Naperville Central guts out victory over Palatine

Good teams gut out victories on the worst of days, and at 10-2 Naperville Central definitely qualifies as a good team.

Saturday wasn't a good day, but the Redhawks persevered for a 36-31 Sweet Sixteen Tournament girls basketball victory against Palatine in Naperville. It was their fifth consecutive victory.

The Redhawks shot just 34 percent from the floor and committed 21 turnovers, but they won because whatever got into their water jug also migrated to Palatine's. The Pirates committed 27 turnovers and shot just 27 percent from the floor.

"We talked about the '83 White Sox, winning ugly," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said. "This isn't the first game that we've had like that, but I can't argue with the results. We're winning games. If you'd told me at the beginning of the season we'd be 10-2 I would've been pretty happy. And we can potentially get better."

Each team scored in single digits in the first and second quarters, with the Redhawks leading 15-14 at halftime.

"That's usually our first quarter," Redhawks junior guard Kelley Hendrick said, "so after we came out of halftime we decided we wanted to take the game into our hands and play the way we play."

Both teams found their range in the third, with Palatine (2-10) scoring 14 to take a 28-26 lead going into the fourth.

"We had plenty of chances," Pirates coach Ron Theberge said. "We had plenty of opportunities. We're hurting ourselves. It's been that way with us with turnovers. This was a game we had an opportunity to win. We just gave the ball away. We had a lot of empty possessions."

Naperville Central got a lift off the bench from sophomore center Katherine Tanck, who scored 6 points in the third period.

"Tanck did a nice job of cutting to the basket," Nussbaum said. "We've talked a lot about driving the middle, and both Emma (Ondik) and Kelley were looking for both Lisa (Lawrence, who scored 10) and Katherine, and Katherine more than once was in the right place at the right time. It was real helpful, especially since Jess (Carter) had 4 fouls. I thought her contribution was valuable."

The Pirates reverted to their stone-cold ways in the fourth. The Redhawks held the Pirates to just a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, by 6-foot-3 junior Katelyn MacFabe. MacFabe's 9 points led the Pirates.

"We struggled offensively quite a bit today, but we went man-to-man and held them to 3 points in the fourth quarter today," Nussbaum said. "It's not an effort issue. We're working hard. We had kids diving on the floor for balls. We've had seven games in 17 days, and we went 6-1 over that stretch. I feel pretty good about that."

Naperville Central led 32-31 with 1:45 to play when the Pirates started fouling. Hendrick sealed the win with a pair of free throws, then sophomore Claire Fleming and Hendrick each added one in the final 1:03.

Hendrick totaled 13 points on the day to lead both teams. She also grabbed 4 rebounds, dished 5 assists, had 4 steals and a block for good measure. Lawrence added 10 points, 4 rebounds and 4 blocks.

"It wasn't very pretty," Hendrick said. "There weren't any extreme points. It was just here and there, the rebounds, putbacks and the free throws, and they all add up. It's just going to take time to get it in the basket."