W. Chicago claims tourney crown
It was somehow appropriate that Friday night's championship game of the Oswego East Winter Classic, the 32nd and final contest of four days of basketball, went down to the wire.
West Chicago (10-4) fought off South Elgin (11-5) until the clock read 00:00 and the Wildcats were 60-59 victors.
"This feels awesome. We've worked hard all season and all tournament and glad we pulled out the win," said West Chicago senior and tournament MVP Claire Monroe, who led her team with 19 points.
Laura Panicali hit for 2 to make it 56-47 Wildcats with 3:02 left in the contest and it looked like West Chicago was on its way.
Not quite.
The Storm then proceeded to go on a 6-0 run. All-tournament pick Becca Smith, who led all scorers with 20 points, forced her way through traffic twice for scores during that run to put South Elgin to within 56-53.
With less than a minute remaining, Savanah Uveges made good on a putback to make it a one-point game. But with less than 30 seconds to play, South Elgin was forced to foul and the Wildcats made 4 of 6 free throws down the stretch to keep grips on the victory. And they needed every point as the Storm's Alexa Matison hit net from underneath the basket with 3.8 seconds left to wrap up the evening.
"We knew this was going to be a tough game. We wanted to maintain the lead and not go back and forth," Monroe said.
Panicali followed Monroe on the scoresheet with 13 points. Allie Tapanes had 9 and Liz Reyes came off the bench to score 8 points in the fourth quarter, including two 3-point baskets which were critical to the Wildcats' taking and keeping control of the game.
"I'm really proud of my girls. Teams tend to key on Claire. But Laura, Allie and Liz stepped up," West Chicago coach Kim Wallner said. "Tonight we didn't have a bad breakdown in the game."
Following Smith for South Elgin were Alexa Matison and Uveges each with 9 points.
"We have a six-point lead in the third quarter and we got them out of our zone. I thought this is where we want to be. But we didn't execute down the stretch," Storm coach Tim Prendergast said.
Despite the loss he said the experience of Thursday night will benefit his team.
"It was a good game, a pressure situation and it help us as we go into the whole second half of the season," he said.
In the third-place game, Aurora Central Catholic defeated Metea Valley 64-61. The Mustangs' Bria Walker was named to the all-tournament squad.