Glenbard East comes from behind to beat West Chicago

There aren't many ways to improve on knocking down a pair of free throws late to secure a conference win on the road, but Glenbard East's Briana Raysby found one.

With the Rams up 32-29 at West Chicago with 1:02 left to play, Raysby made the first of two foul shots and missed the second. But the junior forward followed her miss with an offensive rebound and a putback that helped power Glenbard East to its first Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division win of the year, a come-from-behind 37-32 victory.

"I just remember seeing no one in front of me and just going after the ball," said Raysby, who pulled in 17 rebounds Saturday. "I feel like I started out slow and toward the end of the game I finally picked it up. I found that motivation to go after that ball."

Raysby and the Rams were chasing the Wildcats most of the afternoon, trailing at the end of each of the first three quarters before everything clicked in the fourth quarter. Down 26-21 entering the final quarter, the Rams' Dana Plotke started things off with the team's first 3-pointer of the game. Sam Dooley added two more key 3s, and Raysby and Faith Davies owned the boards as Glenbard East used a 16-6 advantage in the fourth quarter to prevail.

"They came out in a zone defense and we had a couple turnovers and were a little bit frazzled at the stat of the second half," said Dooley, who scored all 10 of her points in the second half. "Then Dana hits that 3 and we just kept going and going. And Bri getting a lot of rebounds was huge. It was a huge defensive game for us."

While everything clicked for the Rams late, Saturday's result was just another tough setback for West Chicago, which dropped to 6-13 overall and 1-3 in conference.

"This has happened to us quite a bit, so whether it's the youngness of our team or just not understanding that level of intensity that has to be raised," Wildcats coach Kim Wallner said. "Again, you have to give (the Rams) credit. They rose up, they hit some shots and they rotated the ball. They did what they needed to do and we didn't execute very well."

Guard Sofia Radice, who has been battling the flu, paced the Wildcats with 10 points and 3 steals, but she did not score in the second half. Samantha Wiegele added 8 points and 4 rebounds.

For the Rams (4-13, 1-3), Davies finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Raysby tallied 6 points to go with her monstrous night on the boards.

"I told Bri, it's not your points, it's your defense and your rebounding today that put us over the hump," said Glenbard East coach Don Finnie, whose team was missing four players but still gutted out the win. "They all hustled today and they were all focused today, which was awesome to see."