Conant falls short vs. Huntley

Even in defeat, Conant's girls basketball showed plenty of heart in the consolation semifinal of the Mundelein Christmas tournament Monday night.

Despite losing senior Lindsay Fillingim to a thigh injury in the second quarter and converting only 11 of 20 free throws, the Cougars (9-5) went right down to the wire with Huntley (9-3) before falling 50-49 on a last-second shot.

Cougars senior Alyssa Rawleigh, who scored a game-high 21 points, dramatically fired home her fifth 3-pointer of the game with nine seconds left to give Conant a 49-48 lead.

But Huntley's Carly Goede was able to hit a bucket inside the free throw lane as time was expiring to lift the Red Raiders.

Conant will wrap up play in the tournament on Thursday at noon when it faces the loser of today's 4:30 p.m. game between Vernon Hills and Lake Park.

Fillingim had scored 7 points (2 3-pointers) when she suffered a deep thigh bruise in the middle of the second quarter, according to Cougars coach Dan Travers.

“She will have it looked at (today) — right now she is questionable for Thursday,” Travers said. “She was playing a real nice game. But the girls battled back from the adversity.”

The Cougars were down by 7 points in the final quarter before Rawleigh's bucket's gave them the lead.

“Alyssa really stepped up and helped us,” Travers said. “She put us in a position to win the game at the end. She has worked so hard to get where she is at.”

Senior Kelly Lomas added 9 points or the Cougars while Jenna Heneghan added 6.

Huntley made 9 3-pointers while the Cougars had 8.

“Give them credit” Travers said. “They hit a lot of 3s. We played aggressively and they hit some clutch 3-pointers. We've just got to cut down on our mistakes for 32 minutes.

“We must learn from this. We can not be satisfied. If we had made more free throws, we would have had an opportunity to win.”

Palatine 49, Wheeling 31: Sophomores McKenzie Wiedemann (18 points) and Nia Pappas (16 points) led the offense for Palatine in the second round game of the Blue Devil Classic at Warren High School.

The Pirates, who also received 7 rebounds from senior Lauren Radtke, improved to 5-7 overall and 2-0 in the tourney.