St. Charles East's 3-pointers too much for Streamwood
St. Charles East kept Streamwood off guard.
Literally.
The Saints' guard duo of Natasha Lalos and Lexi Baltes combined for 28 points, including five 3-pointers ,to lead St. Charles East to an easy 63-48 win over Streamwood in an Upstate Eight Conference girls basketball game in Streamwood Wednesday night.
"Our strength is our perimeter game," said St. Charles East coach Lori Drumtra. "We have four kids who can shoot the 3 and Natasha and Lexi played well. We can spread out people with our shooters and we are tough to guard."
Baltes paced the Saints (13-10, 5-3) with 15 points, including three 3-pointers, while Lalos scored 13 with a pair of 3s.
Leading 14-9 after one quarter, St. Charles East broke the game open in the second quarter.
Holding a slim 6-point, 24-18 lead with 2:46 left in the half, the Saints outscored the Sabres (6-17, 1-6) 9-0 and led by 15, 33-18, after 16 minutes.
St. Charles East got 3s from Baltes and Jaimie Rust and made 3-of-4 of shots during the crucial stretch.
"We played well in the first quarter, but missed a ton of layups," said Streamwood coach George Rosner. "We also gave them way too many easy shots. The second quarter was the game. We knew (the Saints) shoot the 3 well and we let their shooters settle in and they nailed them."
The Sabres scored the first 4 points of the third quarter on a pair of 10-foot jumpers from Emma Schmidt to slice the Saints' lead to 33-22 early in the
third quarter.
That was as close as the Streamwood would get as the Saints reeled off 14 straight points during a 3 minute, 26 second span.
Using an aggressive full court press, the Saints forced the Sabres into 6 turnovers and turned the miscues into 5 layups. Lalos and Baltes scored 5 points each during the run.
"We were a little hesitant in the third quarter so we increased the intensity on the defensive end and went to a full court press," said Drumtra. "We were able to increase our energy and we got some easy baskets."
Caitlin Marchant led Streamwood with 15 points, including four 3-pointers. Schmidt scored 14 with 7 boards.