars.
Jorie Wachal also had 5 rebounds while Dani Engelbreit had 4. Katie Lomas handed out 3 assists and DeeDee Durr had 6 points with 2 assists.
Lakes 39, Elk Grove 33: Ellie Havliand sure knows about timing.
The 5-foot-8 junior guard for Lakes scored 12 of her game-high 16 points in the fourth quarter to help the Eagles rally from a 6-point second-half deficit and defeat Elk Grove 39-33 in the final round of the Turkey Thriller at Lake Zurich.
"She works hard every day," said Eagles coach Pete Schneider, whose team is 2-3. "She loves the game. All these kids work so hard."
Elk Grove (2-3) went ahead 28-22 on a putback by O'Rayn Macavoy with 7:31 left in the game.
But Haviland answred with a 3-pointer and layup to get the Eagles back to withing a point.
Haviland hit a 10-foot bank shot in the lene for a 36-31 lead with 2:04 left.
Elk Grove center Amber Lindfors took a pass from Carly Crothers (team-high 12 points) and scored a layup to make it 36-33 before Haviland closed the scoring by getting a steal and then converting a 3-point play for the final points.
"Defensvely, we played rel well," Schneider said. "Jen Guth ( Buffalo Grove coach) does a real good job with her kids. We are young, so we are a little up and down."
Senior guard Nicole Denman finished with 8 points for Lakes, followed by by senior Olivia Pawlak (6) and Natalie Iacopetti (5).
Lindfors had 6 points, 14 rebounds and 7 blocked shots. Taylor Matos also had 6 points for EG and Abbey Sloan 5.
"I thoought our girls were always playing hard but it was a tough shooting day for us," Guth said. "We had a lot of close opportunities and didn't connect, and that hurt us in the long run. They did a nice job doubling down and taking away Amber from us, which forced us to look elsewhere.
"Overall, we are just trying to learn from every game and get better for our tough Mid-Suburban East conference."
Northside Prep 53, Leyden 44: The Eagles (3-1) dropped their final contest of the Fenton-Addison Trail tournament yet still were able to earn the overall tourney title. Against Northside Prep, Alondra Chavarria scored a team-high 18 points while Autumn McGee had 10 and Artasia Gusman 8.