St. Francis falters against St. Edward

St. Francis held its biggest lead at 7 points heading into the game's final three minutes.

It turned out, however, that St. Edward was just getting started.

The Green Wave dropped a 12-0 run on the home team to pull out a 43-38 girls basketball victory in a Suburban Catholic Conference opener Friday in Wheaton.

"That fourth quarter I think they really found the fight again," St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said of her players. "They picked up their aggressiveness on the boards, on defense. That's what got us back into it.

"These girls aren't going to die. They're not going to give up. I give them a lot of credit for finding that extra strength and that extra will to come back."

Katie Yohn fueled the comeback for the winners. The 5-foot-11 junior guard delivered 10 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter.

"I think we really buckled down and started playing good defense," Yohn said. "And we took care of the ball a lot better than what we were doing."

The Green Wave (3-1, 1-0) had 22 turnovers on the night but only 1 in the final quarter.

St. Francis (4-2, 0-1) put itself in good position with a 9-2 run in the fourth quarter that produced a 37-30 lead.

But Spartans all-area point guard Catherine Culligan fouled out with 2:32 remaining, and St. Edward followed with 10 answered points to move ahead 42-37.

"I think two times right after that 7-point lead we just took the ball and threw it out of bounds to nobody," St. Francis coach Leslie Fay-Dehn said. "When your point guard goes out of the game with fouls it makes it harder.

"Having Catherine out of the game is tough because she is a leader and the kids know that, so I think they have a little bit of panic when she's not bringing the ball down the floor. We've got to come together as a team. We can't just depend all on her."

The Spartans committed 28 turnovers.

A lot of them came during a horrendous start. St. Francis turned the ball over five times before it took its first shot and wound up missing its first 16 field-goal attempts.

Yet the Spartans held a 19-16 edge at intermission after closing the first half with an 11-0 spree.

"That's a tough loss," Fay-Dehn said. "There was no lack of effort. The kids definitely put in effort. I couldn't believe we were up at the half."