Immaculate Conception turns back Antioch
Immaculate Conception expected a tough game from Antioch in the Lisle Holiday Cage Classic's second round Monday night.
The Knights made sure the game didn't meet their expectations.
Immaculate Conception scored a 59-34 victory to advance to the tournament semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday against St. Francis or Latin School.
"The kids came out with a lot of fire," Knights coach Dan Murray said. "We were pumped up. We knew that was an excellent team. We saw them against (St. Edward on Saturday) and what they did against them, so we talked to the kids at shootaround today about our game plan and I thought the kids executed it to perfection. So I give them a lot of credit."
The game plan defensively was to take Antioch leading scorers Andi Potkonjak and Allie Anttila out of the game, and the Knights held those two players to just 7 combined points, well below their averages of 17 and 15 per game, respectively.
"All season long Potkonjak and Anttila have been our main scoring and I think they did a good job of shutting them down," Sequoits coach Tim Borries said.
"That was obviously a big part of what we needed to do," Murray added. "We wanted to get out on all their shooters and really force their shooters to put the basketball on the floor and get them out of their comfort level. The girls did a really good job. When we were able to do that our defensive rotations were really solid too, and we were able to make things a little bit difficult for them."
Antioch scored the game's first 4 points, but that was its highlight for the night. IC scored the next 13 points, getting 7 steals during that run.
"We had 10 turnovers (inthe first quarter)," Borries said. "That's uncharacteristic of us. We weren't surprised. For some reason we were just undisciplined tonight. We didn't stay in our passing lanes, and they just disrupted our offense and did a good job at it."
When the Sequoits (4-7) did get a shot away, they didn't hit it very often.
"You're not going to win very many ballgames when you shoot 26 percent from the field," Borries said, struggling to explain the off night. "They're a good defensive team, a good team. We just didn't shoot the ball very well."
Junior point guard Kasey Reaber led the Knights (14-1) with 16 points, many of them on drives to the basket that Antioch couldn't stop. She added 6 steals and 6 assists.
"When she can get out in the passing lanes a little bit, get out in the open floor, you can see the passing ability and the type of things she can create for us," Murray said.
IC senior Taylor Reaber added 15 points and 8 rebounds, and senior Erin Dunne scored 10 points to go with 6 rebounds.
Junior Lauren Tiffany led Antioch with 12 points.
"It's nice to see her have a dozen points, to see some shots fall," Borries said. "We'll be OK. It's just a bad (night)."