Conant 34, Barrington 25
Conant's offense was a bit off for most of the night in its Mid-Suburban West opener at Barrington.
But the Cougars got hot at the right time and converted their final 8 free throws to slip away with a 34-25 victory.
Conant (6-1, 1-0) shot just 20 percent (9-of-44) and trailed the host Fillies by a point with 1:29 remaining in the third quarter.
But senior Lisa Parisi (6 points) hit a jumper to start an 8-2 run that stretched from the end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter to give the Cougars a 26-21 lead.
Senior Ariana Zades (11 points) and senior Monica Danek both nailed a 3-pointer during the momentum-changing run to propel the Cougars.
"The whole game our shots weren't falling," Zades said. "But we picked it up at the right time."
Barrington (1-6, 0-1) pulled to within 26-23 with 5:25 remaining, but Parisi, Zades, and Emma Loos converted all 8 free throws in the final two minutes to secure the victory.
"It was not the prettiest game," added Conant coach Dan Travers. "But for us, we keep climbing the ladder."
Senior Michelle Rawleigh contributed 7 points and added a game-high 10 rebounds, while Loos ignited a Cougars defense that held Fillies senior guard Lianne Davis to 3 points on 1-of-9 shooting.
"I knew she (Davis) was a good 3-pointer, so I had to stick on her," said Loos, who supplied the Cougars with energy for the entire 32 minutes. "At the end I knew they'd try running a play for her, so I just picked my defense up."
Barrington had 26 turnovers in its loss on Tuesday night to Elk Grove, and the Fillies hurt themselves again on Friday with 22 turnovers.
"We know we have a turnover problem and we've been trying to work on it," said Davis of the Fillies' miscues. "We're trying not to focus on it and we'll keep working at it."
Freshman Shelby Whigham scored a game-high 14 points for the Fillies.
BG 77, Elk Grove 32: The host Bison charged in front and stayed there to pick up a victory in a Mid-Suburban East opener.
"We wanted to come out and dictate the tempo of the game and contain No. 33 (Ashley Capotosto)," said Buffalo Grove coach Tom Dineen after his team defeated the Grenadiers. "We did that.
"Our defense keys a lot of our offense. We came up with a lot of turnovers early on. We got a lot of points in transition. Did that surprise me? No, because that's pretty indicative of the way we've played here the last five or six years."
Capotosto finished with 10 points, but she wasn't the only one who was held down by the bigger, taller and stronger Bison.
BG (7-0) led 21-4 at the end of the opening quarter thanks largely to the efforts of the defense and the shooting of 6-foot senior Ellen Ayoub, who scored 11 points in the first eight minutes and ended up with 17 points in just under three quarters of play.
"Obviously we wanted to run when we could," said Elk Grove coach Jim Wills, whose team fell to 4-3 on the season. "We needed to knock some shots down early. We only had 9 turnovers in the first half, which is pretty good for us."
The Bison outscored Elk Grove 18-11 in the second quarter, 21-5 in the third quarter and 17-12 in the fourth quarter. With 2:32 remaining in the third quarter, Dineen took his starters out and let the second team have their chance.
When Katie Lee scored a free throw with 1:46 seconds left in the contest, that meant everyone on the BG roster had scored at least 1 point.
"I thought they played very well tonight," Dineen said of his reserves. "Three of those kids are freshmen and are learning the system. Tonight I feel real proud of them."
"We have a lot to learn, Wills said. "We have five back from last year and seven new players. Buffalo Grove is an excellent team. We knew that coming in. We had to make a lot of decisions."
One highlight for the Grens was freshman Maggie Fries, who came off the bench and scored 4 points in limited playing time.
--Kathy Rudolph
Hersey 68, St. Ignatius 57: Hersey rang up a season-high 68 points (first time it scored more than 50 all season) while winning its first game of the season in the Maine West Tip- Off Classic.
"We just clicked," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley, who missed a few of her team's games a week ago while attending a family funeral out of state. "This is the team I was pretty sure I had. I didn't recognize it from the one before I left."
Fendley saw senior guard Sarah Stoltzner light it up form outside for 21 points, connecting for four 3-pointers, three in the first half.,
Sophomore Kelly Rogowski added 19 points while her freshman sister Megan chipped in 13.
"Sarah, Kelly and Megan took care of the ball in this game and they got it into the hands of the right people," Fendley said. "It was the first time all season where we were smart and made safe passes. It was a whole new team from the one I had seen at the start of the season."
Stoltzner also handed out 6 assists while Kelly Rogowski had 6 steals, 5 assists and 3 rebounds.
Emma Kuhns grabbed 4 rebounds and Maggie Tunney 3.
The Huskies (1-5) converted 22-of-29 free throws.
"We had great free throwing shooting, too, which we haven't done all season," Fendley added. "We have the talent but we were just playing poorly to date.
"I think we're finally figuring ourselves out. Hopefully, this is a turning point. The girls saw how we are capable of playing."
The Huskies will play Washington at 10 a.m. today to conclude the tourney.
McAuley 52, Maine West 34: Senior Brittany Begrowicz (13 points, 5 rebounds), sophomore Samantha Acosta (9) and Mary Kusner (8) led Maine West (6-1) in its first loss in the Maine West Tip-Off Classic.
The Warriors (6-1) face state-ranked Marian Catholic at 2:30 p.m. today to wrap up the Tip-Off Classic.
"We are going to have to be a lot more focused (than Friday night)," said Warriors coach Derril Kipp. "This was not a real good effort.
We shot only 30 percent from the floor (and 3-of-13 free throws), we turned the ball over a lot, we were not opportunistic and we didn't get back on defense letting them have too many 3-pointers (5). Samantha Acosta was our best player on the floor."