St. Charles East 46, Bartlett 37
You never know when opportunity may come your way.
Take St. Charles East's Katie King, for instance.
Pressed into action after sharpshooting guard Tasha Lalos rolled her ankle early in the fourth quarter, King grabbed hold of the opportunity and literally ran with it Friday night.
Playing from behind the entire way, Bartlett tied the score at 34 on a pair of Nicole Beck free throws with 6:29 remaining in the fourth quarter.
That's when King went to work, hitting a cold-blooded 3-point basket during her personal 6-0 scoring spree while helping the Saints (11-6) remain perfect in Upstate Eight Conference girls basketball play (5-0) with a 46-37 victory over Bartlett (5-12, 1-4) in St. Charles.
"I don't hope that my teammates get hurt so I can go in," said King, "but the chance to step up was nice and I'm glad that I rose to the challenge."
After splitting two free throws, King drove the baseline for a layup that stretched the Saints' lead to 40-34.
"I'm laughing because I'm telling her to slow it down and she's just going right for the basket," said Saints coach Lori Drumtra. "When she made that power layup, I was yelling, 'Slow it down, slow it down -- OK, take it.'
"She did a real nice job for us, which was good to see."
On the Saints' next possession, King grabbed a defensive rebound and raced downcourt before setting up Jaime Rust's three-point play that extended the lead to 43-34 with 5 minutes left.
"I wasn't real concerned with where the game was (upon entering in the fourth quarter) because then I'd get really nervous, so I just tried to take it play by play and execute to the best of my ability," said King.
Tara Sigona (7 points), Ashley Miller, Stephanie Roan and Lauren Joyce also contributed off the bench for the Saints, who were hampered with foul trouble throughout.
"We had to play with a few different lineups," said Drumtra. "It's been awhile since we've had that many people in foul trouble."
Before her injury, which Drumtra didn't feel was "too serious," Lalos scored a team-high 10 points with three 3-pointers, while Lexi Baltes added 7 points and 6 assists.
Bartlett, which misfired on its first 8 shots from the field, also went cold down the stretch, making just 1 of 10 fourth-quarter field goal attempts.
"We had our chances -- we just missed a lot of shots," said Hawks coach Denise Sarna. "It wasn't because we were taking bad shots."
Freshman Jacki Gulczynski scored 13 points to lead the Hawks.
"I'm getting tired of calling this team young," said Sarna. "We've had some tremendous experiences in some of the games that we've played and we've played some great teams, but it's time for us to turn the corner.
"I'm not going to make excuses for these guys anymore. We need to gut it out. It's got to start now. We've got to do better."