Saxons will enjoy break

Rest assured, the Schaumburg girls basketball players are probably taking it easy today.

"We're tired," said Saxons coach Bill Murmann, after watching his 19-1 club win its third emotional game of the week, a 39-33 decision over Chicago area power Maine South on Saturday afternoon. "Not only physically, but mentally as well."

One night earlier, the Saxons took over first place in the Mid-Suburban West with a hard-fought 37-30 triumph in a packed house at Conant, and on Tuesday they'd edged state-ranked Wheeling 54-52 on a last-second shot by Drewann Pancratz, who scored the 1,000th point of her career Saturday.

The three wins came over teams with a combined record of 47-10.

Maine South was 14-5 entering Saturday's game at Schaumburg.

The Hawks were coming off a 62-38 victory over Waukegan in which they converted 7 of 15 three-pointers.

Saturday, they were 0-for-15 from behind the arc. It marked the first time Maine South was held without a 3-pointer this season.

At the same time, Kylie Castans hit four 3-pointers for the Saxons en route to a game-high 16 points. The senior forward led the Saxons in all three games this week (22 vs. Wheeling and 16 against Conant).

After Pancratz hit a 16-footer to give the hosts a 17-16 lead, Castans drilled a 3-pointer for a 20-16 halftime advantage.

She then opened the third quarter with another one.

Moments later, sophomore Taylor Kosla popped in a 3-pointer and Schaumburg enjoyed its biggest lead at 26-18.

Maine South cut it back to 1 point at 26-25, 30-29 and 32-31 before Schaumburg use a 6-0 run to take control 38-31 with 33 second left.

Castans, Gabrielle Blackwell and Pancratz each had a pair of free throws during the winning surge.

"It was nice to see that as the game progressed we were somehow able to summon enough energy at the end to pull it out," Murmann said.

The Saxons finally get a break in their game routine due to final exams scheduled for the coming week.

"It's going to be nice to have some time off now," said Castans, who also had 6 rebounds and 3 assists. "Everyone is a little tired. We had a lot of mismatches with (Maine South). We were a little bigger than their girls. We hit the shots when we were open and Gabrielle was able to attack the basket."

Maine South was led by junior Jackie Rieger's 10 points and 9 from senior Allison Groessl.

"Jackie should get a steak dinner from the rest of the kids," said Maine South coach Mark Smith. "We had so many silly fouls in the first half that we had to play Jackie more than we should have. And Karen Solari has a back that would have many kids sitting out."

Solari, a senior, finished with 6 points despite playing with a sore back.

Blackwell finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds for Schaumburg while Pancratz had 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 4 points.

Pancratz's 2 free throws with 46 seconds left gives her at exactly 1,000 points for her career. Castans has nearly 1,250 points and Blackwell is close to 1,100.

Senior center Gryte Satas added 4 points and 2 steals for the winners, who resume action Friday at Fremd.

"Schaumburg is a good team," Smith added. "We have a lot of respect for them. We've played five games with them the last three years and every single one has been a barn-burner.

"Our goal was to hold them under 40 points. We did. Obviously, we didn't play well enough on offense."