St. Edward downs Hampshire for 4th straight win
With 6-foot-4 CeCe Rapp graduating after last season, St. Edward girls basketball coach Michelle Dawson knew it would take some time for the Green Wave to form a new team chemistry this season.
Things appear to be coming together nicely for St. Edward.
Playing in front of a sold-out crowd on St. Edward's Pack the Place night in the newly dedicated Fr. Edward J. Seisser Gymnasium, the Green Wave got 3 free throws from junior Maddie Spagnola with no time on the clock to defeat Hampshire 55-52 Saturday in a nonconference game in Elgin.
"We're a totally different team this year," said Dawson, whose 12-8 team won its fourth straight. "I knew this year would be a learning experience for us and that it would take some time to develop that chemistry."
Teams with good chemistry tend not to get flustered, and that was the case Saturday for the Green Wave, who jumped out to a 15-5 lead after one quarter then withstood Hampshire's furious comeback bid.
The Wave led 26-20 at halftime and were still clinging to a 33-32 lead after three quarters when Hampshire junior Rachel Dumoulin nailed a 3-pointer 12 seconds in the fourth to give the Whip-Purs (16-7) their first lead of the game. From that point the furious final period saw three ties and seven lead changes before a basket in the paint from 6-1 Hampshire senior Emma Benoit tied the game at 52. Spagnola missed a 3-point attempt and the putback by Yssa Sto. Domingo was short, giving Hampshire possession on a dead ball rebound with 14.8 to play. But the Whips missed a layup and Spagnola came away from the skirmish for the rebound with the basketball. With time running out, she launched a 3-point attempt from half court but Hampshire was called for a foul on the shot. The clock registered 0.0 but the horn had not gone off. Spagnola calmly made all 3 free throws to give the Green Wave the win.
"This totally boosts our confidence," said Spagnola, who led all scorers with 23 points, 17 of them in the first half, while also adding 5 steals.
"These four straight wins have really been as a team. We have much better teamwork now and our defense has totally stepped up. Tonight our defense in the first half was the key."
The Wave held Benoit, who sat out 6 minutes after picking up her second foul, to just 2 points in the first half. The Northern Michigan recruit did finish with 16, as did junior teammate Rachel Dumoulin.
"I told them at halftime that basketball is a game of runs and (the Whips) are going to make their run and Benoit is going to get her points," said Dawson, whose team has five regular season games to go before the Class 2A postseason begins. "We just had to withstand the run and focus on what we needed to do."
Katie Castoro added 9 points and 5 assists for St. Edward while Emily Armstrong had 7 points, as did Mallory Rejman. Armstrong made a free throw and Rejman scored all 7 of her points to lead a Green Wave 8-0 run midway through the fourth quarter. St. Edward was efficient all night, hitting on 17 of 36 from the floor and 18 of 24 from the free-throw line while turning the ball over just 11 times.
Junior Meagan Heine added 10 points for Hampshire, which shot 18 of 41 for the night.
"We got into some foul trouble and it took a lot of energy to come back," said Hampshire coach Mike Featherly, noting his team was without starting guard Allie Peters, who was out of town on a retreat. "But we had an opportunity to win. We had our chances."