Carmel gets its 'initial' victory
Carmel Catholic's girls basketball players and their coaches wore "JB" wristbands in their season opener Tuesday night at Mundelein.
The Corsairs then went out and got a victory - 50-38 over Rolling Meadows - for head coach Ben Berg.
Berg's wife, Jennifer, recently succumbed to breast cancer at the age of 37. During warmups, the Corsairs wore T-shirts reading "Live, Laugh, Love" - words inspired by Jennifer Berg.
The players even bought their head coach a pink, breast cancer awareness tie, which he wore proudly Tuesday night.
Afterward, Berg was beaming about his team's win. The Corsairs trailed 10-0 with just about three minutes gone in the game.
"They didn't get frustrated," said Berg, whose team pulled even at 22-22 by halftime. "They hung in there. Even in the second half, when we had a one-point lead, we had some things go against us a little bit. I called a timeout and talked about channeling that frustration into positive things.
"They did that. They kept their cool."
Kristine Ruhl, the Corsairs' 6-foot senior center, led the way with 18 points. Carmel also got 8 points from Madeline Felipez and 7 apiece from Erin Quinn and Sarah McHugh.
Prospect 56, Libertyville 47: The host Wildcats lost their season opener, despite 15 points from Alex Haley and 11 from Katelynn Jennings.