Too much Marian Catholic as St. Viator falls short

When Eileen's Mazanek's 3-pointer dropped through the net with five seconds left in the first half, St. Viator's girls basketball team pulled to within 34-20 of Marian Catholic.

That was a good sign, considering the Lions trailed by as many as 20.

But the visiting Spartans (6-4, 2-0) weren't about to sign off in the second half of the East Suburban Catholic Conference game Tuesday night.

They opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer of their own, and moments later went on an 18-2 run to put the game out of reach en route to a 72-42 triumph at the Cahill Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.

The Spartans were ranked as one of the state's top teams at the start of the season.

"By far, the best team we've seen this season," said Lions senior forward Mary Calov, whose 6 points tied teammate classmate Meghan McGrath for team scoring honors. "But we'll take it just like we do every game. We had some mistakes we have to fix. Once we do that, we'll get on a winning streak."

The Lions (7-4, 3-1) hope to start that streak Saturday when they open play in their own Snowflake tournament.

Despite falling behind 4-0 and committing 6 straight turnovers to start the game, the Lions tied the contest at 4-4 on an 8-footer from Ronnie Mack and a layup by Bridget Urbanus.

Calov's 3-pointer cut a deficit to 10-7 but Marian went on an 18-1 run for a 28-10 cushion with 5:08 left in the second quarter.

"We knew St. Viator had a tough game (loss at Hoffman Estates on Monday) so they wanted to bounce back," said Spartans coach Annie Basic. "They are always well balanced and they always play hard. And their top player (Susan Hohenadel) is out (ankle) so I'm sure that hurts, too.

"I think we have one of the best conferences in the state. We have great competition, great rivalries and great coaches."

Lions coach Paul Bjerkness praised the visitors.

"They were better than us," he said. "We gave up too many points. Turnovers killed us. But we've got to get ready for our tournament and put this behind us."

In all, 11 players scored for Viator, including junior Megan Bailey, who on her 17th birthday popped in a 16-footer from the baseline with three minutes to go.

"That was awesome," said Bjerkness, who also watched Emily Leazer, Meghan Malone, Taylor Skala, Kim McAvoy and Tracy Supergan score points for his team.

Simone Law led the Spartans with 14 points.

"We're just trying to get over the hump," Basic said. "We had a rough start. But it's a whole season, not just a week."