Pats' mistakes prove costly

'Tis the season for giving.

According to Stevenson coach Trish Betthauser, that's exactly what her team did, as Mother McAuley defeated the Patriots 58-47 in the final round of the Maine West Tip-Off Classic in Des Plaines on Saturday.

"We gave them the game right from the beginning," Betthauser said. "Let's give Mother McAuley a lot of credit in that they are a very good team. They can all handle the ball very well. But we just shot our ourselves in the foot early on with miscommunication in the defensive end and poor passing on the offensive end. It's not characteristic of how we had been playing down the stretch."

Mother McAuley cruised to a 17-9 first-quarter lead and never looked back. The Mighty Macs (5-1) finished third in the tournament at 4-1, while Stevenson (3-4) finished the tournament at 2-3.

"Our (goal) is to fast break and jump out on teams right away, and that's basically what we have been doing," Mother McAuley coach Karen Ade said.

The Mighty Macs' Jen Moriarty led all scorers with 21 points.

"I felt that Jen had a real good game for us today," Ade said. "She started out slow this year so we've been looking for her to step up some more and she did that today."

Maureen Sullivan and Kayla Tisza each chipped in 10 points. Tisza also pulled down a game-leading 8 rebounds.

Senior guard Claire Moller led the Patriots with 13 points, including a 3-pointer, while Anna Morrissey scored 11 points. Kayla Fisher put in 10 and Caitlin Morrissey added 9.

"We really didn't communicate out there real well," Moller said. "I think that we will do better next game."

Betthauser knows her team is learning.

"This is some of our team's first taste of any varsity basketball," Betthauser said. "They're learning as they go and we'll keep working on them. I think we'll be a good team by midseason."

Warren 50, Lake Forest 33: Sarah Boothe had 23 points, 11 rebounds and 7 blocked shots for the Blue Devils in their North Suburban Lake Division game.

Lory Shaw added 6 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals for Warren (7-0, 2-0), which led 12-5 after one quarter and 30-10 at halftime. Erin Norwood dished out 5 assists.

The Blue Devils played without starting guard Shana Shepherd, who was sidelined with a sore foot.

Lake Forest received 9 points from Erica Sanderson.

Mundelein 64, Libertyville 48: Sam Panitch scored 22 points for the Mustangs, who built a 17-6 lead after one quarter in the North Suburban Lake Division game.

"We came out very slow in the first quarter and got ourselves in a big hole," Libertyville coach Kathie Swanson said. "It was a very physical game. I thought we played well the second, third and fourth quarters, but it was too little too late."

Ali Haws had 14 points to lead Libertyville (4-4, 0-2).

Mundelein improved to 6-1, 1-0.

N. Chicago 56, Lakes 47: The Warhawks (1-6, 1-1) won the North Suburban Prairie Division game for their first win of the season.

Lakes (0-8, 0-1) saw its losing streak stretch to 64 games, 4 shy of the state record.

HP 54, Vernon Hills 44: Amy Burton and Taryn Abbassian had 12 and 11 points, respectively, for the Cougars (2-5) in their nonconference loss.

Highland Park was led in scoring by Tatiana Moore's 21 points. Genny Arnold had 17.

BG 54, St. Vincent 40: The nationally-ranked Buffalo Grove girls basketball team traveled to Springfield on Saturday and did nothing to harm its No. 1 ranking in the state's Class 4A state poll.

Led by Ellen Ayoub (18 points, 9 rebounds) and Maggie Mocchi (16 points, 7 rebounds), the Bison defeated Milwaukee St. Vincent High School 54-40 at the Premier Basketball Girls Prep Classic at Lincoln Land Community College.

The defending Wisconsin private school state champs featured a front line of 6-foot-6, 6-4 and 6-foot but the Bison (8-0) were able to win the battle on the boards 30-28.

Allison Mocchi grabbed 7 rebounds while Kaitlin Hillner added 10 points for BG, which converted 21 of 24 free throws.

BG trailed 13-16 after one quarter.

"It was an outstanding team effort," said BG coach Tom Dineen. "This was a good early-season test for us and the girls responded exceptionally well."

Grayslake North/Woodstock ppd.: The game was postponed due to the inclement weather.