Stevenson contains Grayslake Central
Both Stevenson and host Grayslake Central knew what they had to do to win Tuesday night.
Stop the opponent’s leading scorer.
Stevenson succeeded, as the Patriots defeated the Rams 42-31 in a nonconference girls basketball game.
Stevenson (16-5) held Rams leading scorer Skyler Jessop to 4 foul shots, while the Rams limited Patriots top scorer Katie Batman to 5 points in the first half. She came back to lead the Patriots with 12 points.
Grayslake Central (16-4) had its five-game winning streak snapped.
“I didn’t think we shot very well in the first half,” Stevenson’s coach Tom Dineen. “But I thought our defense was excellent the entire game to overcome the poor shooting. I also felt that this was our most patient game offensively in that we had very few turnovers.”
Both teams started out cold as Stevenson missed its first 7 shots, while Grayslake Central was held to only two 3-point shots and two field goals to lead 10-9 at end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Stevenson held the Rams to only 3 field goals to take a 18-16 halftime lead.
After Jessop sank all four of her foul shots to give the Rams a 20-18 lead in the beginning of the quarter, Stevenson’s Alex Elzinga (6 points) and Julia Dabrowski (3 points, 8 rebounds) sank consecutive layups to start an 11-0 run that put the Patriots up 29-20.
They cruised the rest of the way.
“We just went into a little bit of a funk in the middle of the third quarter,” Rams coach Steve Ikenn said. “I”m not sure what happened. They were playing aggressively, but they were doing that the whole game. I just felt we got a little passive with our passes and we gave up some key rebounds and it took the air out of our sails for a few minutes.”
Batman missed her first six shots. Despite being double- and triple-teamed, she kept her composure.
“I was off the first half,” said Batman. “I just continued to shoot and started to score, plus Taylor (Buford) made some nice shots in the third quarter.
“Keeping my composure is something I have been working on all season,” Batman added. “It paid off well tonight.”
Kari Moffat scored 9 points and Olivia Whalen chipped in 7 for Stevenson.
Claire Brennan led the Rams with 12 points.
“In the second half, (Stevenson) started with the six-point lead and we let it get to our team,” Brennan said. “But we need to keep our heads up because anybody can come back from down only 6 points. We had to come out as a team and we just didn’t do that.”