Saints find way to beat West Chicago

If at first you don't succeed, shoot, shoot again.

After connecting on just 6 of 27 field-goal attempts while clinging to a 17-14 halftime lead, St. Charles East's girls basketball team doubled its offensive output with 34 second-half points on the way to a 51-43 nonconference victory over West Chicago (3-3) Tuesday night in St. Charles.

"At halftime, we were getting plenty of turnovers but they (shots) just weren't falling," said Saints coach Lori Drumtra. "You're going to have games like that where you just have a bad shooting night as a team but good teams play through it and find a way to win.

"That's what we did tonight - we found a way to win."

Junior guard Lexi Baltes scored 15 of her game-high 21 points in the second half, with 11 of them coming during the Saints' 15-4 surge over the final 4:53 of the third quarter that helped extend their lead to 37-25.

"Sometimes that happens - nobody's shots were falling in the first half," said Baltes, who added 5 of the Saints' 19 steals. "But we stuck with it, played good defense and eventually they (points) came in the second half."

While forcing 26 turnovers, the Saints' defense was a consistent threat.

"Our defense is what kept us in the game long enough," said Baltes.

Turnovers were an area of concern for Wildcats coach Kim Wallner - before and after the game.

"I talked a lot about that before the game but it really didn't look like it as far as that was going to be an emphasis of ours," said Wallner. "They put a lot of pressure on but we had a lot of unforced turnovers where I'm not sure it was anything the defense did."

West Chicago, led by Jessica Baids' 10 points and 10 rebounds, scored the first 8 points of the fourth quarter to narrow the deficit to 37-33 before Tasha Lalos (9 points) nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to push the Saints' lead back to 40-33 with 5:23 remaining.

"I was proud to see us come back and cut it to four," said Wallner, "but then that (No.) 22 (Lalos) hit a big 3 to put them up seven. That was kind of like the dagger."

Lalos' first 3-pointer of the game, coming with 2 seconds left in the opening half, snapped a 14-14 tie.

"That was huge just from a confidence standpoint," said Drumtra.

St. Charles East also helped its cause at the free-throw line, hitting 16-of-24 tries with Baltes leading the way on 10-of-13 shooting.

"We just kept putting pressure on them, getting turnovers and getting to the line," said Drumtra. "When you are struggling shooting, I try to encourage them to get to the free-throw line."

Jaime Rust (7 points, 7 rebounds), Steph Roan (6 points, 6 steals) and Kara Schnier (5 points, 5 rebounds) also contributed for the Saints (4-2).