St. Francis runs away with St. Edward

St. Francis junior Kelly McShea has no problem with her role coming off the bench for the Spartans' girls basketball team.

And if McShea can continue to produce like she did against St. Edward Saturday night in Elgin, Spartans' coach Jeff Gerdeman will have yet another weapon.

With starters Meghan Harig and Katie Slavin in early foul trouble, McShea came through for her team, scoring a game-high 20 points, including 4 of 6 shooting from beyond the 3-point line as the Spartans rolled to a 67-37 Suburban Christian Blue win.

"Kelly has a fantastic shot and tonight it paid dividends for us," said Gerdeman. "We've got 6-7 people who can start and a solid group of seniors."

St. Edward (4-3, 1-1) jumped out to a 5-0 lead, trailed 11-7 after one quarter but fought its way back and held a 22-21 lead after a Maddie Kerr free throw with 2:19 left in the first half. That's when the wheels fell completely off the wagon for the Green Wave, as a McShea 3-pointer at the 2:07 mark sparked St. Francis (3-5, 1-1) to an incredible 23-0 run that left the Green Wave with an insurmountable 44-22 deficit with 3:43 to play in the third quarter.

"I just make sure I know what's going on and cheer on my team," said McShea of sitting on the bench to start the game. "The team worked really well together tonight. We played Montini last (a 69-34 loss) so this is a good change for us."

St. Edward not only didn't score for over 7 minutes, the Wave went without a field goal for over 9 minutes.

"We've been struggling this year so far so it was nice to see us get on a run instead of someone doing it to us," said Gerdeman. "We started to run and I think (St. Edward) got tired. We got some scoring inside and outside and our defense did a nice job. St. Ed's is a pretty good team. They're young and I don't think you saw them at their best tonight."

The Spartans, who never led by less than 20 in the second half, also got 15 points and 9 rebounds from 6-foot junior Fiona McMahon and 8 points and 4 assists from senior Sarah Torres. McShea's 5 steals led a defense that pressed St. Edward into 25 turnovers. The Spartans also shot 26 of 53 from the field for the game.

St. Edward, meanwhile, was an ice cold 11 of 53 on its home floor. Kerr led the Green Wave with 13 points but she was held to a single field goal in the second half.

"We had a lack of communication and a lack of rebounding and those are the two things that need to be constant night in and night out," said St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson. "We're going to watch this game and see where we fell apart and what areas we need to improve on. We were rushing things offensively and not taking good shots."