Defensive effort helps Conant past St. Viator
Conant coach Dan Travers and his assistant Ron Theberge are longtime advocates of playing tough defense to win basketball games.
The Cougars girls team put on quite a show in that facet of the game Wednesday night at St. Viator's Cahill Gymnasium.
Limiting the host Lions to single digits in every quarter, Conant (8-3) bounced back from losses against powers Hoffman Estates and Streamwood with a 44-21 nonconference triumph in Arlington Heights.
“We wanted to break our losing streak,” said Cougars senior Hailey Andress, who made her first start of the season and collected 6 steals. “No one likes to lose. We wanted to come back strong after those two losses.”
“Hailey stepped up as a senior,” Travers said. “She created havoc and I thought she set the tempo for the defense.”
The defense was strong from the start, pitching a shutout until the Lions' senior Diana VanStedum hit a 17-footer with 3:10 left in the first quarter to make it 8-2.
A couple of driving layups by senior Kelly Lomas (10 points, 4 rebounds) and 2 free throws apiece from Andress and senior Lindsay Fillingim (team-high 12 points, 4 rebounds) gave Conant the game's first 8 points.
“I thought Lindsay had a real good third quarter (8 points),” Travers said.
“This was a good game for us to get our minds set straight again and prepared for our conference game (on Friday at Barrington),” Fillingim said. “We executed well and things opened up. We got screens from our centers and got some open shots.”
Allie Bauch came off the bench and hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter which put Conant ahead 13-4.
Senior Alyssa Rawleigh (5 rebounds) and Fillingim made some nice passes to set up a 3-pointer by Lomas at the halftime buzzer for a 25-9 cushion.
“We're kind of a grind-it-out team, and that shot by Kelly was kind of like a dagger,” Travers said. “St. Viator is a quality program and it's unfortunate their best player (Taylor Skala) got hurt.”
Skala suffered an ankle injury on Monday, sidelining her for a few weeks.
“We're playing hard and just trying to get better every game,” said St. Viator coach Paul Bjerkness, who has started 11 different girls this season. “Conant did a nice job. They're a good team. They are patient and get the ball to the open person.”
Junior guard Katie Gavin led the Lions (4-7) with 9 points while classmate Katie Calmeyn chipped in 6 points with 4 rebounds and 1 blocked shot.
Celebrating her 17th birthday, senior Megan Bailey collected 4 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.
Lauren Rooney also grabbed 3 rebounds while Tracy Supergan and Maggie Dougherty each had 2.