Spear's dagger helps LZ edge Mundelein
Cathryne Spear scored off an assist from Dori Darras with 3.6 seconds left, lifting Lake Zurich's girls basketball team to a 47-46 win over visiting Mundelein in a North Suburban Lake Division thriller Tuesday night.
The win allowed Lake Zurich (9-11, 3-4) to avenge a 57-43 loss on Nov. 30.
Karlissa Skarb led the Bears with a game-high 16 points. Spear and Katherine Anderson finished with 9 and 8 points, respectively.
Mundelein (11-11, 2-5) was led by Taylor Davis' 14 points. Her twin sister, Amanda, had 9 points.
Loyola 40, Carmel 39: Despite Jackie Meier's two 3-pointers and 8 fourth-quarter points, the Corsairs saw their record fall to 9-8.
Zion-Benton 49, Warren 33: Octavia Crump and Juanita Robinson scored 14 and 12 points, respectively, for the host Zee-Bees in the North Suburban Lake Division game.
Zion-Benton improved to 15-3 and 6-2 in the NSC Lake.
Lexi Leneau sank two 3-pointers and scored 12 points for Warren (7-10, 1-5).
Conant 50, Addison Trail 29: Conant's seniors knew all about Addison Trail.
The teams play each other in their summer league, and they meet each year during the high school season.
"It's kind of a rivalry game," Conant forward Lindsay Fillingim said.
It was a one-sided rivalry Tuesday night in Addison, particularly in the second half after the Cougars came away with a 50-29 nonconference victory.
The first half was nearly even, with Conant leading just 19-18 at the break.
"We didn't come out as strong as we wanted to, but we did the things that we talked about: rebounding, playing hard on defense and making our free throws," Conant guard Hailey Andress said. "So we knew we had to keep it up in the second half."
They did, and then some. The Cougars opened the third quarter with an Alyssa Rawleigh 2-point basket, a Rawleigh 3-pointer and a Kelly Lomas 2-pointer before Addison Trail could tally a free throw.
A Rawleigh 3-pointer with 2:22 left in the third gave the Cougars (12-6) a 31-21 lead, their first in double digits, and the margin was 8 going into the fourth.
Then the Cougars really tuned up their pressure defense, forward Jenna Heneghan said.
Conant scored the next 17 points before MeShaundra Donald's basket broke the Blazers' drought with 2:20 to play. By that time Conant had forced 6 Blazers turnovers in the period, including 4 steals.
"The first half wasn't that good either," Blazers coach Rob Schader said. "We just got lucky that we were even close at that point. We made no effort to run an offense, 23 turnovers killed us, and we kind of gave up in the fourth quarter."
Lomas led both teams with 15 points, and Rawleigh had 13 points and 4 steals.
Senior guard Jazmin Little led the Blazers (10-9) with 12 points and 6 rebounds.
"We weren't that aggressive offensively whatsoever," Schader said. "We didn't attack the basket. We didn't attempt to run anything offensively."
Orrin Schwarz
Maine South 58, Prospect 36: Maine South improved to 16-5 as juniors Michelle Maher and Nina Duric each scored 14 points against the host Knights (9-9) in the nonconference game.
Bartlett 67, East Aurora 49: Jacki Gulczynski led a balanced Bartlett scoring attack Tuesday night as the Hawks downed East Aurora 67-49 in an Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division game in Bartlett.
With the win No. 3 Bartlett (18-1, 5-0) eclipsed last year's win total.
Haley Videckis added 11 points for the Hawks, who host Neuqua Valley Saturday in a 12:30 p.m. game that is Bartlett's annual Kay Yow cancer research fundraiser.
Nicole Beck and Janessa Baker each added 9 points to Bartlett's win, and Kristin Conniff had 7.
Luther North 42, Westminster Christian 24: McKaila Hays led Westminster (7-6, 1-2) with 9 points in this Northeast Athletic Conference loss.
Willows 43, Elgin Academy 20: Caitlin Ward had 8 points for the Hilltoppers (2-15, 1-4) in this Independent School League setback.
Walther Lutheran 54, St. Edward 43: Paige Gannon had 20 points to lead the Green Wave (12-6, 4-2), who suffered their second straight loss in this Suburban Christian Blue game. St. Edward fell behind 13-2 after one quarter and could never recover.