Steady Saints overwhelm Blazers

The tide rose steadily, until the Saints had their win.

St. Charles East (10-4) won 59-38 over Addison Trail (4-13) in a girls basketball game on Tuesday, leading by 6 points after a quarter, 10 by halftime and by 17 points heading into the fourth.

Lexi Baltes scored 15 points and Jaime Rust netted 13 to lead the Saints for coach Lori Drumtra, who emptied her bench by game's end.

"Everyone got in, which is always a nice thing to be able to do," Drumtra said. "And we played a lot of different people in the third quarter."

The Saints put 21 points on the board in the third to effectively bury the Blazers, who pushed St. Charles East to the limit in last year's matchup.

"They took us to overtime last year, and I really felt like we stole one from them after that game," Drumtra said. "We just have a lot of weapons this year. We have four perimeter players who can all score."

Kara Schnier and Natasha Lalos also netted 7 points apiece for the Saints. Lalos played in her first game back since having her wisdom teeth pulled over Christmas break.

Lalos keyed an offensive surge to start the third quarter, hitting three free throws and a layup to put the Saints up 34-19. Late in the fourth quarter a Shannon Kennedy putback gave the Saints a 20-point lead that held to the final buzzer.

"Any of us can step up," Baltes said. "Everybody contributes. We've got a solid group of girls out there."

Drumtra is also pleased with her squad's reaction to some recent adversity. The Saints dropped a pair of games over the break, and they've bounced back well from those losses.

"We had a chance to win both of those games, and we let them get away," Baltes said. "One of the things we've been working on is building a lead and not letting the other team back in the game. We have to play hard for four quarters."

Rust also led a solid assault on the boards for the Saints, who didn't allow the Blazers many second-chance points all night.

For Addison Trail, point guard Jazmin Little did her best to keep things close, finishing with a game-high 16 points. Katie Kamide also fought hard for Addison Trail, finishing with 11 points.

"(Little) did everything. We had a hard time stopping her penetration," Drumtra said.