West Chicago slips past Glenbard East

West Chicago coach Kim Wallner swears her girls basketball team is not as bad as it looked Thursday night against Glenbard East.

But she was also at a loss for words after her one-loss Wildcats squeaked out a narrow 43-40 victory over the one-win Rams.

"This was the worst game of the year for us so far," Wallner said. "Lack of execution."

Only forward Mary Connolly scored in double figures for the Wildcats (7-1, 2-0 DuPage Valley Conference), scoring 13 points and also pulled in 9 rebounds.

The Wildcats missed many open shots and layups, allowing Glenbard East (1-8, 0-3) to stay close.

"It's frustrating when we don't come out with the intensity we know we can," said Connolly, who wants the Wildcats to get back to how they played in a victory over Wheaton North. "We're a better team than that."

The Rams to their credit played one of their better games of the season by limiting second-chance opportunities with defensive rebounds and getting to the free-throw line where they converted 10 of 15 attempts.

"We've put some good games together and this was one of them," Rams coach Nicole Miller said. "We just did not come out on top."

Megan Shannon and Michaela Stefanski scored 12 points each, but the Rams, who had an opportunity to pull within a point with less than two minutes to play, could not hit at the free-throw line on their two biggest attempts.

Wildcats junior guard Allie Tapanes' layup put West Chicago up 5, which was important because Rams sophomore Lindsey Paganucci hit a shot at the final buzzer with a foot on the 3-point line.

"We're still learning and trying to execute, but the pieces are coming together a little better," Miller said. "Funny how wins aren't always about actually winning. How you play in a win or defeat is just as important."

"I hope we can (forget this game)," Wallner said. "I don't know what we need to do to fix this because I haven't seen us play this way this year. I'm still processing it. Obviously, it's not the effort we need."