St. Edward rights the ship, rolls over Chicago Christian

For the first 7 minutes Saturday night, the St. Edward girls basketball team missed wide open shots, was caught out of position on defense, and generally looked out of sorts. The Green Wave found themselves trailing visiting Chicago Christian, 13-8.

Then it was as if someone flipped a switch. St. Edward drained a couple of shots, regained its mojo, and proceeded to crush the Knights, 69-27, in the Metro Suburban Red matchup.

Yssa Sto. Domingo made a 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter to get the Wave started. They outscored the Knights 13-6 in the second quarter, then opened the second half on a 26-0 run to turn it into a laugher.

"We just started out a little cold," said Wave coach Michelle Dawson. "We weren't our normal shooting selves. A couple of times, though, we were caught out of position and we got in a little bit of foul trouble, which mixed up our rotations a little.

"We talked at halftime about really concentrating, focusing, being in the right position at the right time forcing the turnovers and not reaching. I think we really disrupted them and it really fueled our offense."

St. Edward started the second half with a 3-pointer by Madison Knott, an old-fashioned 3-point play by Knott, a steal by Sto. Domingo leading to a putback by Mariel Franco, a forced turnover, and a 3-pointer by Sto. Domingo. That turned a 24-19 halftime lead into a 35-19 advantage.

Sto. Domingo hit 2 more from long range in the quarter and Franco, Knott, and Abigail Armstrong made 1 apiece as the Wave outscored the visitors 30-4 for the quarter.

Dawson began emptying her bench late in the third. All 16 Wave players saw action and 12 scored.

Sto. Domingo scored 14 of her game-high 17 points in the second half. Knott finished with 13 and Franco added 7 with 6 rebounds for St. Edward (15-6, 8-0), which will host Walther Christian Tuesday night with the MSC Red lead on the line.

The Wave, who shot just 28 percent in the first half, recovered to shoot 45 percent in the second, finishing at 36 percent for the game. St. Edward attempted just 5 free throws in the game, but made them all.

Bethany Regnerus scored 14 points for Chicago Christian, which tallied just 14 points after the first quarter.