Conlin, Meadows shoot down Streamwood

Rolling Meadows guard Madelynn Conlin took some 25,000 shots this summer preparing for this season.

Streamwood girls basketball coach George Rosner and his players probably wished the 5-foot-6 junior didn't take any shots in Tuesday's nonconference game at Rolling Meadows.

After scoring 2 points in a 38-37 loss to Streamwood three weeks ago in the Mundelein tournament, Conlin erupted for a career-high 25 this time with five 3-pointers as the Mustangs posted a 53-36 triumph.

"No. 10 (Conlin) was definitely the difference this time," said Rosner, whose 6-12 club, led by junior Emma Schmidt's 15 points, lost its fourth straight.

"The amounts of hours Madelynn puts in is amazing, so its great to see her have a game like this," said Mustangs coach Todd Hatfield.

"This summer, she did swimming from 6 to 7 a.m., basketball from 7 to 10 a.m., soccer from 10 a.m. to noon, and then she'd come back in the afternoon and shoot 500 shots a day with me in the gym. She is just a great example for kids to see in our program."

Conlin scored 15 points with three 3-pointers in the first half as the Mustangs led 33-15 at the break.

"We just had to keep our momentum from the good game we played against Hersey (lost to the state-ranked Huskies 34-27 last Saturday)," said Conlin, a band director and class president who ranks fourth in her class. "We knew what we had to do from playing them the previous time."

Before the game, Hatfield wrote on a meeting room board "Who's going to show up for this game?"

"I told the girls if it was the same team from Saturday night, we'll be in good shape," he said. "Except for a stretch late in the third quarter, that same team did show up.

"Madelynn was phenomenal and (guard) Ann Marie Lynch (9 points) was solid. She's so pretty to watch in the open court when she is playing her game."

Lynch scored 5 points in a span of five seconds in the midway through the first quarter. She grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup, then made a quick steal and drove for layup for a 13-4 Mustangs' lead.

Kelly Adair added 7 points and Ashley Rios 6 for the Mustangs, who improved to 9-9, their best record this late in a season since 2001.

Junior Sara Shumaker helped start some fast breaks with a handful of rebounds.

"We love to use our speed," Conlin said. "Even our bigs are fast. We like to beat teams down the floor whenever we can."

Michelle Tomczak and reserve Megan McGlone each added 6 points for the Sabres. McGlone's points all came in a row on layups as Streamwood made a third-quarter rally.

"I thought Megan did a real nice job defensively for us," said Rosner, whose team cut a 24-point deficit to 10 with 7:10 left in the game. "We made a good run there. The girls didn't give up. We turned our press up. But you can't beat a good team by letting them get that far ahead. It's too big a mountain to climb."

The Sabres have Lake Park next.

"We have to play better," Rosner said. "We have some things we must take care of to play better."