Maisto's FTs give Rockets win vs. Elgin

Burlington Central girls basketball coach Darlene Guyett does not believe Jordan Maisto is a sophomore.

At least not the way Maisto plays on the basketball floor. She plays beyond her years and is poised in almost any situation.

So when Maisto was fouled with 17.2 seconds remaining Tuesday in a tie game against Elgin, Guyett was fine with it.

"I think she plays as a mature player," Guyett said. "When they fouled her I was actually like, 'Great.' I was confident in Jordan knocking those down."

Maisto hit both free throws and Central made one last defensive stand to earn a season-opening 46-44 nonconference victory over Elgin in Burlington.

"It was nerve-racking," said Maisto, who finished with 9 points. "I was trying not to listen to the crowd because I didn't feel too much pressure."

After Maisto's free throws, the Maroons had difficulty bringing the ball up court and the play drawn up during a timeout broke down. Elgin junior Ellen Holton, who scored a game-high 21 points, thought she got free for an open look, but Central's Brianna Conran blocked her fourth shot of the game. The Rockets controlled the loose ball and ran out the final seconds.

Elgin had to rally from two big second-half deficits to have a chance to pull out the victory.

The Maroons trailed by 10 midway through the third quarter and eventually tied the game at 34-34 with 6:50 remaining in the fourth quarter thanks to a 9-0 run. Central scored 9 of the next 10 points to take a 44-36 lead. Elgin went on an 8-0 run capped by a Caris Alan 3-pointer to again tie the game at 44-44 with 1:48 left.

"The kids didn't give up. That's for sure," Elgin coach Angie Hudson said. "We started getting the ball to the people we needed to during (those runs)."

The Maroons had several chances thanks to three offensive rebounds with less than a minute remaining, but failed to score. Central senior Cory Bazany, the lone returning starter for last season's conference champions, missed the front end of a one-and-one, but grabbed the offensive rebound. Then Maisto missed a 3-pointer and the rebound resulted in a jump ball with the Rockets getting possession with 24.4 seconds left. After a few passes, Maisto made a back-door cut and was fouled as she went up for a layup.

The finish was as thrilling as the rest of the game was lackluster as the teams combined for 60 turnovers and went 12-for-34 from the free-throw line.

"A very typical first game of the season," Guyett said.

Melanie Laird, coming off a serious knee injury, led Central with 15 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Bazany added 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Holton added 7 rebounds to go with her 21 points. Alan finished with 12 points.

Glenbrook North 61, Prairie Ridge 44: Prairie Ridge (0-1) lost its first game of the season to Glenbrook North in the Mundelein Thanksgiving Tournament.

Prairie Ridge was led by Jessie Kulousek, who had 9 points on 3 three-point shots. Shannon Hennelly had 8 points for the Wolves.

Lake Park 61, South Elgin 41: South Elgin (0-1) fell to Lake Park at the Fenton tournament. The Storm was led by Alexa Kruel, who had 11 points. Amanda Sieverding, Alyssa Krause and Cortney Kumerow each had 7 points for South Elgin.

Indian Creek 71, Westminster Christian 33: Westminster Christian (0-1) couldn't pull out a win against Indian Creek and fell in the Rockford Christian tournament.. Rachel Doby had a team-high 14 points for the Warriors. Beth Kautz had 6 points and Hannah Graves contributed 5 points.

Conant 45, Addison Trail 23: Conant kicked off its girls basketball season Tuesday with a 45-23 win over Addison Trail. The Cougars came out on fire with 15-1 run and led 20-5 after the first quarter.

"It feels good," said Conant coach Dan Travers. "The kids have worked pretty hard to earn this. We played hard. We played with purpose."

Game high scorer Danielle Ladehoff had 10 of her 12 points in the first half, where Conant led 32-10 going into the break.

"I'm very happy. We came out hard and played the way we wanted to," Ladehoff said. "Staying together was the key tonight. We were all nervous and anxious in the beginning of the game. Unity and communication was it. "

Conant's defense not only shut down the Blazers in the first half, it also turned a lot of steals into baskets.

Emma Loos (8) had back-to-back baskets in the first quarter off consecutive steals.

"Our full court press was pretty effective," Ladehoff said. "We had lots of steals and were able to convert."

Michelle Rawleigh had 10 first-half points including a pair of 3-pointers. Lisa Parisi (5) and Angie Lonski sunk 3s off the bench.

"Everyone played excellent," Ladehoff said. "Everyone played as hard as they could. We all wanted to win. We wanted the 1-0 on the home court advantage."

Even after the first, the Cougars controlled much of the pace with runs of 12-2 and 8-1 in the next two quarters.

But the second half didn't keep up with the first. After the break, both teams were even with 13 points the rest of the way.

"We didn't have quite the same intensity in the second half," Travers said. "They practiced hard and we're getting better. We just need to push (our first-half dominance) even further. There's room for growth."

That second half also saw the Blazers turn it up a little.

"We played well in the second half," said Addison Trail coach Rob Schader. "We kept it close in the second half. We switched it up a little defensive. We fought -- we could've easily gone down by 40. We played even in the second half. It's a step in the right direction."

Jenn Schulmeister scored 7 to lead the Blazers while teammate Erica Spear had 6, including a 3-pointer. Mercedes scored 4 off the bench.

Schader feels his team is already showing signs of improvement over last year, but the first half was just too much to overcome.

"We won only two games last year," Schader said. "We have four good seniors back. But offensively, we didn't get anything done tonight. We knew they were going to trap us. We turned the all over 15 times in the first half alone.

"That's going to be a big thing for us this year. I told them if we handle pressure, we'll do all right. We didn't handle pressure tonight."