Sibley sinks game-winner as St. Charles North nips Rosary
Given a chance to play it by the book, St. Charles North's first-year coach Colleen Brennan went outside the box in the third-place game Saturday at Geneva's Thanksgiving tournament.
With the North Stars holding for the last shot in the final seconds against Rosary, Brennan kept a timeout in her pocket and let her team play. Kiley Hackbarth drove and dished to Dana Sibley in the corner.
Sibley pump-faked and drove baseline, scoring and drawing a foul with just 2.8 seconds left. Sibley missed the free throw but Rosary wasn't able to get off a final shot, giving the North Stars a 50-48 victory.
"With eight seconds you are in-between as coach if you call a timeout and set up something specific," Brennan said. "What if that something specific doesn't work? We were handling the ball, we were doing good things. It worked out well. Had it not worked out it would have been, 'Why didn't the coach call timeout?"
Sibley made sure her coach wouldn't be second-guessed. Matched against 6-foot-4 Katie Eckberg, the 6-foot Sibley said she knew she needed to use her quickness.
"I was driving the whole time, the girl couldn't handle me away from the basket," Sibley said. "They were getting blocks inside so I had to draw myself out, also to open the lane up for my teammates. I just figured if she didn't catch me the last few times I might as well take it this time and see what happens. The shot was open so I took it."
Rosary (2-2) suffered a tough break in the third quarter. Trailing by as much as 7 in the first half, the Royals started the third quarter on fire with a 10-0 run to take a 36-28 lead.
Unfortunately, on the last basket in that stretch, star senior forward Jordan Rettig took a shot to her eye. Trainers looked at Rettig, who had 16 points and 7 rebounds, before sending her to the hospital.
Without their leading scorer, Stephanie Haugen swished a 3-pointer for Rosary's biggest lead of the game at 39-29. But the North Stars (3-1) started to pull closer behind Taylor Russell, Tess Fischer and Jen Bell, who gave the team a big lift after returning from an illness Friday.
Bell made 9 of 10 free throws while scoring a team-high 13 points. Her 7 rebounds were second on the team to Sibley's 10.
"She's a great basketball player," Brennan said. "Her presence helps a lot. She certainly doesn't feel well at all."
The North Stars didn't catch Rosary until 3:11 remained when Fischer drilled her second 3-pointer, giving them a 47-46 lead. Her free throw made it 48-46, then Eckberg hit two free throws to tie the game at 48 with 1:07 remaining.
Both teams failed to score on their next possessions, setting up Sibley's game-winner.
"That was a heck of a move, drove to the basket and got the score," said Rosary coach Dave Beebe, who thought the play would go to point guard Kiley Hackbarth. "That shows they have more than one dimension. Hats off to them, they played a good game."
Fischer joined Bell in double figures with 10 points.
The Royals played the two closest games of the tournament, losing by 4 to Oswego Friday and 2 to St. Charles North, leading late in both games but not being able to hang onto their leads.
Haugen and Eckberg both scored 11 points while Katie Petrando hustled for 13 rebounds. Beebe refused to use Rettig's injury as an excuse.
"That didn't help but we have to play through it because there's going to be kids getting injured and sick and so forth," Beebe said. "This is not a young team. These kids finished second (last year at Geneva's tournament), to take two steps back, don't get me wrong I think Oswego and North are both very good teams, but we're not listening, we're not working together and that's killing us."