Conant doesn't back down to Fenwick

Some teams cower at the chance to play Fenwick.

Don't count Conant among them.

"As a competitor and as an athlete you want to play against the best," Conant coach Dan Travers said. "We know Fenwick has a great tradition here and great players. We wanted to play them."

Travers' 16th-seeded Cougars actually trailed by just 9 points at halftime of Wednesday's Class 4A Fenwick regional semifinal in Oak Park, before falling to the Friars 69-40.

No. 1 seed Fenwick (27-3) outscored Conant 23-7 in the third quarter. Duke recruit Tricia Liston scored 25 points for the Friars, who have lost only once this season with Liston on the court. That was last Saturday at Hinsdale Central.

Ashley Lindeman scored 12 points, Kelly Lomas 8 and Alyssa Rawleigh 7 for Conant, which finished its season 8-20. That included a first-round win over Schaumburg on Monday, giving Conant its shot at Fenwick.

"Tonight was kind of like our season as a whole," Travers said. "We missed some shots and our window of errors are so small; we can't make a lot of mistakes. We even had a chance for it to be less than 9 at the half. But Fenwick did what a good team does and widened the gap."