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Big second half carries St. Charles East past Bartlett

There were seven ties and five lead changes during a closely contested first half that saw the girls basketball teams from Bartlett and St. Charles East play to a 25-25 standoff.

Things changed dramatically in the second half.

Sara Rosenfeldt's offensive rebound putback gave the Saints (4-2) a 27-25 lead with 6:25 left in the third quarter.

Five straight points from senior guard Marissa Urso upped the lead to 32-25 before the Hawks (2-4) closed to within 32-29 on Danielle Kleeman's two free throws and Ashley Gal's basket.

From there, the Saints blew the game open with 17 unanswered points on their way to a convincing 63-33 Upstate Eight Conference crossover victory Tuesday night in St. Charles.

Held without a basket over the final 12-plus minutes, Bartlett connected on just 1 of its 26 second-half field goal attempts.

"I'd like to think it was because we were at least challenging them but they did not have a good shooting second half," said Saints coach Lori Drumtra. "I think that 1-3-1 we play does help. It throws teams off a little bit. We're getting better at it."

Bartlett managed 6 free throws while being outscored 38-8 in a second half that coach Dave Mello would rather forget.

"I looked up at one point and we were on our normal pace - and then all of a sudden nothing was going in," said Mello. "You could see as soon as it (ball) was leaving their hands that the shots were off.

"There are going to be nights like that. That's when we have to rely on our defense."

Actually, the Hawks' shooting woes began in the second quarter when they connected on just 2 of 13 field goal attempts.

However, Kleeman (10 points, 8 rebounds) helped keep Bartlett in the game with 4 of her team's 6 second-quarter free throws.

"I thought their press was bothering us way too much and that they had more intensity than we did," Drumtra said of her team's first half.

"Despite the poor shooting, we were still tied," said Mello. "We warned them at halftime that just because it's tied it doesn't mean they're not going to come out and get hot (in the second half).

Enter Urso, who scored 12 of her game-high 21 points during the Saints' 21-4 third-quarter surge.

"She can get hot," said Drumtra. "We need her to get her shots and to get her open."

Rosenfeldt finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds, 4 blocked shots and 3 assists while Samantha Munroe contributed 6 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, and Nicole Jordan added 6 points.

"Marissa has been playing amazing," said Rosenfeldt said of Urso. "She's playing exactly how we need to play."

Junior Kayla Hare (7 points), who burned the Saints with a school-record seven 3-pointers during the Hawks' 76-57 triumph last season, finished without a single 3-point basket.

"We always knew where she was," said Drumtra.

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