Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown
Just call them the running Bison.
The nationally-ranked Buffalo Grove girls basketball team used two big runs Thursday to continue its undefeated run this season.
Trailing 9-8, the Bison (15-0) went on a 19-0 tear late in the first quarter against Mother McAuley (10-5).
In the second half, the state's top-ranked Class 4A team used a 22-3 burst to pull away for good en route to a 69-42 triumph in the quarterfinal game of the Dundee-Crown Charger Classic.
"We got off to a little bit of a slow start," said Bison coach Tom Dineen, whose team will face Resurrection (12-3) in today's 6:30 p.m. semifinal.
"But after that we had an outstanding first half. And after they made a run in the third quarter (to pull to within 45-33), we finished well."
Senior Allison Mocchi, who underwent ACL surgery last spring, led the Bison with 18 points, followed by Maggie Mocchi (16), Ellen Ayoub (15) and 5-foot-6 junior Kaitlin Hillner (10).
But in Dineen's eyes, Hillner did much more than just score 10 points.
"Sometimes she doesn't always get noticed because she isn't one of our big scorers," the Hall of Fame coach said. "But Kaitlin played outstanding defense which helped us get our game running."
Playing solid defense is hardly a new concept for Hillner. She is a two-year starter in soccer as a sweeper, the defender closest to the goalkeeper.
"I just like defense," she said. "I just tried to keep the dribbler from going to my left, then I always get great help from my teammates. They get all the steals."
Maggie Mocchi was credited with 9 steals Thursday and Allison Mocchi recorded 5. Many came when the Bison were making their big runs.
Allison Mocchi underwent ACL surgery last spring so reporters questioned the Northwestern-bound senior afterward about playing back-to-back games.
"It's fine," said the four-year starter who played 27 minutes Thursday. "Mr. Dineen knows when to sub for me when I need it.
"I can tell by her body language," Dineen said. "Or she'll just give me a nod. It's pretty easy."
Dineen went to his reserves for most of the final quarter and senior guard Katie Lee handed out a nifty no-look pass for an assist to Hillner and kicked out a nice pass for an assist on Allison Mocchi's 3-pointer. Lee also swished a 3-pointer of her own.
Sophomore Heather Nisbet and freshman Andrea DiPrima also put points on the board for the Bison.
Hononegah 59, Maine West 41: With Hononegah in the lead 21-12 at the end of the first quarter, the Indians never looked back. Kelsey Carroll scored 14 points, including four 3-pointers, and Chelsie Logan scored 9 points.
Colleen Vana, Brittany Begrowicz, and Ellen Coogan each contributed 9 points apiece for Maine West.
Evanston 51, Regina 38: Collier Clegg led all scorers with 19 points to boost Evanston to victory. Any Wheeler added 8 points. Kelly Fitzpatrick led Regina with 10 points, while Kelcey Traynoff added 9 points.
SCN 65, Johnsburg 43: The St. Charles North girls basketball team had high hopes and expectations entering the 25th annual Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown.
The high was brought down a bit after the North Stars' buzzer-beater loss to Naperville Central 54-52 in the first day of the tournament Wednesday.
Thursday, however, was a different story, as the North Stars needed -- and received -- a solid 65-43 win over Johnsburg.
"It was nice," St. Charles North coach Katie Sauber said. "We came out as a different team. (Against Naperville Central) we were flat. We weren't hitting our shots and we weren't aggressive. But today, we came out and made up for some of those missed shots with our aggressiveness and intensity on defense. I was happy."
"We came out ready to play right away," St. Charles North's Kiley Hackbarth added. "We feel good about it."
With the win, the North Stars (9-3) will play Bartlett, a 55-53 winner over Dundee-Crown, at 12:30 p.m. today.
The North Stars never trailed and were able to capture a double-digit lead for the first time at the end of the first quarter. By the break, they had their biggest lead of the half, 35-20.
"It was our defense," Sauber said. "They were getting after it and they were running up and down the court well."
"We came out with a lot of intensity in the first quarter," St. Charles North's Anna Conrad added. "After (the Naperville North) game, we were ready to come out, play strong and put (Johnsburg) away right from the start."
Johnsburg, however, made a decent run at the North Stars after going on a 9-0 run in the middle of the third quarter. The Skyhawks cut St. Charles North's lead to 37-29 with 4:29 left in the quarter.
That was as close as Johnsburg could come, as the North Stars capped the quarter on a 12-3 run, led by Caitlin Winkelman's free throws.
Hackbarth led the way for the North Stars with 15 points, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.
"She has really put in a lot of work in the off-season. You can really see it," Sauber said of Hackbarth, a sophomore in her second year on varsity.
Nika Sircher was next in line for the North Stars with 11 points, followed by Conrad, Kelsey Smith and Winkelman, who each posted 9 points.
-- Christine Bolin
Bartlett 55, D-C 53: Losing by 34 points Wednesday night wasn't the brightest moment for Bartlett's girls basketball team.
And trailing 44-35 with 6:08 left in the game against Dundee-Crown Thursday wasn't either.
Bartlett needed a fourth-quarter push to salvage something from the Charger Classic. In a six-minute span, the Hawks did just that. They outscored the Chargers 20-9, took advantage of some late Charger foul trouble, and escaped with a 55-53 comeback victory over the Chargers in the consolation bracket of the 25th Annual Charger Classic in Carpentersville.
"I'm really proud that our kids hung in there, fought back, and particularly, the fourth quarter when we still weren't ahead," said Hawks coach Denise Sarna, who was pleased with the composure her team showed in the last minutes of the game.
"We really stepped it up from (Wednesday). We went out hard," Hawks guard Alexa Tovella said.
The Hawks (5-9) trailed by 9 and it looked grim until freshman Jacki Gulczynski capitalized on a 3-point play, cutting the Charger lead to 6 with 4:52 remaining.
Kate Pilson, who led all scores with 20 points, answered right back, putting D-C up 8. Pilson had 10 rebounds, earning herself a double-double.
Soon after Pilson re-asserted her post game like she had in her 9-point second quarter, she fouled Tovella, who drained both free throws. Tovella led the Hawks with 16 points, but more importantly forced Pilson to foul out.
With Dundee-Crown's leading scorer sitting, the Chargers (7-6) relied on their perimeter game, which coach Joe Komaromy says needs improvement.
"We aren't shooting the ball from the outside at all very well, I think that's really hurting us right now," said Komaromy.
Kathleen Collingbourne and Robyn Staudenmaier, who hit two 3-pointers each in the first quarter, had trouble finding the rim. The Chargers shot 18 of 47 from the field and couldn't find a way to score. It only got worse when Staudenmaier fouled out just a minute after Pilson with 2:35 remaining.
"Robyn and I had some stupid fouls," Pilson said.
Alex Lococo gave the Chargers a 51-49 lead with under two minutes left but the Chargers kept turning it over and putting the Hawks on the free throw line. Christina Carlson had 7 points off the bench, including the go-ahead free throw with 25.7 seconds left.
Collingbourne then put up a desperation 3-point shot, but it bounced high off the rim.
Staudenmaier finished with 12 points for D-C and Jackie Golevicz added 8 for the Hawks.
-- Steve Nichols
Resurrection 48, Fremd 32: Fremd was giving Resurrection all it could handle until the final 1:12 of first half.
After a 3-point play by Kaitlin Jones brought Fremd (6-8) to within 21-20, seniors Deanna Ortiz and Hannah Hartman hit back-to-back 3-pointers to send the Bandits (12-3) into the intermission leading 27-20.
Resurrection picked up right where it left off in the third quarter by scoring the first 15 points.
"Those 3s were big for them at the end of the first half," said Fremd coach Dave Yates. "It was 21-20, and then boom."
The Vikings fell behind 42-20 after the Bandit's 21-0 run.
The DePaul-bound Ortiz finished with 9 points and 10 assists.
"I thought Lauren Zaworski (leading scorer for Fremd with 7 points) did a nice job defensively on Ortiz, getting some help from Taylor (Glassmann)," Yates said. "But they have to her kids who can score, too. When you're playing teams of this caliber, you know they're going to have more than just one scoring weapon."
Hartman, a 5-foot-5 senior guard, scored a game-high 17 points for Resurrection while senior forward Becky Sweeney added 14.
"Those 3-pointers (at the end of the first half) got our momentum going and we picked up the defensive intensity," Hartmann said. "That gets us more motivated."
"Those 3-pointers makes the baskets smaller," added Bandits coach Kerry Durham. "And when you start scoring, everything else starts to pick up."
Fremd showed its scoring depth in the first half, getting points from seven different players.
"I liked the balanced offense we had in the first half," Yates said.
In addition to Jones, Glassmann and Zaworski, Katherine Hetzner, Melissa Castles, Dani Videka and Gianna Abruzzo all scored points in the first 16 minutes.
The Vikings, who converted 7 of 9 free throws, will face Mother McAuley in the consolation bracket today at 3:30 p.m.
-- John Leusch
New Trier 47, Naperville Central 38: Neither Naperville Central or New Trier looked like they wanted to close out Thursday's game.
During a critical 3 minute, 9 second stretch of the fourth quarter, the scoreboard sat idle with the Trevians owning a slight 40-34 lead. After Sarah Hiddr's offensive putback gave New Trier a 40-34 advantage with 5:20 left in the fourth quarter, neither team would score until Lauren Mathy sank a pair of free throws with 2:11 remaining.
The free throws were enough for the Trevians to keep a slim margin and take a 47-38 victory.
New Trier's victory sets up a semifinal matchup against Fenwick. The Friars and Trevians (11-5) have squared off in the Charger Classic championship game in the last two seasons, with Fenwick winning both meetings.
This is a game New Trier certainly wants to close out.
"It's going to be a tough game," New Trier's Megan Napoli said. "We played them the last two years in the championship."
Napoli, who scored all 12 of her points in the first half, left the game with 4:50 remaining when she injured her left knee. Napoli said that her knee popped out and both she and head coach Carrie Sowa felt hat she should be able to play today against Fenwick.
With Napoli out of action, New Trier found some different scoring options. Emily Higgins (8 points, 3 assists) scored 6 points in the second half, and Mathy (9 points) made 3 of 4 free throws to extend a 40-34 led to a 43-34 advantage.
"The other kids got together," Sowa said. "We always play with a lot of hustle and a lot of energy."
The Redhawks (11-4) did not take advantage. Naperville Central did not score for 5 minutes, 55 seconds in the fourth quarter and went 2 of 10 in the period and turned the ball over 6 times.
Naperville Central turned the ball over in its first 3 possessions of the fourth quarter after working the game back to 35-32 at the end of the third quarter.
"We had chances," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. "We didn't take advantage of our opportunities and it's extremely disappointing."
Making it even more disappointing was the fact Naperville Central had bounced back from a tough first quarter to bring itself back into the game. New Trier opened up an 18-8 lead with 6:30 left in the second quarter. Kelley Hendrick (3 steals, 3 assists) scored 5 of her 12 points during Naperville Central's 17-points second quarter to help bring the Redhawks back into the game.
Naperville Central finished the second quarter 7 of 15 from the floor, but was 8 of 25 in the other three quarters.
-- Matt Stacionis
Fenwick 64, Prospect 52: Intimidated? Overmatched?
Surprised they were down by only 2 points to the defending Class AA state champs with eight minutes left?
Not a chance.
Prospect came to the Dundee-Crown gym on Thursday night to catapult itself into the semifinals, not to be a stepping stone as Fenwick inched closer to its fourth consecutive Charger Classic title and record seventh since 1999.
But it was not to be for the Knights (11-5), who had their 3-game winning streak snapped, dropping a 64-52 decision to the Friars.
"We're just as good as they are, if not better," said Prospect coach Martha Kelly, whose faces Naperville Central (11-4) today at 5 p.m.
Bold words, but the Knights have already measured themselves against two of the best teams in the state this season -- losing 61-37 to Wheeling (16-2) on Nov. 30 and falling 76-32 to Buffalo Grove (15-0) on Dec. 13.
"That prepared us, playing against tough teams like that," said Prospect senior Megan Murray, who scored a team-high 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting. "We knew we needed to keep up the intensity the whole game and we couldn't let (Fenwick) get ahead early on."
And they didn't.
The Knights matched the Friars (14-2) shot for shot to open the second quarter, making 5 of their first 6 attempts, with Sarah Winans (5 points), Lexi Glennon (4 points), Alyssa Glennon, sophomore Rachel Hunt and Murray each scoring during this stretch.
"We're pretty versatile, it helps us in our half court offense," said Hunt after scoring 15 points and grabbing 7 rebounds in 29 minutes.
The Knights' defense wasn't too bad either, limiting the Friars to 38 percent (24-of-62) shooting. Fenwick sophomore Tricia Liston, the Friars' only returning starter from last season's squad, scored 14 points, but missed 11 of 17 shots and committed 5 turnovers with Murray shadowing her.
"I thought she was going to be tough," Murray said. "She's aggressive and she can shoot from the outside and inside."
So can Liston's teammate, sophomore Katlyn Payne.
The 5-11 St. Edward transfer made 10-of-18 shots for a game-high 25 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter as Fenwick pulled away with a 12-2 run to open the period.
"In the second half we really pushed harder and showed that we could show our strength and body them," Payne said.
Fenwick used its size to outrebound the Knights 35-23, but Prospect's pressure defense contributed to the Friars coughing it up 19 times.
"Give Prospect credit, they came out and played hard," said Fenwick coach Dave Power, whose team takes its 8-game winning streak into today 8 p.m. match-up against New Trier (11-5). "Obviously, they felt they didn't have anything to lose."
Except for a game they felt they should have won.
--Matt Beardmore
Compiled by Jaci Corn