St. Francis seniors carry the day

Isabel Bettag and her St. Francis teammates made some sweet Senior Night memories on Tuesday.

St. Francis started and ended its game with Sandburg with five seniors on the floor. The quintet of Bettag, Maggie Henseler, Mia Mazza, Julia Holsinger and Carly Kenney combined to score 29 points to help the Spartans to a 52-45 nonconference victory at the Spyglass Center in Wheaton.

"It was amazing," Bettag said. "The energy was out of this world.

"I love it when everyone shows up to play because everything is going at once. We were hitting shots."

Kenny, a 5-foot guard, sank the first two shots of the game to give St. Francis (15-12) a 5-0 lead. She finished with 6 points.

Considering the final margin, those points were important. So, too, was the 3-pointer Bettag sank early in the fourth quarter after the Eagles (10-18) had chopped a 17-point Spartans lead to 38-33.

Bettag, who had 11 points and 8 rebounds, took a pass from junior Antwainette Walker and buried the 3 out of the left corner with 7:13 remaining.

"Coach (Melissa Taylor) always harps on lift and rotate to the corner, so I just tried to make sure I was in tandem with the passer," Bettag said. "So I kept moving and you got to catch it and go in rhythm."

That wasn't the only big play Bettag made. After Sandburg's Grace Bauer drilled a 3 to make it 46-41, Bettag split a pair of free throws with 2:56 to go. Mazza followed with a steal and fed Henseler for a layup to ice the game.

Henseler was on the receiving end of three consecutive assists from Walker in the second quarter. All three baskets either tied the game or put the Spartans ahead.

"Walker had some amazing passes down low," Bettag said. "I couldn't believe the passes and Maggie was ready for them.

"It really shifts the momentum. Everyone is blown away."

Walker tallied 10 of her team-high 14 points during a 17-1 run bridging halftime. That spurt began with an 18-foot jumper by Walker and ended when Bettag rebounded a missed 3 by Walker and converted a three-point play, putting the Spartans up 38-21.

"I just wanted to play for the seniors mostly," Walker said. "It was a team game but also a senior game so I just wanted to incorporate anything I can do, pass to as many seniors as possible to get people points on the board."

Sandburg's Kennedy Sabutis made things interesting, scoring 13 of her game-high 15 points in the second half, including a trio of 3-pointers. But she missed the only attempt she got after St. Francis made an adjustment.

"I really think it was rotations," Bettag said. "They had three people up top and we're used to have a two-guard front.

"We had to figure out how to find (Sabutis) and once we find her actually get somebody on her. Once we figured out how to do that it was a matter of contesting."

Henseler added 8 points and 6 rebounds for St. Francis, while Mazza had 7 points, 5 steals and 4 assists.