Kusner's debut a real winner for Maine West

Sure, it may have been the most tense moments of Monday's night's season-opening girls basketball game between Maine West and host Palatine.

But Warriors junior forward Katherine Kusner, playing her first varsity game, seemed hardly fazed as she took a long pass from senior Megan O'Neil and scored on fastbreak layup with 13.7 seconds left.

After making her second career basket, Kusner completed the 3-point play to put her team ahead 48-44.

Palatine, battling right down to the wire after trailing by 11 with 2:04 left, received a short bank shot from Katie Nawrot (15 points) at the buzzer as Maine West held on for a 48-46 triumph.

Kusner's big bucket came just seconds after junior Lauren Radtke (game-high 16 points) took a nice baseline pass and made a layup to bring the Pirates to within 45-44 with 18 seconds left.

Senior Ellen Coogan (7 points) then inbounded the ball to point guard Amanda Hoye, who while being defended, tossed a pass to O'Neil.

"I saw Megan, and she saw me in front of her," Kusner said. "When she passed it to me, I knew it was going to happen."

Kusner (who came off the bench and scored all 5 of her points in the fourth quarter) went straight to the hoop, losing her shoe in the process, and sank what proved to be the decisive layup.

West's Alli Ellwood sank some big shots in the first half (8 of her 10 points) and teammate Sam Acosta hit some big ones in the second half when she scored 8 of her 10 points.

Warriors coach Derril Kipp, who won his 691st career game, feels his team must play smarter basketball.

"We practiced for two weeks but we didn't look like it," he said. "Maybe we should have just come out and played a game right away. We won this game because of our seniors."

"We've got to work our press better and get more steals, " said Ellwood, one of those seniors. "And we have to run the fastbreak better. We just didn't do the things we've been working on in practice."

Radtke scored 10 of 16 points in the fourth quarter.

"We started playing harder and boxing out," said Nawrot of the late comeback. "Lauren got us some good points. Everyone played hard. Our trap was working."

Radtke, a 5-11 post, hit 4 free throws in the final period.

"She was a huge bright spot," said Pirates second-year coach Leslie Schock. "It was Lauren's varsity debut and to be the game's leading scorer not being the biggest person on the floor shows hard how she is working.

"And Katie Nawrot (senior), at 5-foot-8, just plays with the biggest heart you can imagine. She is not afraid to take the ball in against the big posts."

Senior Heather Zimmerman added 7 points for Palatine while classmate Sydney Wiedemann and Nia Pappas, a freshman, added 4.

"We were pretty inconsistent," Schock added "We have to work on focusing for all four quarters."

Kipp, whose team led 45-34 with 2:04 left, liked the way Palatine performed.

"They played pretty hard," said the Hall of Famer. "They caused us some problems offensively and we didn't execute the things we worked on in practice."

Fremd 55, Grant 32: Host Fremd kicked off its season by outscoring the visitors 22-3 in the first quarter.

Sophomore forward Jessie Wiedemann led the Vikings with 10 points followed by seniors Taylor Glassmann and Gianna Abruzzo with 9 apiece.

Junior guard Bridget Kubis added points with a pair of 3-pointers while Jaimie Groot (6 points) and Glassmann each had a 3-pointer.