Wrap: Neuqua Valley takes a wrong turn
Visiting Bartlett defeated Upstate Eight Conference girls basketball rival Neuqua Valley, and the Hawks seemed to have been victorious in a rugby match as well.
In a contest that featured 51 fouls, which were almost evenly distributed between the two sides, and numerous turnovers, the Hawks kept their poise, made their free throws and defeated the Wildcats 66-61 Friday in Naperville.
"Our defensive intensity was the key tonight," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "We hadn't played solid team defense like that for a whole game all season. We did a good job of forcing them to make turnovers."
For Neuqua Valley (10-11, 2-4) it was another disappointment in what has been, thus far, a season of ups and downs.
"It's like a roller coaster," said Neuqua Valley coach Mike Williams. "We've had a stretch of great games and then we do something like this. We missed a lot of opportunities on offense. We'd make a steal and miss and they score two. And then do it again and again. And that's a 6-point swing. Bartlett was crashing the boards hard. They took advantage of our mistakes."
The Wildcats trailed by 1 point at halftime, and even pulled ahead 37-36 with three minutes to go in the third quarter, but the Hawks (7-14, 3-4) bounced back and led 45-40 at the end of the period.
Bartlett would not let the them any closer as Sam Salinas scored 9 of her 10 points in the final period and freshman center Jacki Gulczynski scored 6 and controlled the boards as she had throughout the game.
Gulczynski finished with 15 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.
"The greatest thing we did was break their press," Gulczynski said. "When we got past the front of the press, we attacked the basket. We got a bunch of 3-on-2 and 2-on-1 opportunities, and we made them."
Alexa Tovella led the balanced Bartlett scoring attack with 16 points, while Katie Koster added 10. Christina Carlson did a great job off the bench, scoring 9 points.
"We shuffled in a few guards and they did a great job handling the Neuqua pressure," Sarna said. "And our free-throw shooting was good. Our strategy was to deny their transition game and get them into a half-court game."
She cited guards Tovella, Koster, Salinas and Becca Cronin for keeping their composure in the tight, physical game.
Beth Goldberg led Neuqua with 17 points including three 3-pointers, and Danielle Davis scored 12. Jenna Marsalli was strong off the bench with 9 points.
"We've got six more regular-season opportunities to find out what we're made of," Williams said. "And that's all we can do. It's frustrating. It's the mental part of the game that we have to work on more than anything else."
-- Neil Shalin
Grant 55, Willowbrook 38:ŒIt took until the third quarter, but Grant's experience and height finally swallowed up Willowbrook.
The young Warriors hung tough with Grant for two quarters Friday at the 18th annual McDonald's Shootout in Villa Park, but the Bulldogs, ranked ninth in the Daily Herald Top 20, dominated the third and earned a 55-38 victory.
"The key was defense," Grant coach Tom Oeffling said. "We didn't do a very good job of getting out on defense (in the first half). I don't know her (name), but 24 (Taylor Nelson), she hurt us, had those three 3s. … We did a better job with that the second half. That was a big difference."
Willowbrook led until the very end of the first quarter and trailed 28-24 at halftime as Nelson scored 11 of her team-high 13 points. The Warriors looked like they weren't going to go away when they started the third quarter with an Angela Domin 3-pointer.
Then the roof caved in.
"We came out on fire in the third quarter," said Grant senior Jamie Swanson, who scored 20 and grabbed 7 rebounds. "We knew after the first half they had some shooters."
By the time Willowbrook scored again, Grant (20-2) had rung up 16 consecutive points, in large part because the Bulldogs' defense forced 6 turnovers during the run, 26 for the game.
"It'd be nice to have three 6-foot kids at the top of a 1-2-2," Willowbrook coach Troy Nelson said. "We just didn't make good decisions. When you're 5-6 and you're getting trapped by two 6-foot kids, you can't throw the ball over the top. You've got to get rid of it. You've got to score. We didn't, and we didn't for the entire second half. Believe it or not we do practice. I know it didn't look like it, but we do."
Autumn Gaylor added 16 points and Heather Ruetsche 13 for Grant.
"The kids came out with some guts. We had the lead for a lot of the first half," Nelson said. "All we can do is just keep trying to get better and hopefully by the end of the season we'll better in those pressure situations, because right now we're playing like a young team, like we are."
The Shootout continues today and Monday at Willowbrook.
-- Orrin Schwarz
Montini 65, Rosary 46:ŒYou've got a better chance of finding Bigfoot than finding a coach who's ever completely satisfied, but Montini's Jason Nichols was happy enough with his girls' effort.
"I'm going to go home and hug my wife tonight," Nichols said. "They listened better today, and that's a beautiful thing. That makes me a happy man."
The Broncos knocked off Suburban Catholic Conference rival Rosary in Lombard to grab a two-game lead in the SCC. Montini has won the conference title the past four seasons and is 62-2 in the conference over the last five seasons.
The Broncos have been a team of strong scoring spurts this year, combined with the kind of intense, full-court defensive pressure that buried the Royals.
"They have that effect on a lot of teams," said Rosary coach Dave Beebe. "We didn't do a good job against their pressure. We knew it was coming, and we prepared for it, but we just made too many mistakes."
Rosary (16-5, 8-2) took the ball hard to the basket and grabbed a 10-7 lead on a Victoria Alvarez drive in the first quarter, but Montini (16-4, 8-0) answered with a 12-2 run in taking a 19-12 lead after a quarter.
Montini continued to force turnovers and extended the lead to 36-23 by halftime, even as leading scorer Michala Johnson had to sit with foul trouble midway through the quarter.
Montini's bench scored 14 of the Broncos' 36 points in the first half, with Shannon Prince and Mallory Sosnovich each hitting a 3-pointer, and Whitney Adams and Kiki Wilson scoring 4 points apiece before the break.
Montini effectively put things out of reach by outscoring Rosary 14-7 in the third quarter and led 50-30 heading into the fourth.
Johnson finished with 16 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 4 steals, while six of her teammates scored above their season averages for the night, and Montini's bench chipped in 21 points.
"It's a team sport, and that's a great thing," Nichols said.
"From the starters to the bench players, everybody contributes on this team," said Montini senior Cootie Leeberg. "If we would have lost, we would have been tied with (Rosary), so this was a big win."
Whitney Holloway had 9 points, 4 assists and 3 steals for Montini, Leeberg scored 8, and Chrissy Fletcher had 11 points and 5 rebounds.
Jordan Rettig led Rosary with 11 points, Alvarez netted 10, and Faith Jones chipped in 8 points. Katie Petrando and Colleen VanBogaert scored 6 apiece.
-- Gary Larsen
Geneva 56, Glenbard South 46:ŒConfronted by a team that was dominating inside and bedeviled by a half-long deficit, Geneva decided to play its biggest cards.
Those cards came up trumps for the Vikings, who turned in a solid second-half performance and defeated host Glenbard South in Western Sun Conference play in Glen Ellyn.
In reaching maximum height, 5-foot-11 Lauren Wicinski and 6-0 Kelsey Augustine -- both sophomores -- went to play under the basket.
"It helped a lot," Wicinski said. "But it helps to have Olivia (Laster) and Nicole (Gregory) around, too. All the posts help."
Wicinski had the greatest statistical impact with her 17 points and 12 rebounds. But Augustine helped clog passing lanes and finished with 6 rebounds herself.
"We held them," Wicinski said. "We moved it around a lot and everyone got open. It helped that we moved the ball really well. It just happened I was open."
Geneva (15-5, 9-1) threw the switch late in the third quarter, when a 10-2 run moved them into a 38-35 lead.
"There was a moment in the third quarter where our emotions got the better of us," Glenbard South coach Julie Fonda said. "You could see it in their eyes. When you're challenged is the time to step up, not step backwards."
The third quarter started taut, but the Vikings slowly built a 46-42 lead, then rattled off 10 straight points.
One of the signature sights in the rally was Geneva junior Emily Hinchman diving to the floor. Hinchman suffered a broken nose in December and still wears a protective mask.
Hinchman said the mask has taken some time to get used to.
"I can't look down and dribble and I can't breathe very well in it either," she said. "It's a struggle to play with. But I wear it in practice, so I've gotten used to it."
So there weren't any worries about putting her nose down on the wood?
"It's pretty good protection," Hinchman said. "I'm three weeks after my surgery, so it's healing it's really well."
Hinchman scored 6 of her 10 points in that critical fourth quarter and gave the mask an assist in her performance.
"It motivates me to play really well because I know it's not the most flattering thing to wear on the court," Hinchman said.
Taylor Whitley scored 13 points for the Vikings. She hit all 4 of her free throws in the fourth quarter, something the entire team excelled with. In those final eight minutes Geneva was 10 of 10 on free throws.
Glenbard South (14-7, 6-4) watched things unravel but was still in the game until the final two minutes.
"The first half, I was incredibly pleased with how we came out," Fonda said. "I just wish that we had played that intense and that poised and that competitive for 32 minutes instead of 16."
Nikki Simpson and Danielle Pipal scored 12 points apiece to lead Glenbard South.
-- Darryl Mellema
Driscoll 53, IC 38:ŒAllie Divito canned four 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 17 points and Courtney Lindfors registered 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Highlanders (16-4, 7-3) in their Suburban Catholic Conference triumph. Kate Manion's 12 points paced IC (8-13, 2-7).
Timothy Christian 51, Aurora Christian 35:ŒKatie Dirkse scored 15 points and Shannon McNeil tossed in 12 to fuel Timothy Christian (12-9, 4-2) to a Private School League win. The Trojans led 27-14 at halftime.