Nothing comes free in St. Francis victory

Jeff Gerdeman has called this the best shooting team he's had at St. Francis.

For a night he'll just accept the win.

The Spartans missed 8 straight free throws in the final minute but held on to beat Glenbard West 41-40 in the season opener for both teams in Wheaton.

The two teams paraded to the free-throw line a combined 66 times. St. Francis made just 14 of its 36 attempts and won.

“We noticed that too,” Gerdeman said. “We'll be working on free throws tomorrow. I was surprised with how poorly we shot free throws. Hopefully, this is an anomaly and not the norm.”

St. Francis senior Fiona McMahon, who averaged a double-double last year, was the dominant force in an otherwise choppy, foul-filled affair. McMahon scored 18 points and pulled down 18 rebounds. She only made 8 of 16 at the line, but her 2 free throws with 1:08 left gave the Spartans the lead for good at 37-36.

“It was getting way too close,” McMahon said. “It would have made a big difference if we would have nailed those free throws. But overall we hustled very hard.”

McMahon sounded like a player ready to make a statement after last year's 10-19 finish.

“We're trying to prove something,” McMahon said. “Everybody thinks that we're the underdogs in our conference. This win is a good start.”

Two Kate Slattery free throws with 46 seconds left nudged St. Francis to a seemingly safe 41-36 lead before the late misses. Glenbard West had one last shot at the win in the final seconds, but missed from in close and McMahon corraled her 18th rebound.

Slattery scored 7 points and Kelly Reinke 5 for St. Francis. A Reinke 3-pointer pulled St. Francis within 32-28 with 5:46 left, after a Lauren Davis free throw had given Glenbard West the biggest lead for either team at 32-25.

“Tonight what won it was our effort and our hustle. We're not going to dwell on any negatives,” Gerdeman said. “We'll talk about the negatives tomorrow.”

Davis scored 9 points and Cayla Herbst had 6 points and 5 rebounds for the Hilltoppers but was in foul trouble throughout the game. Becca Folan pulled down 10 boards before fouling out, one of two Hilltoppers to foul out.

“It's all on our defense. We did not do a good job defensively,” Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland said. “I understand the mistakes on offense, first-game jitters, but I was disappointed in the stupid fouls. It's the dumb fouls when you're 75 feet away from the basket that are inexcusable.”