Rams' Foreman knocks out Waubonsie Valley
At first Tuesday's game looked like it would be a Waubonsie Valley rout. Then it turned into The Jackie Foreman Show.
Foreman scored 33 points to lead Glenbard East back from a poor start for a 60-52 nonconference victory in Lombard.
"She just took over the game really," Rams coach Nicole Miller said about Foreman. "She's a solid player. A lot of times she does a lot of the little things, like assists. I've seen her through the years, she can take over a game when she decides."
Foreman decided to take over the game in the fourth quarter, scoring 19, including the Rams' first 11 points of the period. Then she scored 8 straight points at the free-throw line in the final 2 1/2 minutes to help Glenbard East (15-6) take the lead for good and pull away.
"Not only was she creating but she was shooting off the pass, she was getting fouled and just turning the game around," Miller said.
Waubonsie Valley (15-6) opened the game by taking a 14-3 lead midway through the first quarter, with freshman Keiera Ray scoring 8 points. But Ray went to the bench with foul trouble, and the trouble started for the Warriors.
"We are not playing good basketball, and it is not a good time to be doing what we're doing," said Waubonsie Valley coach Kris Kalivas, noting the sectional seeding taking place today and the regionals in a couple of weeks. "We're not finishing, our defense is broken down."
Glenbard East caught up to Waubonsie Valley at 17-17 on a pair of Kelsey Taylor free throws and took the lead with 6:11 to play in the second quarter on a Foreman basket. The Warriors didn't score in the period until Jordan Myers found the basket with 3:32 left, ending a dry spell of about eight minutes.
"I knew we could come back, but the speed that we came back, we came back so fast," said Foreman, whose previous best was 21 points in an overtime game. "Our defense definitely led to our offense in that sense."
The Warriors hit another dry spell in the fourth quarter after a Ray 3-pointer gave them a 45-42 lead with 6:05 left. Their next field goal came with 38.5 seconds to go, but by then they trailed by 5.
"We've had several dry spells," Kalivas said. "It's the same thing. We're not adjusting to what the defense is giving us, and we keep doing the same thing, the same thing, and it's not successful for us. That's why we're missing easy layups. And then we miss easy layups early and then we start to hang our heads and then we don't play defense and it all just folds on us."
The victory is a confidence booster for the Rams, who meet Naperville Central on Thursday in a DuPage Valley Conference game.
"It's nice to see that at this point in the season as we head into the postseason," Miller said. "I believe (Waubonsie Valley is) ranked in the Daily Herald (No. 14), and we think that we can play with teams, and they just proved it."
Ray led the Warriors with 15 points, and Brittany Upshaw and Rachel Bostick added 10 apiece. Jamie Klepetka added 12 points for the Rams.