Glenbard South snaps St. Edward's 12-game streak
As the saying goes all good things must come to an end.
The St. Edward girls basketball team entered Saturday night's home contest riding a 12-game win streak. However, the Green Wave came crashing into a defensive wall consisting of the Raiders' two 6-footers in the middle Maggie Bair and Ally Daca and dropped their first game since Thanksgiving, 57-44.
Bair had 10 points, 19 rebounds, and 6 blocks. Daca added a team-high 16 points.
The Glenbard South defense held the Green Wave to just 15-of-48 (31 percent) shooting from the field.
"We work really hard on our defense and it sure helps to have two 6-footers in the middle," Glenbard South coach Morgan Kasperek said. "They make it hard to come inside the lane against us. But I also think we did a good job of pressuring the ball, moving our feet, and working over screens."
Glenbard South, who is now on a 5-game winning streak of its own, led just 27-25 at the half, but outscored the Green Wave 14-1 in the third quarter to pull away to a 41-26 advantage. St. Edward missed all 8 of their shots from the field and managed just one rebound the entire quarter.
Bair was so dominant on the boards that she out rebounded the entire St. Edward team with her 19 rebounds. The Raiders (12-4) had a 40-16 advantage on the glass.
"We knew they were a really good team and have been playing really well," Bair said. "So we were excited for the opportunity to play them. Sarah (Cohen) did a great job stopping their really good point guard (Madelyn) Spagnola. And we knew they liked to dribble drive a lot, so it was up to us to stop them at the basket."
The Green Wave (14-4) had fallen behind 27-16 midway through the second quarter, but rallied to score the final 9 points of the half to go to the locker room down by just 2. However, when the Green Wave fell behind in the second half they just didn't have another comeback in them. They pulled as close as 7 points in the fourth quarter, but the Raiders made 12-of-14 free throws down the stretch to ice the win.
Cohen was 8-of-10 from the line for the Raiders and finished with 13 points.
Spagnola and Katelyn Castoro each had 14 points to lead the Green Wave in scoring.
"We had some matchup problems with their size tonight," St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said. "Every trip down the floor was pretty much one and done. They were really able to disrupt the flow of our offense. But this is a good learning experience to go up against a team with kind of size. We need to learn how to counter that."