Woit doesn't wilt as Mundelein picks up win
Not Megan Woit. Not the girl who, in Mundelein's program distributed before Friday night's basketball game, chose "bubbly" as the one word to describe herself.
Not the girl who had just 2 points on the night and who, according to coach Brian Evans, had been "struggling with some confidence issues."
And, yet, with 5.3 seconds left in a tie game with visiting Warren, Evans drew up a play, looked at Woit and told her she was going to drive the basket.
"You should have seen the look on her face," Evans said. "Because she, everybody on our team and I think most of the people on Warren's team were expecting Brooke to shoot the ball."
Brooke Evans didn't shoot, however. Woit hoisted a driving layup and sank it to give Mundelein a come-from-behind, 48-46 win in a North Suburban Lake Division thriller.
Warren (1-7, 0-2) led by as many as nine points in the third quarter and took a 44-37 lead in the fourth. But Mundelein (6-4, 2-1) limited the Blue Devils to just 2 more points the rest of the way.
"You got to make plays down the stretch to win games, and that's what we didn't do," Blue Devils coach John Stanczykiewicz said. "We don't have anybody that thinks basketball."
It was the first-ever game-winning shot for Woit, a 5-foot-7 senior starter who came off the bench last season.
After her shot rolled around the rim and fell through, the bubbly Woit couldn't stop smiling.
"It was a fun win," she said. "But it wasn't just the last shot. It was every shot made throughout the whole game."
Warren shot 1 of 9 in the fourth, turning the ball over five times. The Blue Devils didn't score in the final quarter until Alexis Leneau hit a runner with 2:47 left, increasing the visitors' lead to 46-41.
But Mundelein's Amanda Davis answered with a jumper and, after a timeout, Jessi Bjerning scored to pull the Mustangs within one.
After Leneau missed the front end of a one-and-one with 25.9 seconds to go, Brooke Evans hit the front end of hers to knot the score at 46-46.
Warren called timeout with 17.3 seconds left and settled for a Leneau runner that missed. The rebound went out of bounds, with Warren having last touched the ball.
It was not the play Stanczykiewicz drew up.
"People just don't go to the right spots," he said. "You can coach them up, but until they start making plays, unfortunately, we're going to continue to have outcomes like this."
That set the stage for Woit's heroics. She got the inbounds pass from Bjerning at midcourt, drove and, when her teammates were guarded on the perimeter, kept the ball and shot it.
"Hats off to Megan Woit or having the courage to actually pull it off," Brian Evans said.
"I was nervous, but I know my teammates have my back," Woit said.
Bjerning led Mundelein with 11 points and 8 rebounds, while Brooke Evans and Olivia Dunigan (7 rebounds) each had 10.
Leneau and Morgan Garrett had 13 and 12 points, respectively, for Warren.
"Our defense just stayed strong and didn't give up," Woit said. "We played with heart the whole game."