St. Francis gets going, overcomes Timothy
No question about it - St. Francis was guilty of a little post-Christmas hangover Saturday in Lisle.
The Spartans were pardoned a first-round loss.
St. Francis scored 12 unanswered points to start the second half, sufficient to beat Timothy Christian 40-32 in the first round of the Lisle Holiday Cage Classic.
"Our girls weren't ready to play," St. Francis coach Jeff Gerdeman said. "We had a rough start. Give Timothy Christian credit. They came out and had great effort. We didn't execute and we didn't finish. We hung on, but it was an ugly win."
Trailing 22-20 after a lethargic first half, the Spartans (6-7) came out of the break with a little extra burst of energy.
Two Katie Slavin scores pushed St. Francis ahead, and Sarah Torres scored off a Timothy Christian turnover to make it 26-22. Kelly McShea knocked down a 3-pointer after another Trojans turnover and Torres banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 32-22.
"We knew we needed to step it up in the second half," St. Francis senior Megan Bruggeman said, "and get after the ball. We definitely did that in the third quarter with our full-court press. It got the tempo up. When we would get steals we would finish our shots, unlike at the beginning of the game."
A pair of Kari LeGrand free throws got Timothy Christian on the board, but the tide had been turned. The Trojans (5-6) committed 7 costly turnovers in the third quarter - a season-long concern for a rebuilding team starting two sophomores.
"Just wasted possessions," Timothy Christian coach Ryan DeKoekkoek said, "and I felt down the stretch that's what killed us. We tried to emphasize before the Christmas break valuing the ball more, but with a couple days off we were just out of sorts. It's frustrating."
Timothy Christian didn't roll over, though, cutting the margin to 5 midway through the fourth quarter. The Trojans also played well in the first half with senior Amanda Dykema sitting with 2 fouls. Maggie Vanderwoude came off the bench to hit tying and go-ahead jumpers in the final minute of the seconde quarter.
An aggressive Trojans team pulled down 17 offensive rebounds and held 6-foot St. Francis forward Fiona McMahon to 10 points.
"I thought we played OK," DeKoekkoek said. "It just came down to we turned the ball over too much."
McShea scored 9 points for St. Francis, which plays Latin in Monday's second round. Latin beat defending tournament champion Newark 46-35.
"We weathered the storm and pulled one out," Gerdeman said. "We move to the right of the bracket and we'll take it, but we gotta play better if we're going to continue moving to the right."