Libertyville stays cool, tops Zion-Benton for crown
The undefeated Libertyville girls basketball team wanted to go into the Christmas weekend on a high note as the Wildcats faced Zion-Benton Thursday night in the championship game of the Mundelein Holiday Classic Tournament.
And Libertyville (15-0) will definitely have a Merry Christmas as the Wildcats pulled away from the pesky Zee-Bees in the fourth quarter to remain perfect on the season with a 41-29 victory.
The contest was pretty close the whole way with the Wildcats leading 11-8 after one quarter, 20-17 at halftime, and 28-23 after three quarters. Libertyville's biggest lead before the fourth quarter was 28-20 late in the third.
A technical foul on Zion-Benton coach Tanya Johnson with 7:05 to play resulted in 2 free throws by Libertyville senior Savannah Trees (team-high 17 points) before junior teammate Alex Haley added a free throw to tie the Wildcats' biggest lead at 31-23 with 5:39 remaining in the contest.
After beating the Zee-Bees 43-39 on Dec. 8, Libertyville kept its poise and confidence down the stretch while Zion-Benton seemed to lose its composure and struggled to cut into the lead.
An inside basket by Zion's Octavia Crump (team-high 17 points) made the score 31-25 with 5:07 left, but that was as close as the Zee-Bees got. Three free throws by Libertyville's Kaca Savatic (9 points, 14 rebounds) boosted the lead to 34-25 with 2:46 to go.
Then with 2:18 to play, Zion-Benton's Juanita Robinson was assessed a technical foul for throwing the ball at a Libertyville player after Robinson had been fouled. That resulted in Robinson's fifth foul of the game and ultimately a 36-27 Cats lead with 2:18 left.
"We know sometimes they get frustrated so we just have to stay calm and play our game," said Trees.
"There is a bunch of pressure on us (being undefeated), but I like it because we can just prove to people how good we are."
Poor free throw shooting was another thorn in Zion-Benton's side as the Zee-Bees hit only 7 of 18 attempts (39 percent) to 12-for-19 (63 percent) for the Wildcats. Libertyville did have 14 turnovers in the game to 12 for Zion.
"I thought in the end of the game our leadership and experience showed, and they stepped up when we needed them," said Libertyville coach Kathie Swanson. "We got the ball in Savannah's hands in the end, and she hit the free throws."
After scoring 17 points in the semfinals Wednesday against Cary-Grove, Robinson was held to 3 points. Haley added 5 points while teammate Olivia Wilcox chipped in 4 points.
Johnson's technical foul was called for complaining about no traveling calls, but overall the Zion players and bench had the referees' attention throughout the entire second half.
"I just told our girls to focus on the task at hand and ignore the noise," said Swanson. "We don't worry about the number of wins we have, we just focus on every game."
Thursday marked the second straight year that Libertyville captured the championship of the Mundelein tournament.