Libertyville picks up key win over Stevenson
Over the last week, Libertyville’s girls basketball team had suffered through a pair of of gut-wrenching North Suburban Lake division losses to Zion-Benton and Lake Zurich.
The Wildcats had a chance to turn things around Friday night against rival Stevenson. A victory would get the Cats back on track in a hurry and help them rejoin the North Suburban Lake title race.
Mission accomplished.
With the help of a pregame chat, Libertyville started quickly and outdistanced Stevenson 50-42 in Lincolnshire.
Kerry Risley had a career-best 19 points and 7 rebounds, and Alex Haley and Haley Hoeksel each added 9 points for the Wildcats.
“We did listen to music, and our coach, Kathie Swanson, gave us a good talk beforehand, with team goals and individual goals,” Risley said. “We had a clear mindset of what we wanted to do before the game started.”
Libertyville (7-3), 1-2) scored the first 7 points before Stevenson (6-3,1-1) scored its first bucket midway through the first quarter.
Risley contributed 6 points and the Wildcats held a 13-3 lead by the end of the quarter.
“We had to play the way we know, and play with a lot more intensity than we normally do,” Risley said. “It’s an opportunity for a number of seniors and underclassmen to step up. We are all working at it and doing a good job.”
The Patriots climbed back into the game with an 8-1 run early in the second quarter. Kari Moffat had a layup as part of her team-high 14 points to the Libertyville lead to 14-11 with 5:31 left.
“I thought I could take the ball to the basket or look for the open player,” Moffat said. “Part of the problem our shots weren’t falling. If they did fall, it would’ve been a closer game.”
The Wildcats withstood the charge and rebounded with an 8-1 run of their own to close the half leading 22-12.
“We got off to the quick start,” said Swanson, “but we got away from what we wanted to do a bit, which played into (Stevenson’s) hands. We have to play within our roles with the team.
“Give Stevenson credit, because they kept coming back at us. It was a good thing to get the win in this atmosphere.”
Libertyvllle maintained its double-digit lead in the third quarter, but Stevenson got a couple of treys from Olivia Whalen and a short jumper from Taylor Buford (6 points), which cut the lead to 35-29 heading into the fourth quarter.
“Congrats to Libertyville, and I thought they played pretty hard out there,” Stevenson coach Tom Dineen said. “My kids played hard. I didn’t have them prepared from the start. We made a run and then we turned the ball over. We would shoot ourselves in the foot. That’s pretty indicative of what we’ve been doing. We can’t afford to do that.
“Free throw shooting (12-for-19) has been our Achilles’ heel and this game was no exception. I felt like we rushed a lot of our shots.”