Lindfors, Elk Grove edge Prospect

Elk Grove fed the ball to 6-foot-4 Courtney Lindfors all night, and when the Grenadiers didn't, she did a great job of securing possession regardless.

Lindfors scored 21 points and grabbed 18 rebounds to help the host Grens overcome Prospect's pesky defense and come away with a 34-32 Mid-Suburban East victory on Friday night.

"If they are going to get the ball in to me, I've got to be able finish," Lindfors said. "I've been working hard on that, and we've been working hard all together."

Elk Grove coach Ryan Kirkorsky cited his teams' stout second half defense, which surrendered just 13 points, and defensive rebounding, where Lindfors had a major impact, as reasons for the victory.

"She was huge out there tonight," Kirkorsky said of Lindfors. "On both ends of the floor I thought she controlled the boards. I thought she was tremendous."

Then end of the first half and the start of the second played a big role for Elk Grove.

Prospect outscored the Grens 12-3 for 7:59 of the second quarter. But Elk Grove's Dani Goranson beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to tighten the score to 19-16.

Then in the third quarter, Missy Regan scored all 5 of her points on consecutive Elk Grove possessions to help the Grens get the score even, then go ahead.

"There's a reason she's one of our starters," Kirkorsky said of Regan, a four-year varsity player. "She's been in every kind of situation. We talked about where the double-teams were going to come from on Courtney, and she came out and was assertive."

Prospect coach Martha Kelly was happy with the Knights' defensive performance, but felt things weren't as they should be on the offensive end, and in the rebounding department.

"There was a crucial rebound at the end of the first half that we could have gotten to take away (Goranson's) 3-pointer," Kelly said. "There were a couple rebounds at the end of the fourth quarter that we could have gotten that could have kept them from getting to the foul line. So right now, I'd say our rebounding needs to improve."

After holding that 19-16 halftime lead, Kelly said Prospect's offense struggled to execute.

"We were just trying to execute better on offense," Kelly said. "That's one of the things we need to get better on is our execution."

Sarah Winans and Marissa Pettenuzo led the Knights in scoring with 8 points each. Lexi Glennon added 6, and Rachel Hunt had 6 points and 8 rebounds.