Crystal Lake South nips Burlington Central
Kelly Ryan picked the most opportune time to score her only points of the game.
Crashing the offensive glass hard, Ryan's putback as time expired gave Crystal Lake South an exhilarating come-from-behind 49-47 win over Burlington Central in the third place bracket of the Northern Illinois Holiday Classic girls basketball tournament held at Woodstock North High School Wednesday night. The Gators trailed the entire game until Ryan's buzzer-beater.
"I wanted to get good position to rebound and get a shot off," said Ryan, a junior guard. "There was a lot of yelling and pushing underneath the basket but my instincts took over and I was able to get a shot off right at the buzzer. I thought I had enough time. This was a great win. We never gave up."
South coach Kyle McCaughn praised Ryan's efforts.
"We tell our kids to always get in position to rebound," said the South coach. "Kelly fought her way into position and made the big shot. This was a great win for us. We have lost 5 games by 8 points or less. The kids never gave up."
South (5-10) will play Woodstock at 1:30 p.m. today while Central (5-8) takes on Rockford Jefferson at noon. Woodstock edged Jefferson 58-55 Wednesday.
The Rockets, who led 20-8 after one quarter, held a comfortable 38-24 advantage after three quarters. But the Gators refused to quit. Outscoring the Rockets 25-9 in the fourth quarter, South outscored the Rockets 8-2 in the final minute and 30 seconds to pull off the win.
Lauren Del Vecchio connected on a basket and a pair of free throws and Kayla Peterson had a putback to tie the game which set up Ryan's heroics.
Sara Mickow led the Gators with 20 points and 14 rebounds while Rachel Rasmussen added 11 points with two 3-pointers.
"We didn't play good defense the first quarter, but we played very well the last three quarters," said McCaughn. "We didn't
change anything on the defensive end. We just played better."
Jessica Laird paced Central with 20 points, 12 in the first quarter and 17 in the first half while Alison Colby scored 10.
"We started out so strong and were really clicking in the first quarter," said Burlington Central coach Jenna Real. "Then Crystal Lake really packed in their defense and made some changes and we really struggled. This is a very frustrating loss."