Early run holds up for Conant

Sometimes an early run in a basketball game can be forgotten. In the Mid-Suburban West contest between Conant and Schaumburg on Friday night, an early Cougar run proved pivotal for the game’s end result.

Conant jumped out to an 8-0 lead on the host Saxons and wound up winning by an 8-point margin 36-28.

“When you have a number of unforced turnovers, that puts you in a poor position to start the game,” Schaumburg coach Ashley Berggren said. “We made some changes, but when it came down to it turnovers really, really hurt us in the end.”

Schaumburg was scoreless nearly the entire first quarter. The Saxons didn’t score their first points until Jenna Gerber sank two free throws with 4.2 seconds left.

Turnovers bothered Conant (6-1, 1-0) as well. After scoring the first 8 points of the game, Conant led just 11-7 at halftime.

“It was sloppy, and we’re concerned about that,” Conant coach Dan Travers said. “It wasn’t a very well-executed game.”

Conant trailed by a point with 47 seconds remaining in the third quarter, but a quick 5-point run on a basket from Lindsay Fillingim and a 3-pointer from Kelly Lomas (game-high 18 points, five 3-pointers) helped put Conant back up by four heading into the final quarter.

“Kelly Lomas did a great job giving us a spark with some points,” Travers said.

Alyssa Rawleigh (11 points) was able to ice the game by sinking her final 4 free throw attempts.

“She’s clutch,” Travers said. “We’re a good free-throw shooting team. We’re a good shooting team. We didn’t handle the ball well tonight.”

Gerber led the way for Schaumburg (4-3, 0-1) with 10 points and 8 rebounds. Rachel Stuehm added 5 points and 5 rebounds for the Saxons.

“It came down to turnovers and free throws,” Berggren said. “Our defense kept us in the game in the beginning but we couldn’t connect down in the paint. And then toward the end our mental game failed us.”

Schaumburg was 9-of-20 on free throw attempts compared to 8-of-13 for Conant.