Rolling Meadows shoots down Cary-Grove
Rolling Meadows coach Todd Hatfield loved the mentality he saw from his players this week.
“They were rooting for Cary-Grove to win its quarterfinal game because they wanted a chance to avenge a loss to them (42-30) earlier this season,” Hatfield said. “A coach can’t ask anything more than that.”
In Wednesday’s semifinal of the Lady Mustangs Classic at Mundelein High School, Hatfield asked for a better shooting and defensive effort against the Trojans from the 42-30 loss on Nov. 23 at Lake Zurich High School in the Turkey Thriller.
He got it.
Sophomore Jackie Kemph (15 points, 5 assists), Jenny Vliet (13 points, 7 rebounds) and Alexis Glasgow (10 points) all scored in double digits and Anne Marie Lynch (5 assists) chipped in 8 in a 49-44 triumph that was decided in the final minute.
Rolling Meadows (11-3) will face Libertyville in today’s 8 p.m. championship game. Cary-Grove (8-4) and Zion-Benton will meet for third place at 6:30 p.m.
The Mustangs pulled ahead 46-38 with under four minutes when Lynch scored a layup off a nice assist from Kemph.
But as was the case all night, Cary-Grove bounced right back.
The Trojans got to within 46-44 on a 17-footer by junior Joslyn Nicholson with 1:01 left.
After a Meadows timeout, Kemph (5 assists) was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws with 27.3 seconds left.
Glasgow came up with a big rebound with less than 15 seconds left. Meadows called a timeout and then Kemph was fouled again.
This time, she made 2 of 2 with 11.3 seconds left to settle the verdict.
“Jackie came through in the clutch,” Hatfield said. “Those were huge free throws for us.”
Senior Josie Suchecki came off the bench to grab 6 rebounds for Meadows.
Junior Olivia Jakubicek (11 rebounds) led the Trojans with 15 points followed by Nicholson (13 points, 4 rebounds) and freshman Katie Barker (10 points). Senior Paige Lincicum grabbed 6 rebounds and handed out 7 assists.
“They hit some big shots when they needed them,” said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert, whose team shot 25 percent from the floor (15-of-58) and 18 percent (4-of-22) from 3-point range. “We had our opportunities. We were down 11 (at 29-18 when Vliet made 2 free throws with 2:52 left in the first half) but our girls never gave up.”
The Trojans outrebounded Meadows 33-19.
“We knew they were not going to go 4-for-26 from 3-point range this time,” Saffert added. “That being said, we still did a lot of good things and had our chances.”
The Mustangs made 8 of 16 3-pointers, led by Vliet (3), Glasgow (2), Kemph (2) and Amanda Gunn (1).
“We played much better defense this time and we shot better (22 percent the first time as opposed to 39 percent on Wednesday),” Kemph said.
“We were really motivated to come back stronger this time,” Vliet added. “We stayed composed.”
The Mustangs played their zone for the first time against Cary-Grove in November.
“We’ve really modified it since then,” Vliet said. “Cary-Grove has some really strong post players and we had to change how our rotation would be.”
With junior center Morgan Keller sidelined for the season with a leg injury, Vliet has moved into a forward position.
“She’s out of position,” Hatfield said. “Jenny hasn’t played a lot with her back to the basket. But the nice things is that when other posts are guarding her, we’ll move her outside (like Wednesday) and she’ll take the other team by surprise.”
Hatfield said the Trojans took advantage of a lot gaps in the Mustangs’ zone the first time.
“And they (Cary-Grove) have a lot of phenomenal shooters,” Hatfield said.”So that will keep them in any game. And their 2-1-2 defense kept us on our heels.”
The Mustangs have won a school-record nine in a row since the loss to Cary-Grove.
“Obviously we’ll have our hands full (against Libertyville) to make it 10 in a row” Hatfield said.
“Winning this time (against Cary-Grove) was more because of our mentality,” Lynch said. “We were motivated. Coach always tells us that we want to keep moving to the right in the brackets.
“And we did.”