Lake Zurich handles Lakes
Putback bucket.
Putback bucket.
Putback bucket.
Lake Zurich senior forward Christina Sandstedt did all of the above — at the start of the second quarter, in a 1:22 span — Wednesday night in a girls basketball Thanksgiving Turkey Thriller Tournament opener at Fremd.
The 6-point stretch highlighted a 19-2 run in LZ’s 65-41 defeat of Lakes.
“My coach (Chris Bennett), after the first quarter, told us to look for the offensive rebounds,” Sandstedt said.
“That’s all I did.”
Her classmate, Bears forward Dori Darras, popped for a rebound basket shortly after Sandstedt’s flurry of putbacks, puffing LZ’s lead to 30-11 at 5:14 of the second quarter.
LZ (2-0) was in full runaway-freight-train mode in Palatine.
But Lakes forward Ashlee Cunningham — the Eagles’ lone senior — scored 5 of her team’s 9 points in the frame to slow matters a bit.
LZ led 33-18 at the break.
“We didn’t rebound well; we didn’t box out,” said Lakes coach Pete Schneider. “And whenever there was a struggle for a loose ball, Lake Zurich came up with it.
“We played hard, and we’re young. We’ll be OK. Our kids have good attitudes.”
LZ, according to Sandstedt, doesn’t have a superstar.
“I love that about our team,” she said. “So many of our players contribute, in so many different ways. And we’re all about team defense. Defense … it’s key. You win when you play it well.”
LZ’s offense struck for 18 unanswered points at the start of the third quarter. Five Bears, led by senior guard Katherine Anderson’s 5 points, scored at least 2 points in the relentless sequence.
The others: Maisie Cox (4 points), Cathryne Spear (4), Darras (3), Sandstedt (2).
“Lake Zurich came out ready to play,” said Cunningham, who scored a team-high 10 points and came up with 3 of her 4 steals in the second quarter. “It was hard trying to stop their fastbreaks.”
LZ, Bennett noted, had shed its nervousness on Monday, when it downed Deerfield 52-36, behind Darras’ 15 points, in its season opener.
Wednesday’s game was Lakes’ season opener.
“That was a factor tonight … that this was our second game of the season,” said Bennett. “We did a nice job there in the third quarter, taking control like we did.
“Earlier,” he added, “we talked about offensive rebounds, about getting in position for them, about getting them. We told them, ‘The weak-side rebounds should be there for you.’ ”
The Bears’ primary strength Wednesday was their scoring balance. Senior reserve guard Stephanie Schmid (14 ppg, after two games) paced all scorers with 14 points, followed by Cox (12), Sandstedt (10), Anderson (9), Spear (8) and Darras (8).
Bears sophomore reserve forward Mallory Parsons grabbed a game-high 8 rebounds; Darras collected all 4 of her steals in the third quarter.
Guard Sam Ney, Lakes’ sharpshooting sophomore sub, netted all 7 of her points, including a pair of treys, in the final frame. Eagles junior forward Terese McMahon finished with 6 point and 4 rebounds.