Mundelein and Warren tournaments
Sarah Boothe and her Warren basketball teammates continued their dominance Thursday night.
The Stanford-bound senior had 24 points, 12 rebounds and 8 blocked shots to lead the Blue Devils to a 64-33 win over Deerfield in the Blue Devil Classic in Gurnee.
Warren (16-0, 4-0) will play Wheeling (15-2, 4-0) for the championship at 7:30 p.m. today.
Lory Shaw added 18 points for the Blue Devils, while Kaitlyn Heffernan contributed 7 points and Megan Wozniak 8 rebounds.
Colleen Forrest led Deerfield with 11 points.
Warren opened up a 21-7 lead after the first quarter and extended the margin to 35-15 by halftime.
Conant 52, Mundelein 49 (OT:) Conant has come a long way since last season.
Sure the hard work in the off-season and the team building exercises help, but wins and playing well as a team can do wonders for a team's confidence.
Conant did a lot of the above Thursday night in the final game of pool play at the Mundelein Lady Mustangs Holiday Classic against the host Mustangs.
The Cougars played with the intensity of a state playoff game.
They battled for 32 minutes and then some and played as a team just like coach Dan Travers wanted.
Through all of that the Cougars still needed four extra minutes against the Mustangs.
"Coach always tells us to play for 32 minutes -- buzzer to buzzer," said senior guard Ariana Zades. "Tonight we had to go a little bit more."
A little bit more went a long way for Conant as the Cougars hung on for an impressive 52-49 overtime win over Mundelein and a berth in the championship bracket.
Conant will face Grant at 8 p.m. in the first round of championship bracket play.
Mundelein will continue play in the fifth-place bracket at 3:30 p.m. against Libertyville.
The victory also matched the Cougars' win total from all of last year.
Conant improved to 3-0 in the tournament and 14-1 overall.
Even though the Cougars exhibited plenty of confidence in the extra session, it was clear early in overtime that it was a bit shaken by the way regulation ended.
Mundelein senior Samantha Panitch buried a 3-pointer from a good 10 feet past the arc at the buzzer to force the extra session.
"I think it shook us a little but I told the girls that we still had four more minutes to go," Travers said. "It took some time, but once we got the lead in overtime the confidence came back."
Conant got the lead back in overtime on a layup by Michelle Rawleigh off a perfect feed from Zades.
Zades would later ice the win with a pair of free throws, then a steal as time expired.
"This is so huge for us," Zades said. "We wanted to win so bad and beat (Mundelein) on their home floor and to prove that we are a good team."
Mundelein (11-4) almost didn't get the luxury of overtime.
Trailing 44-39 with 2:53 to go in regulation the Mustangs were faced with a daunting task.
"Even when we are down and we have been down in the fourth quarter before, we still believe we can come back and win," Mundelein coach Brian Evans said. "Even when we were down with a minute to go we still believed."
The comeback was completed by the 3-pointer from Panitch who led the Mustangs with 14 points. Kelsey O'Connor chipped in 12 - all coming in the first half.
Zades led all scorers with 15 points, including 7 in the fourth quarter and overtime.
--Jeff Newton
Grant 46, Libertyville 28: The growth of Grant senior point guard Heather Ruetsche has been a big reason why the Bulldogs have gotten off to a good start this season.
With each game the 5-foot-7 Ruetsche gains more confidence and the Bulldogs feed off it.
Thursday morning at the Mundelein Lady Mustangs Holiday Classic, Grant needed all Ruetsche had against Libertyville.
Ruetsche poured in 13 points, but it was her season-best 7 steals that did the most damage in a 46-28 win over the Wildcats.
The victory sends Grant into the championship bracket Friday against Conant at 8 p.m.
"(Heather) is a very mature point guard," Grant coach Tom Oeffling said. "She played only a few minutes a game as a sophomore and even less last year. Now she never leaves the floor."
Grant (12-2) was sluggish through most of the first half before a 10-2 run to close the first half provided the Bulldogs their first breathing room of the game.
The strong close to the first half gave the Bulldogs an 18-12 halftime cushion but, more importantly, it gave them a much-needed boost to open the second half.
"The last 3:40 of the first half was nice for us," Oeffling said. "It kind of gave us a strong start to the second half."
Libertyville (8-8) hung with the Bulldogs through the first half, but once the lead hit double figures at the start of the third quarter, Libertyville failed to find the answers needed to stop Ruetsche and the Grant attack.
"We played one half of basketball," said Libertyville coach Kathie Swanson. "I was happy with our defense in the first half and how we played against (Jamie) Swanson and (Tori) Ziegler, but in the second half we just lacked energy."
The 10-2 run at the end of the first half extended to 16-2 as the lead hit double digits for the first time. Grant outscored Libertyville 17-6 in the decisive third quarter and never looked back.
Senior Ali Haws, who scored 8 of her team-best 10 points in the first half, led Libertyville offensively.
Ziegler tied Ruetsche with 13 points, 5 coming in the big third quarter for the Bulldogs. Autumn Gaylor added 12 points coming off the bench for Grant.
-- Jeff Newton
Wheeling 48, Carmel 33: At Warren, Ashley Wilson had 18 points to lead three players in double figures for the Wildcats.
Janelle Cannon and Natasha Robinson added 11 and 10 points, respectively, for Wheeling.
Carmel (8-7, 2-2) received 16 points from Tiffany Hendrickson.
Lake Forest 40, Niles N. 27: At Warren, Claire Dimario's 14 points and 7 rebounds and Jen Rebarchak's 12 points and 8 boards led the Scouts.
Lake Forest trailed 15-14 at halftime before outscoring the Vikings 20-9 in the third quarter.
Palatine 51, Grayslake C. 41: At Warren, Palatine clung to a 14-11 advantage at halftime, then outscored the Rams 17-11 in the third quarter.
Laura Stark scored 9 points for Grayslake Central (3-10, 0-4).
Palatine received 10 points apiece from Megan Boecher and Nicole Linares. Kate MacFabe had 9.
Loyola 53, Lake Zurich 34: At Lake Park, the Bears dropped their second game in a row in the Suburban Holiday Showcase.
Gabby Chapa and Lydia Bauer each had 9 points for Lake Zurich (12-4, 2-2), which wraps up the tournament today with a 2 p.m. game against Trinity at Loyola.
Loyola received 14 points apiece from Audrey Gaughan and Lem Atanga McCormick. Meghan Holy had 13 for the Ramblers.
Antioch 46, Coal City 38: At Lisle, the suddenly hot Sequoits won their fourth straight game.
Freshman Andi Potkonjak scored 22 points and added season highs of 7 rebounds and 5 steals. Antioch (6-7, 2-0) also got 6 points and 7 rebounds from Christine Gaborek. Katie Budd (two 3-pointers) and freshman Lauren Tiffany also scored 6 points.