St. Francis can't hang with Rosary

The last thing on the minds of the Rosary players early on Tuesday night was domination.

Playing at St. Francis in Wheaton, the Royals quickly fell behind 5-0 and trailed 8-4 following a second 3-point basket from the Spartans Maggie O'Toole. But following a timeout by coach David Beebe, Rosary (7-3, 3-0) did begin to dominate play.

First came a 7-0 run to lead 11-8 after one quarter. Then came a 29-15 lead at the half. When all was said and done, the Royals had a rare one-sided, 59-38 victory over the Spartans, who dropped to 4-3 overall and 0-2 in the Suburban Catholic Conference.

"We beat them here a couple years ago, but I can't recall ever dominating them," Beebe said. "And I think it will be a different story next time. They have too much talent."

It was the Royals who were flashing an abundance of talent. Point guard Victoria Alvarez did a little of everything, scoring 16 points, pulling in 8 rebounds and coming away with 3 steals. But fellow guard Faith Jones was just as hard on the Spartans, also tallying 16 points, grabbing 9 boards and adding a blocked shot.

"We were really on," said Alvarez, who sank a 3-pointer in each half but also made her way to the basket for a number of driving layups. "We all worked real well together on offense. It was a good game."

It wasn't just the Royals' guards who played well. Forwards Colleen VanBogaert and Katie Petrando played well and 6-footers Jordan Rettig and Katie Eckberg provided tough defense inside.

"We've got a good mix and our depth helps a little," Beebe said. "Tonight we did a little bit of everything."

For the Spartans it was tough to hang with the visitors when the shots were not falling. Aside from O'Toole's two early 3s, the Spartans went 0 of 9 from beyond the arc and shot 16 of 50 overall from the floor.

"We didn't pass the ball well and we didn't hit our shots," St. Francis coach Leslie Fay-Dehn said. "But Rosary's a good team. The SCC has a lot of nice teams this year."

Catherine Culligan paced the Spartans with 12 points and was followed by O'Toole with 8 and Bethani Werner with 6. Chrissy Belniak and Jamie Stefely each had 4 rebounds to lead the hosts.