Grant's Rose Mustari raises game, helping in 46-33 victory over VH
It was simply coincidental that while wearing her rose-colored basketball uniform - Grant's travel reds, in truth - Rose Mustari rose.
She rose on her jumper. She rose to the challenge.
Summoned off the bench along with three other reserves early on in a 5-5 tie against host Vernon Hills, Mustari canned two 3-pointers and later drained a third 3.
Her shooting helped give Grant a lead it never relinquished en route to a 46-33 win in a North Suburban Prairie Division game Saturday.
Mustari, mind you, has risen from obscurity on her team. She was buried on Grant's depth chart at the start of the season and played little, if at all, the first three weeks. Her minutes have slowly gone up, and she's earned them.
"You got to go with the people that are taking care of business at that time," Bulldogs coach John Eiduke said. "She's doing well for us."
Mustari scored all 9 of her points on her trio of 3s in the first half, as she helped Grant (11-7, 3-3) build a 28-19 lead by intermission. As her playing-time has increased, so has the junior guard's confidence on the court.
"When she first started coming in she was nervous, but she's been on top of her game the past few games," said C.J. Hill, who had 8 points and 8 rebounds. "Now, playing on varsity is natural to her."
"Working hard, stepping up on defense," Mustari said of how she's earned her playing-time. "I'm just trying to help our team out and help get some wins."
Mustari tied Amber Potts for team scoring honors. Potts scored 5 of her 9 points in the fourth quarter, and they were big. A free throw by Mallory Feece (game-high 11 points, 5 rebounds) pulled Vernon Hills within 32-28 with 5:31 left, but Potts sank a long two-pointer and then a 3 to hike the Grant lead back to nine.
Like Mustari, Heather Chapman gave Grant a spark off the bench. The 6-foot-2 junior had 6 points and 7 rebounds, as the Bulldogs won for the third time in their last four games.
They're 7-3 over their last 10 games.
"We can play some pretty good basketball," Eiduke said. "We just need to be very consistent. We have to work on being consistent for 32 minutes."
"We're coming together," said Hill, one of Grant's first players off the bench last season on a team that started five seniors and won 25 games. "We're a close-knit team, and we've gotten closer and closer since the beginning of the year. It shows in our game."
Vernon Hills (9-10, 2-4) got 3-pointers from Kirsten Groody, Sarah Krippinger and Alana Coy in the first quarter, but went 0 of 9 from beyond the arc the rest of the game.
"I honestly didn't think we played too poorly today," said coach Paul Brettner, whose Cougars lost their second straight after winning five in a row. "(Grant) hit some shots early. They got some second-chance points in that fourth quarter to (extend the lead) and we just didn't shoot very well."