Durr, Conant dial up a victory

Conant’s girls basketball team did not take well to its loss two days earlier to Prospect in the third round of the York Thanksgiving tournament.

So the Cougars went out Friday looking for redemption.

They found it against Wheaton North in Friday’s fourth round with a 60-38 win, their first of the season.

The Cougars were dialed in from the outside, connecting on eight 3-pointers, seven in the first half when they cruised to a 41-30 lead at the break.

“The kids had a purpose,” said Cougars coach Dan Travers, whose 1-3 quad wraps up play in the six-team round-robin against St. Charles North at 11 a.m. today.

“As a collective group they were upset and embarrassed with the effort against Prospect (a 63-34 loss). We talked about showing up to play. I give the whole team credit because everyone knew they could play better.”

Dee Dee Durr played one of her best games, scoring a career-high 22 points with three 3-pointers.

“Dee Dee took advantage of her opportunities,” Travers said of his 5-foot-10 junior forward. “Our 3-pointers were good shots. I don’t mind the open 3s. In today’s basketball world, that’s a good shot.”

Lexi Zades zeroed in from 3-point range, too. The junior guard had 3 in the first half, and finished with 11 points.

Her second one gave Conant a 21-16 lead and moments later senior Sarah Mazurek hit a baseline jumper to make it 23-18.

“I thought Sarah did a great job as a leader by example,” Travers said. “She did a great job defending their shooters. And Nireet (Dhillon, sophomore guard who scored 4 points) handled the offense so well. She’s so unselfish.”

Zades’ third 3-pointer put the Cougars in front 26-22 with 7:10 left in the second quarter.

“Lexi responded well,” Travers said. “She shot the ball well, and she is getting better with her all-around game.”

Haley Anderson (7 points) and Alissa Wachal (4 points) also made contributions at both ends.

“Alissa and Haley gave us great rebounding games and Morgan Ritzier did a good job of the bench playing against their shooters. She gave us some real quality minutes in the first half.”

Travers was particularly pleased with the Cougars’ offensive execution.

“They came out in a 1-3-1 and our goal was to get them to go man-to-man,” he said. “We hit some great shots against their zone and we were able to get them to go to man.

“Then they started switching screens and we did a better job against that than we did against Prospect.”

Cougars all-area junior forward Katie Lomas did not play. Travers said she is nursing an injury to her knee cap, opposite of the knee on which she had ACL surgery in June.

“It didn’t matter what team we were playing (Friday),” Travers said. “This game was about us competing as a team.”