St. Francis 43, Immaculate Conception 39
The way St. Francis junior center Jamie Stefely sees it, her role as the team's first post player off the bench means she usually has some catching up to do when she enters a game.
In Tuesday's Suburban Catholic Conference girls basketball game against visiting Immaculate Conception, Stefely wasted little time getting right into the swing of things. As soon as she entered the game with the score tied at 7 and three minutes left in the opening quarter, the 6-foot Stefely hit a short jumper.
She then added a putback as the Spartans (11-12, 3-9) took a 3-point lead into the second period against a Knights team that had beaten them earlier this season in SCC play.
This time around the game went back and forth before the Spartans pulled out a 43-39 victory thanks in large part to 18 points and 6 rebounds from Stefely.
"I just want to start getting pumped up," she said of her strategy upon entering games. "Everyone else is already warmed up out there. Getting a quick score or two gets me fired up."
After tallying 6 points in the first half, Stefely scored 6 points in each of the final two quarters to finish with a season-high 18 for the game. Christina Belniak, who had a game-high 6 assists on the night, hooked up with her post player for a trio of big baskets in the second half, including one that put the hosts on top 41-34 with 2:03 left to play.
"I had a lot of help from my teammates," said Stefely, who added that it also took a solid team effort on defense to slow the Knights' Erin Hayes.
"Our goal was to try and shut her down and we had a lot of help defense," she said.
Spartans coach Leslie Fay-Dehn is well aware of Hayes' scoring abilities. Not only did the IC guard scorch the Spartans the last time they met, but she had 12 points in the first half before getting blanked in the second half.
"She did a lot of damage the first time and scored 30-something points," Fay-Dehn said. "We worked on the kids playing better team defense. We had contributions from a lot of kids."
Jennifer Eldridge had 8 points and 8 rebounds for St. Francis, Shannon Phillips had 6 points and 4 assists and Kelly Reinke added 6 points.
For the Knights, Hayes led the way with 12 points, while Erin Dunne had three 3-pointers and 9 points, and Mary Kate Manion added 8 points.
"It was a good game that went back and forth," IC coach Dan Murray said. "It was just a matter of who was going to get that one little push and they got it in the fourth quarter and we didn't."
After leading just 31-30 after three quarters, St. Francis opened the final quarter with a 10-4 run to take command. Stefely had three baskets during the stretch, with Reinke and Eldridge also scoring key baskets.
-- Stan Goff
Montini 83, St. Edward 30:ŒMontini played a strong first quarter, a great second quarter and an amazing third quarter.
St. Edward simply had a long night.
In the end the Broncos overpowered St. Edward's girls basketball team for a Suburban Catholic Conference victory in Lombard.
In other words it was a good way for Broncos senior Cootie Leeberg to celebrate her 18th birthday.
"A very good way, yes. It was fun," she said.
The game showed the Broncos are more than ready for the upcoming Class 3A tournament.
"We're getting into shape, we're practicing well," Leeberg said. "We're just getting focused more, and we're starting to realize that this is time to buckle down, get ready, get focused.
"Our coach was really set on us being focused for the game. He said that we needed the right mindset, so everyone just worked at it and it showed. It showed."
Montini (19-5, 11-0) led 19-9 after the first quarter but stretched that margin to 41-18 when Chrissy Fletcher's lay-in just beat the second-quarter buzzer.
"After the first quarter I thought we did some good things," Montini coach Jason Nichols said. "So yeah, I was pretty happy. No doubt about it."
Then it got worse for the Green Wave (10-10, 6-6). Montini opened the third quarter on an 11-0 run and outscored the Wave 30-5, holding St. Edward to just 5 Katie Yohn free throws.
"We did well in the third quarter," said Nichols, who pulled his starters with just more than two minutes left in the third. "We only have a couple of games left, so I have to extend us a little bit, but not to the point they get hurt."
-- Orrin Schwarz
Hinsdale Central 52, Glenbard West 28:ŒGlenbard West forward Abby Hastings spent most of Tuesday's West Suburban Silver game against Hinsdale Central doing battle in the paint, so she knows what the Hilltoppers need to improve on. The host Red Devils dominated the offensive glass for numerous second-chance points and a commanding early lead in Hinsdale.
"What we didn't do was rebound," Hastings said. "That was our fault. Many of their points were second chances. We need to box out."
In the first quarter alone the Red Devils (25-1, 9-0) cleaned the offensive glass for 10 rebounds, including 5 by forward Katie Delaney. Center Molly Kinsella was also very active. On many of the rebounds, Delaney and Kinsella would kick out the ball to the guards who would hit the outside shots. Sharpshooters Toni Kokenis, Allison Pilcher and Madison Whitley all sank 3-pointers as Hinsdale Central pulled ahead to a 18-10 lead after eight minutes of play.
Kinsella finished with a team-high 11 points, while Kokenis and Delaney chipped in 9 points apiece. The Red Devils led 29-16 at the half and 46-23 after three quarters of play.
"Their hustle is just outstanding," said Hinsdale Central coach Steve Gross of Delaney and Kinsella. "They have been doing that all year for us."
"We were really attacking the basket," Kinsella added. "We knew Glenbard West is a strong team, so we wanted to come out strong."
With two starters out -- junior forward Kathryn Lux because of a knee injury and sophomore forward Nicole Hazemi due to an illness -- Hastings continues to emerge as a leader for the Hilltoppers (11-13, 5-3) despite her underclassman status. The sophomore led all scorers with 13 points and showed some nice moves going strong to the basket.
"We needed someone to lead us tonight and (Hastings) got after it and was very aggressive," said Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland. "That is what we like to see from her."
-- Brian Pitts
South Elgin 57, Glenbard East 49:ŒAfter a scoreless first quarter, Glenbard East's Kelsey Taylor went on to lead all scorers with 23 points, including 11 points during the third quarter.
"Kelsey had a nice game, but it takes more than one to win a game," said Glenbard East coach Nicole Miller. "South Elgin had a balanced attack offensively with three girls scoring in the double digits."
With 8 rebounds and 6 points, Elizabeth Erb helped keep the Rams alive. Ashley Farrell came off the bench to add 5 points, all during the final quarter, and Jackie Foreman also scored 5 points.
With the loss Glenbard East fell to 8-16 on the season.
"They outplayed us here," Miller said of the Storm. "They executed better than we did. They played the better game."
-- Jen LaPorte
Waubonsie Valley 68, Joliet 52:ŒDanielle Brown netted 14 points while Rachel Bostick totaled 11 points and 12 rebounds to lead Waubonsie Valley (21-2) to a nonconference victory.
Hinsdale South 39, Addison Trail 34:ŒHinsdale South (18-7, 8-2) outscored the Blazers 25-17 in the second half to pull out the West Suburban Gold game. Joanna Giampoli scored 17 and Chloe Harris added 10 for the Hornets. Erica Spear's 12 points paced Addison Trail (5-20, 2-8).
Plainfield Central 82, Naperville North 59:ŒDanielle and Kaelyn Witkowski scored 10 apiece for Naperville North (4-19) in its nonconference loss.
Boys basketball
Glenbard South 68, Willowbrook 47:ŒGlenbard South let Willowbrook hang around for 2½ quarters before turning on the burners and riding out a 68-47 victory in Glen Ellyn.
The Raiders (11-8) used a 15-2 run across the final half of the third quarter to separate themselves from Willowbrook, taking a 3-point halftime lead and turning it into a 45-31 advantage after three periods.
According to Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke, the Raiders' critical run came when the defense secured stops on its end.
"I thought the key all night was defensively. We played a whale of a ballgame defensively, and I think that's what kind of led to some of our offensive points," Hardtke said. "I think that kind of wore them down as the game went on, and by getting stops and rebounds down here, we were able to gain some confidence on the offensive end.
"We've been working on just trying to be scrappy all year long, and tonight I thought we were scrappy."
Glenbard South's defense forced the Warriors into 4-of-11 shooting from the floor in the third quarter. Conversely, the Raiders offense converted 62 percent of its third-quarter field-goal attempts.
Once Glenbard South entered its offensive sets, smart shot selection and balance kept the Warriors defense off kilter.
"Now we're being a little bit more selective on the shots that we're taking," Hardtke said. "(Forward) Wally (Wiedner) found his stroke tonight, and so when you've got your four man trailing and he's able to knock down those big shots, that helps open things up.
"When we're even, with several people just over double digits (scoring), that's when we're at our best."
The Warriors (15-5) began the game with a 10-2 run behind a pair of early baskets from senior Jamell Hunter yet could never get within 15 points of Glenbard South in the fourth quarter.
Abandoning their post game after the Warriors fell behind came back to bite the visitors, as coach Tim Lavorato felt Willowbrook sounded the alarm too early.
"I thought we came out and got the ball inside a couple times, and they came down and hung with us, got a little 5-point, 7-point cushion, and we kind of panicked a little bit," Lavorato said. "I thought we got away from what we wanted to do, and that was getting the ball inside."
Wiedner led all scorers with 13 points, while 6-5 senior Milton Colbert paced the Warriors with 12.
-- Matthew McClarey
Fenton 73, Leyden 66:ŒDamian Sieradzki barely made it halfway to his Fenton-leading scoring average in a loss to Ridgewood.
"I came out cold and never got out of my funk," said Sieradzki, who averages 19 points a game. "I'll have two or three off games, and I'd say Friday was one of those off games.
"I don't plan on having any more of those."
The 6-foot-4 senior put his plan into full effect in Tuesday night's nonconference game at Leyden. Sieradzki poured in a game-high 36 points as Fenton (10-11) pulled out a 73-66 victory in Franklin Park.
"He can flat out play," said first-year Leyden coach Bill Heisler.
"I'm happy for him because he bounced back," said Fenton coach Dennis Cromer. "He hasn't had too many rough games."
Sieradzki hit all four of his 3-pointers and scored 16 points in the final 8:15 of the first half. He finished 14 of 23 from the field, had 10 of the Bison's 36-29 rebound advantage and blocked 4 shots.
"Usually how I do in warmups is how I feel in the game," Sieradzki said after coming 5 points shy of his career high set two weeks ago against Riverside-Brookfield. "Today I didn't have that good of a warmup, but I adjusted to that.
"My teammates set screens to get me open, and I took shots that started falling."
Another key was Sieradzki's work at the other end on Leyden junior Deron Guyton. Although Guyton didn't start for disciplinary reasons, he finished with career highs of 32 points and six 3-pointers.
"He came off the bench and played his butt off," Heisler said.
Guyton hit 5 straight shots and three 3s in a 13-point third quarter to push Leyden (4-15) to a 50-47 lead. But he missed his next 7 shots and went scoreless for 8½ minutes until he hit 2 free throws with 2:10 left.
"I've never really played against a good scorer like him," said Sieradzki, whose three-point play off a rebound put Fenton up 60-55 with 3:50 left. "I felt like I 'D'd' him up pretty good."
Fenton also got 12 points from Gozie Umeadi, 8 points from Billy Gratzl, 7 points and 10 rebounds from Justin Southward in his first start and 7 points from Darek Potuszynski.
-- Marty Maciaszek
York 64, Streamwood 50:ŒSenior forward Steve Ganser scored a game-high 24 points to go with 8 rebounds and senior forward Roger Coffin drained four 3-pointers on his way to 14 points to lead the Dukes (14-6) to a nonconference victory at Streamwood (3-16)
The Sabres pulled within 11-9 of the lead midway through the first period before York turned up the defense. The Dukes held Streamwood without a field goal for the final 11:54 of the first half, during which they outscored their hosts 20-1 to take a 31-10 halftime lead.
"I thought we did a nice job defensively holding them to 1 point," York coach Al Biancalana said. "And they've got some guys who are well-coached, well-organized. (Guard Tem) Esikiel is a handful, and he got into our defense a little bit in the second half, but I thought in the first half we did a good job of containing him by making him shoot over the top of us."
Esikiel scored 19 of his 23 points in the second half.
-- Jerry Fitzpatrick
Glenbard North 59, West Chicago 49:ŒJames Fleming tallied 17 points and Reid Hulett added 15 as the Panthers (4-15, 3-6) broke a tie game after three quarters to win the DuPage Valley Conference contest. Clark Hudmon led West Chicago (1-19, 0-9) with 14 points while Chad Driscoll and Tyler Wrzesinski each scored 10.
Lisle 57, Plano 36:ŒThe visiting Lions (8-17, 5-3) pulled away to the Interstate Eight Conference victory behind Marcus Wilson's game-high 25 points. Andrew Rapciak added 11 points.
Wheaton Academy 51, Luther South 39:ŒBen Euler and Timothy Streets combined for seven 3-pointers as the visiting Warriors (13-5, 4-3) won in the Private School League. Euler led all scorers with 16 points. Streets pitched in with 13 points.
Hinsdale South 51, Addison Trail 38:ŒThe host Hornets (11-8, 4-4) used a 29-16 run in the middle quarters to win the West Suburban Gold matchup. Eric Travis led the way with 16 points while Devin Smith added 10 points. Vince Noworyta led Addison Trail (3-15, 0-7) with 12 points.