Ruhl's Golden as Carmel schools Prairie Ridge

Carmel's Kristine Ruhl showed why she will be a force to be reckoned with this girls basketball season.

The 6-foot senior led the Corsairs to their second victory in a row Wednesday night, scoring the first six points of the game. She led all scorers with 11 points and pulled down 6 rebounds, as the Corsairs defeated Prairie Ridge 39-28 on Day 3 of the Mundelein Lady Mustangs Turkey Shootout.

"We're just starting to utilize our new press," Ruhl said. "We're trying to move the ball and we're trying to get a lot of easy baskets in transition. When we don't get baskets in transition, we're trying to slow down, move the ball around and get an easy basket. We're basically just trying to open up our shooters and utilize our size inside."

It was the second straight strong performance by Ruhl, who scored a career-best 18 points Tuesday night in Carmel's season-opening win over Rolling Meadows.

"Kristine is our post scorer," coach Ben Berg said. "In both games so far, we've had some mismatches and gotten her the ball, and she knows what to do with it when she gets in there."

Carmel (2-0) also had Erin Quinn score 8 points, including a 3-pointer. Juli Taylor added 8 points and sank a 3.

Prairie Ridge started the game cold, shooting 1 of 9 for only 2 points in the first quarter. The Wolves trailed 12-2 after eight minutes and 20-7 at halftime.

Haley Ljunggren and Taylor Smerecky led Prairie Ridge with 10 points each.

"Basically, we are just trying to put some pressure on defense and understand that we need to make our shots," Wolves coach Jessica Kuffel said. "When we got the opportunity in the lane, we shot very poorly, and you can't win a lot of games like that."

Highland Park 56, Grayslake North 38: At Mundelein, Lena Munzer scored 22 points and Emily Feldman added 18 for the Giants.

Grayslake North (1-2) was led by Kinsey Siler's 18 points.