Sweet 16 ends in big logjam
The Schaumburg, Maine West and Buffalo Grove girls basketball teams left Lake Zurich High School Saturday night as co-champions of the Sweet 16.
They all went 4-1 along with Fenwick (declared champ though point differential), Lake Zurich and Hinsdale Central as the month-long tourney culminated Saturday with each team playing a pair of games.
Schaumburg 51, Providence Catholic 46: Kylie Castans scored 22 points and Gabrielle Blackwell added 18 points and 8 rebounds for Schaumburg (22-4), which played its third Catholic school this week.
The Saxons made 29-of-40 free throws, including 12 of 14 by Castans.
"They kept fouling us," said Saxons coach Bill Murmann. "We earned it. We kept attacking."
Drewann Pancratz added 6 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals while Gryte Satas had 6 rebounds. Taylor Kosla dished out 4 assists.
"It's pretty neat tying for first," said Murmann, who has directed the Saxons to four straight 20-win seasons. "A lot of people think I'm nuts for playing the tough schedule we do. But it's real fun and we're looking forward to Tuesday (Mid-Suburban West showdown with visiting Conant)."
Schaumburg trailed 21-15 at half.
"We played a pretty poor first half but the kids responded well in the second," Murmann said. "All in all, we're happy with our experience. Rachael Kahan was kind of our unsung hero. She did a nice job defensively."
Fenwick 76, Schaumburg 50: Gabrielle Blackwell scored 16 points, followed by Drewann Pancratz (13) and Kylie Castans (9).
The Saxons were 19-of-63 from the field.
"That's was our main problem," Castans said. "And our defense should be better. But it was a good experience. At least we got a feel for them (Fenwick)."
The Saxons and Fenwick are in the same sectional.
"Our plan was to make them over-confident in case we do see them again," joked Murmann. "And we accomplished that.
"The bottom line is that you can't shoot poorly and win a basketball game."
Maine W. 50, Barrington 39: Brittany Begrowicz scored a game-high 21 points and Mary Kusner added 13 for West. Emily Harris led Barrington with 11 while Anna Kirchoff chipped in 9 and Samantha Beach 8.
Maine West (20-7) reached 20 wins for the 24th time in 27 seasons under coach Derril Kipp.
Fenwick 55, Maine West 35: Maine West kept things interesting for a while before defending Class AA state champ Fenwick broke a 15-15 tie with a 10-2 run to the close the first half.
Kusner led the Warriors with 15 points while Begrowicz added 11.
"We didn't rebound and took some ill-advised shots and then they went on a run," Kipp said. "I thought Mary Kusner played well and Colleen Vana did all right handling the ball.
"This game will do nothing but help us. We played pretty well at times. We probably won't see a team like Fenwick for a while now."
"We've got to be more patient with the ball and make better decisions in general," Vana said. "If we had run our offense better in the second half, it would have been more difficult for them to score. We just got a little out of control."
Washington 60, Barrington 40: Anna Kirchoff led the Fillies (5-21) with 14 points while Samantha Beach added 10.
Buffalo Grove 67, Johnsburg 28: Maggie Mocchi (22 points), Ellen Ayoub (10) and Allison Mocchi (9) were top scorers for the Bison.
Sandburg 43, Palatine 31:ΠKatie MacFabe led the Pirates (8-18) with 10 points while Lauren Orris added 6.
Palatine 34, Lyons 22: Katie MacFabe scored 8 of her 12 points in the second half for the Pirates, who also received a pair of 3-pointers from Megan Spencer (7 points) in the second half.