Scoring drought stalls St. Francis

St. Francis found itself fighting an uphill battle all season. Inexperience, and a lack of size, are two big reasons why.

Wednesday was no different.

Tenth-seeded St. Francis played No. 6 Nazareth even for much of the game, but a nearly 11-minute stretch without a basket was too much to overcome in a 42-32 loss at the Class 3A Nazareth regional in LaGrange Park.

“We’ve had a lot of tough losses where we played hard for a while, and then we’d have a rough streak,” St. Francis junior Aly Germanos said. “We get down, and we can’t get back up. But we always hustle.”

St. Francis (3-21) trailed just 12-10 early in the second quarter after a three-point play by Germanos, who scored a team-high 15 points. Over the next 10:23, though, the Spartans managed just a free throw by Lexi Riccolo.

Nazareth’s 13-1 run capped by a Patricia Masterson 3-pointer, one of six hit by the Roadrunners (11-15), put St. Francis in a tough spot down 25-11 midway through the third quarter.

“We just couldn’t get a shot to fall,” Spartans coach Mike Phillips said. “We had a lot of good looks from people that can make shots, but tonight they wouldn’t go down.”

To their credit, the Spartans didn’t quit.

A Germanos runner followed by a Claire O’Donnell 3 whittled the margin to 37-29 with three minutes left in the game, but a series of empty possessions prevented the Spartans from drawing any closer.

“That’s something we talked about in the locker room, that we’ve had a lot of ups and downs and a lot of tough games,” Phillips said, “but the girls never quit. That’s one of the trademarks of this team.”

Katelyn Cahill scored 15 points and Molly Alberts 11 for Nazareth, which advances to play Glenbard South Friday.

Ellen Hammes, St. Francis’ only senior, scored 6 points and 5-foot-7 junior Riccolo pulled down 13 rebounds. Size is an issue that the Spartans will continue to have to deal with going forward, as the current varsity roster only has one player taller than 5-9.

“We’ll need to pick up our defensive intensity,” Phillips said, looking ahead to next year. “We’re going to be undersized so we’ll have to be able to offset that. Tonight we were farely even size-wise (with Nazareth), but in a lot of our games that hasn’t been the case.”