St. Charles East downs West Aurora

A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from half-court by junior guard Marissa Urso helped pull St. Charles East within 20-18 of West Aurora at halftime of Friday night's girls basketball contest in St. Charles.

The desperation shot served as a sparkplug for the Saints (1-5), who outscored the Blackhawks 21-7 in the third quarter on the way to their 51-39 Upstate Eight Conference crossover victory.

"That was mind blowing," said Urso (11 points) of the Saints' lone 3-point basket of the first half after misfiring on their first 10 attempts. "I really didn't think it would go in."

"That was huge," said Saints' coach Lori Drumtra. "It was funny because how often do those go in?"

Whatever the case, Urso's 3-pointer seemed to help make the basket a bit bigger for the Saints in the third quarter.

Kelly Rinker drained a 3-pointer from the wing to give the Saints a 23-20 lead before back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomore Sara Rosenfeldt and Rose Bundy capped a 10-2 run that extended the margin to 37-25.

Rosenfeldt, who enjoyed game highs of 16 points and 16 rebounds, added 3 third-quarter baskets from close range as part of the Saints' second-half strategy.

"I thought we were taking too many 3s," said Drumtra. "I thought we could do a better job of pounding it inside."

Hannah Vitkus added 9 points and 8 rebounds for the Saints.

"I'm not going to lie, we needed a win but we needed to play well," said Drumtra.

Kiyanna Rodger led the Blackhawks (4-3) with 9 points.