Viator, Meadows earn victories

What St. Viator girls basketball coach Paul Bjerkness liked most about Wednesday's 47-35 victory over North Chicago was the Lions' balanced scoring and ability to find the open person.

Never was that more evident than the third quarter when the hosts made up a 19-18 deficit with a 10-1 run to take charge of the nonconference game at the Cahill Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.

The Lions received their 4 baskets in the period from four different players -- a 3-pointer by sophomore Susan Hohenadel, and 2-point field goals from Tori Callero (11 points), Colleen Nolan (9 points) and Jenny Muench (7 points).

Add 4 free throws from Hohenadel (game-high 14 points) and the Lions outscored the Warhawks 13-4 in the third quarter.

St. Viator never let the visitors closer than 7 in the final quarter.

"We had nice balanced scoring," Bjerkness said. "That's good for us. That's what we need. And I thought we did a good job hitting the open person. That's the bottom line."

The Lions (9-11) also made it tough for the Warhawks (2-9) to hit the open person.

"We put a lot of good pressure on their ballhandlers and that made it hard for them to do what they wanted," Muench said.

North Chicago coach Laurence Brown, in his first season after six years assisting in the boys program, agreed with Muench.

"They pressured us and our guards couldn't handle it," Brown said. "We had a lot of senseless turnovers. Our guards seemed to be in a hurry instead of taking their time with the ball. And St. Viator seemed to get its hands on everything."

That was the Lions' game plan.

"We talked about pressuring the ball," said Hohenadel, who had 5 steals and 2 assists. "That was our main focus on defense and we came out hard and did that, especially in the second half."

After going 5-0 in their own Snowflake tourney, the Lions suffered losses to a powerful Marist team and a very respectable Bishop McNamara squad.

"Those were two tough losses that motivated us even more," Hohenadel added. "We were fired up and had to come out and give 110 percent, which we did."

A 3-pointer by Shavon Dixon put North Chicago ahead 17-13 late in the first half.

But the Lions got to within 17-15 at half on Callero's layup with 8.5 seconds left.

Hohenadel tossed home her 20th 3-pointer of the season to give the Lions an 18-17 lead to start the second half.

Muench helped the hosts maintain the fourth-quarter lead by scoring 5 of her 7 points.

"We were very patient and that helped," Muench said. "Free throws were what hurt us (11-of-24 as a team). If we had made more, we would have been in even better shape."

Kelly Hendricks (fourth quarter basket) and Jamie Blenner (3-pointer) also reached the scoring column for St. Viator which hosts state-ranked Marian Catholic Saturday and Joliet Catholic Monday.

Rolling Meadows 36, Fenton 35: Rolling Meadows clawed back to stay within striking distance of Fenton in the first half of a girls basketball game Wednesday and fought to stay within striking distance again in the second half.

And then, just in time, Maddy Urban struck.

Urban hit a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left in the game to give Rolling Meadows its first lead since early in the contest, and the junior stole a Fenton pass with four seconds left to clinch her squad's 36-35 comeback win in Bensenville.

"On the sophomore team I hit a few big free throws, but that was nothing like this," Urban said. "I hesitated on two other (3-pointers) during the game, and they were telling me to shoot it, so when I got the 3 I just took it.

"On the steal I just gambled and was able to get to it."

Fenton led 12-7 after a quarter behind a spark and 5 points provided by Stephanie Pingel, a 3 from Samantha Rubright and a Brittany Potenza 15-footer.

Fenton (11-9) held a 21-12 second-quarter lead before Rolling Meadows (6-13) went on a 7-0 run that featured 5 points from Shannon McGuire and then an Urban steal and coast-to-coast lay-up just before the halftime buzzer.

"We stayed together as a team and came back from it," Urban said. "You just can't worry about the score. We had to play it basket by basket."

McGuire shined throughout for the Mustangs, leading all scorers with 14 points while also posting 7 rebounds and 6 steals.

"She played really well, and those steals were key for us," Rolling Meadows coach Pat O'Connell said.

The Bison outscored the Mustangs 4-2 in the third quarter and went up 32-25 in the fourth on a 12-foot, pull-up jump shot by Tricia Chiamas. That's when the Mustangs' Alexa Bennett buried a 3, and Paulina Gurbisz made it 32-30 with an easy basket underneath.

"We looked sluggish and slow in the second half," said Fenton coach Tim Anderson. "But give (Rolling Meadows) credit. They stepped up and hit some big shots down the stretch."

After a pair of Chiamas free throws, McGuire hit a 3 from the corner to cut Fenton's lead to 34-33, before Urban's big shot from behind the arc put the Mustangs up for good.

A free throw with 13 seconds left to play by Fenton's Mia Sansone made it 36-35, but the Bison had 6 fouls to give before they finally sent the Mustangs to the free-throw line with only 4.4 seconds left to play.

The Bison rebounded the missed Mustangs' free throw, but their outlet pass found Urban's hands and the game was over.

"We scored 2 points in the third quarter, and instead of crying about it we just kept playing hard," O'Connell said. "We kept playing defense and tried to do the things that we do well."

-- Gary Larsen

Hersey 58, Riverside Brookfield 39: After a heart-breaking loss Tuesday night, this was just what the doctor ordered for Hersey.

Conant defeated Hersey on a last second well-guarded 3-pointer on Tuesday.

"We were grateful we could come back and play 24 hours later after such an upsetting loss the night before," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley. "We were so happy with what we did against Conant but still didn't come way with the win."

Wednesday's win came in Hersey's first game of the Season's End tourney.

The Bulldogs fell to 11-5.

Freshman Megan Rogowski led the way with 14 points and 7 rebounds while Sarah Stoltzner had 9 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists.

"Sarah played a real nice defensive game, too," Fendley said. "And Kelly Rokowski did a nice job pressuring their guards."

Kelly Rogowski collected 6 steals with her 6 points.

The Huskies (6-12) built a 29-14 lead by half and led 49-27 after three quarters.

Fendley was able to play only reserves for the final quarter and a half.

"The substitutes did a real nice job," said Fendley, who also got offensive points from Maggie Tunney, Kari Tunney, Kwin Irelan, Amanda Slove, Maddie Swan, Annie Perkins, Emma Kuhns and Eileen Zydek.