Rolling Meadows wins rematch with Glenbard West

Rolling Meadows won a Mid-Suburban East girls basketball co-championship two weeks ago.

On Thursday night, the Mustangs added another championship to their 2017-18 campaign, and they did it in quite convincing fashion.

After falling to Glenbard West a month ago 60-48 in a nonconference game in Glen Ellyn, the No. 6 seeded Mustangs led start to finish in a 65-50 victory over the No. 3 Hilltoppers in the championship of the Class 4A Addison Trail regional on Thursday night

Meadows (21-8) will face No. 2 seed Wheaton Warrenville South (26-3) on Tuesday in the 7:30 p.m. semifinal of the Lake Park sectional.

The Mustangs couldn't have picked a better game to enjoy their finest shooting percentage of the season from 3-point range.

They connected for a season-high 11 from 19 attempts, including two to start the game from juniors Alexa Davis (15 points, three 3-pointers) and Lily Greifenstein (12 points, two 3-pointers).

Moments later, Davis (15 points, three 3s) hit her second for a 9-2 lead, and the Mustangs never let the Hilltoppers closer than 6 points the rest of the game.

Another impressive stat for Meadows in their second straight regional crown under coach Ryan Kirkorsky was 18 assists on 23 field goals.

"One of the things we put on our board almost every game is 'Make your teammates better,' and one of the things we talk about is assisted baskets all the time," Kirkorsky said. "We knew from playing them they were such a good defensive team so we had to move the ball and get great shots every time down the floor."

Sophomore Bridget Rolla, in addition to scoring a team-high 17 points, dished out 6 assists while Davis had 4.

Also reaching double figures for Meadows was Melissa Spiwak (15 points), the only senior starter for the Mustangs.

"This is awesome," Spiwak said of her second regional crown in two years. "We really adjusted from the first time we played them. We wanted more help on the posts. We had a great start and wanted to keep that tempo and fast pace the entire game."

That's exactly what the Mustangs did. Sophomore Susannah Holifield got into the 3-point parade with a big one in the third quarter that stretched the lead to 30-16. Late in the period, Rolla found Caili Hosler under the basket or a layup and the lead was 40-28.

"We told the kids it was a big stage and wanted them to play loose and free," said Kirkorsky, who now has four regional crowns in five season at Meadows and one at Elk Grove. "If it was a good shot, we wanted them to knock it down, and fortunately our kids did tonight."

"We had a really good game plan and followed it for the whole 32 minutes" Rolla said. "We got the good ball movement. We've been working on not forcing things. When we got the good ball movement, we tend to hit the 3s more, so that was good."

Sophomore forward Taylor Huff led the Hilltoppers (25-6) with 18 points while junior Katelyn Heller added 11.

Senior guard Sammy Harris chipped in 8, all coming in the fourth period when Glenbard West outscored Meadows 18-4.

"The most important thing we leave behind is team bonding," said Harris, one of three seniors along with Cameron Kruse (5 points) and Ellie Sear. "That's something you can't teach. Cameron, Ellie and I wanted to leave that. You can win a game on talent, but when two teams with talent meet, it's the team that stays together, supports each other and loves each other on and off the court that wins. And I think we proved that in many of our wins this season."

First-year coach Kristi Faulkner, a former Hilltoppers standout, also got points from juniors Jamiyah Thomas and Nikki Adamski.

"We had a great senior class," Faulkner said. "Sammy, Cameron and Ellie were tremendous this season. They worked hard every day and gave us great leadership. We talked about having positive chemistry and they did a great job leading the team and bringing home a conference championship. I'm really proud of those three. We'll miss them.

"We have a lot coming back. We have a lot of young talent hungry for next year. During the off-season, they've got to work hard to get better and just remember this game and have it fuel us for next season."

The Mustangs were fueled by their top 3-point shooting of the season.

"I think Meadows shot lights out," said Faulkner, whose club only shot 11 percent in the first half, with 2 field goals in the first quarter and 1 in the second. "It was their night - give them credit. I think they're very aggressive, and it was big game so they took some things away from us. Maybe it was some nervousness for us, but they were hitting their shots and we weren't hitting ours. That's basketball."

"We just came out so strong," Greifenstein said. "One of our main goals was to play harder than them and be the aggressors. And we just held to that throughout the entire game. It was awesome."