Piazzi's on point as Libertyville gets past Warren

After one period of play, it looked like it was going to be the Kaylen Dickson show.

The Warren sophomore guard went crazy in the first eight minutes during a Saturday afternoon North Suburban Lake tilt against visiting Libertyville.

Dickson's spin move and nifty outside shooting netted her 12 of her game-high 16 points as Warren looked pretty sharp in taking a 19-11 lead after the opening act.

But then it was Libertyville and senior point guard Maggie Piazzi's turn.

Piazzi kept the Wildcats troops calm and did her thing, scoring all 10 of her points in the second quarter to help erase that Warren lead and eventually assist in producing a 41-38 victory in Gurnee.

"We never got down and persevered," said Piazzi. "We picked up on Dickson's spin move and started double-teaming her. We just played with a lot of energy. You could feel the fire."

That "fire" ended up carrying over because after that opening frame, Libertyville's defense turned up the heat to the tune of 7 Warren turnovers in the second quarter.

Sophomore guard Jordyn Hughes hit a jumper to give Warren a 23-17 lead with 5:20 left in the half. But Piazzi then hit a 3, which promptly started a 10-0 burst to close the rest of the half. Libertyville wound up outscoring Warren 16-4 in the second to seize not only the lead at 27-23 but the momentum as well heading into halftime.

Junior guard Rebekah Foley scored all 9 of her points in the third to help keep Warren within shouting distance at 37-32.

But Libertyville upped its lead to as many as 9 points (41-32) after a layup by junior guard Riley Weis with just over five minutes left in regulation. Weis led the Cats in scoring with 12 points, including a pair of first-half treys.

But Warren's been playing some pretty stingy defense as well of late, and that helped them claw back into this one.

After the Libertyville run, Dixon's jumper started a 6-0 spurt to end the game - but it was too little too late for the Devils, who slipped to 11-11 overall and 3-7 in the Lake.

Warren had several chances in the last minute but was forced into some tough shot selections. Junior forward Claire Keefe's steal on an attempted inbound Warren pass with 3 seconds left ultimately sealed it for Libertyville, which improved to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in the division.

"After that first quarter, we had no energy on the defensive end," said Devils coach John Stanczykiewicz. "We were slow on our rotations and getting through screens, and we need to do better on the offensive boards."