New tradition a real winner for Stevenson

Stevenson's girls basketball team discarded a tradition Saturday but drew on another.

Ramping up their energy after a 13-point loss at Zion-Benton earlier in the week, the Patriots played relentless defense like Stevenson teams of old and suffocated a Lake Forest squad that had lost only once.

The host Patriots piled up twice as many steals (24) as the Scouts had points through three quarters and cruised to a 74-24 win in a North Suburban Lake Division matinee that became a full-fledged rout by the middle of the third quarter.

Stevenson's Michelle O'Brien had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals, while Kelsey Simon totaled 14 points, 6 blocked shots and 4 rebounds. Anna Morrissey added 9 points, 9 rebounds and 8 steals.

"I told the kids if (Lake Forest) came to play and if we came to play, I thought we would win by 15-20," Stevenson coach Tom Dineen said. "I'm very confident in these kids. They got to start believing in themselves."

Stevenson (6-3, 1-2) had been 0-2 on its home court, so in an attempt to change his team's fortunes, Dineen switched benches. The Patriots occupied the bench where the visitors normally sit.

"After our last home loss, I said we got to do something different," Dineen said. "I said we're going to start a new tradition."

"We were fine with that," Morrissey said. "We're up for change."

Stevenson scored the game's first 14 points and nearly shut out Lake Forest (7-2, 1-1) in the opening quarter, as the Scouts didn't score until Megan Moore sank a shot with nine seconds left.

The two teams committed a combined 23 turnovers in the opening quarter, but Stevenson took better care of the ball after that, while Lake Forest did not.

The Patriots were up 24-8 at halftime, having helped force the Scouts into 20 turnovers.

"We were really excited to play," Morrissey said. "We knew (Lake Forest) was aggressive on offense and had good shooters."

Stevenson blew the game open in the third, outscoring the visitors 31-4 and forcing 15 more turnovers. Morrissey and freshman Kari Moffat were wreaking havoc on nearly every Lake Forest possession.

"My assistant (Chuck Gress) was very observant," Lake Forest head coach Nick Balaban said. "Right when we walked out on the floor (before the start of the game), he said, 'We're not ready. We're asleep.'

"But I'm not going to take anything away from Stevenson," Balaban added. "They did everything that they needed to do. We said we need to pressure them and be aggressive. But they were just more aggressive and they applied more pressure than we did."

Stevenson also got 4 steals apiece from McKinley Imus and Moffat and three from Katie Batman, who also sank a 3-pointer.

"Tremendous defensive effort," Dineen said. "We came ready to play. We had two good practices Thursday and Friday, and we played for 32 minutes today. All 12 kids played very hard."