Johnsburg has the advantage against Wauconda

After his girls basketball team had three players grab a combined 31 rebounds, Johnsburg coach Brad Frey noted the prowess on the boards.

Not necessarily that of his Skyhawks, however. Rather, Wauconda's rebounding impressed him.

"Ours are because we're tall," Frey said with a smile. "Theirs are because they go after it and get it."

Johnsburg pulled away from Wauconda to capture a 54-42 win at Richmond-Burton on Day 3 of the Northern Illinois Holiday Classic on Monday. The Skyhawks' contributors included 5-foot-11 Jazza Johns (7 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks), 5-10 Trace Chase (game highs of 15 points and 13 rebounds), 5-10 Carly Wilson (4 points, 7 rebounds), 5-10 freshman Kayla Stefka (6 rebounds) and freshman guard Aannah Interrante (12 points, three 3-pointers).

"It was hard-fought," said Frey, whose Skyhawks (9-7, 3-1 tourney) play Lakes at 12:30 p.m. today in the fifth-place game at R-B. "That was fun. The Wauconda girls played hard. They got a ton of rebounds. I'm really happy that we could sneak out of there with a good result."

Wauconda (5-5, 2-2 tourney) got a team-high 10 points from guard Natalie Harding, while three Bulldogs - Jackie Lung, 6-3 Katie Rossetti and Corrina Vaughan - each hustled for 6 rebounds. Maddie Gaschler provided a spark coming off the bench with 7 points and 5 steals.

"It was a winnable game," Wauconda coach Jaime Dennis said. "We have spurts of greatness and then mental lapses, offensively and defensively."

A pair of free throws by Gaschler tied the score at 34-34 with three minutes left in the third quarter. But a 3 by sophomore Cortland Sommerfeldt sparked a 6-0 run by Johnsburg, before Anna Wisniewski's shot beat the buzzer to pull Wauconda within 40-36 entering the fourth.

The Skyhawks then got 3-pointers from Delaney Pruitt and Interrante in the opening minute, and they were up 50-36 after Wilson scored on an offensive rebound. Wauconda never cut its deficit to single digits after that.

Wauconda scored only 14 points in the second half after going into halftime tied 28-28.

"They're big," Dennis, whose Bulldogs play Rockford Jefferson at 11 a.m. today at R-B, said of the Skyhawks. "Their zone can take up a lot of space, and we didn't effectively make them move very much. Our spacing wasn't very good, our passing wasn't very good, and it made pretty easy to defend then."