Lisle's 5th straight victory is special
Somewhere in balmy Mexico, a couple thousand miles away on a December honeymoon, assistant coach Abigail Fisher is far removed from Lisle basketball.
Her Lions gave the coach a nice wedding gift Saturday.
Up against a taller, deeper Illiana Christian team, the host Lions pulled off a gritty 42-40 win in the first round of the Lisle Holiday Cage Classic.
"We're missing one of our players and a couple managers too," Lions senior Jackie Todd said, "and I think we wanted them to know that we were winning the game for them. Every timeout we yelled "Fish." She didn't want to miss this. This one's for her."
It was Lisle's (8-3) fifth straight win since the season's low-point, a 22-point loss at Wheaton Academy Dec. 1. This looked nothing like that Lions team.
"Now we know where we need to be. We're getting there," Lisle coach Jeff Javior said. "There are certain points of the season that is a measuring stick, and this is one for us. Against Wheaton Academy we were backing away. Today we were taking it to them. If we can outhustle teams, we'll be OK."
Exhibit A of that hustle was Tori Harris hurtling her body toward the scoring table to save a loose ball late in the game. Exhibit B, Todd throwing herself to the floor to force a jump ball. A Todd score punctuated an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter pushing Lisle ahead 36-31.
"Second half, bottom line they just outhustled us," Illiana Christian coach Dave Bosman said. "It seemed like my girls were moving at half-speed and their girls were diving for balls."
Illiana Christian (11-3) came back to tie the score at 40-40 with 1:53 left on a Dana Poortenga 3-pointer. At the other end Todd was thrown to the ground on a hard foul but shook it off to sink the go-ahead free throws.
"I was just mad in general because the girl threw me down," Todd said. "Hard foul like that, makes me want to make the free throws even more."
Lisle turned the ball over twice on inbounds in the final minute, but Illiana missed 5 shots for the tie or lead.
Colleen Drennan scored 10 points and had 6 rebounds, 4 offensive, and Chelsea Peterson 10 points and 12 boards, 7 offensive for Lisle.
Drennan and Nicole Urban both played all 32 minutes for Lisle. The Lions' first substitution came midway through the third quarter, while Illiana Christian played 10 girls.
"A feel," Javior said. "It just felt right."
Five Illiana players stood 5-foot-11 or taller. Lisle has just one player over 5-10 on its roster.
"We were prepared for their height," Drennan said. "Our shots were falling and it paid off.
"This tournament is one of the best around. If we can beat somebody really good at this tournament it will boost our ego a little bit, make us more confident."