Carmel's stingy effort leaves St. Viator stranded

Jason Raymond's homer-happy Carmel Catholic softball teams could score in bunches.

Take last spring, when the Corsairs outslugged St. Viator 25-12 in a Class 3A regional final.

Wednesday night, in his return to his old school as St. Viator's first-year girls basketball coach, he watched his team score a grand total of ... 26 points.

Surprisingly, the not-so-prolific total was almost enough to win.

Jenn Giesey, Raymond's all-area shortstop last spring, put up a close-in shot that bounced on the rim before falling through the hoop with 1:48 left in the fourth quarter, and no team scored again after that, as Carmel eked out a 27-26 win in East Suburban Catholic Conference action.

"I got to give a lot of credit to Carmel and their defense," Raymond said. "They shut us down. We're a pretty prolific scoring team at times, and we usually go on a big run in every game. That run never came."

Instead, St. Viator (10-11, 1-3) shot just 10 of 50 from the floor against Carmel's man-to-man defense.

"We played good defense," Corsairs forward Daija Pruitt said. "We worked well together."

It was Raymond's first trip back to Carmel as an opposing coach since he took the St. Viator job last summer. His stint at Carmel also included coaching boys basketball as an assistant.

"I was here so long that it felt like I never left," Raymond said. "Plus, I was back here scouting last week too. It would have been nice to come back and get a 'W',' though."

While Pruitt shot just 1 of 9 from the foul line, twice missing the front end of a one-and-one in the final 32 seconds, Carmel (8-11, 3-1) would not have won without her contributions. The 5-foot-9 junior posted team highs of 7 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks and 3 steals.

"She's either 'on' and she's 10 for 10 for the game, or she's 'off,' " Carmel coach Kelly Perz said. "Tonight was one of those nights when she was 'off.' But she played a great game, besides (the free-throw shooting)."

"When I was shooting the free throws, I felt more pressured," Pruitt said. "But I knew that our team playing together would keep us in the game."

That proved true for Carmel, which led 13-10 at halftime but trailed 22-21 entering the fourth after St. Viator finally started knocking down shots. Maggie Leazer sank a 3-pointer and hit another long jumper, while Myia Clark also drained a 3-pointer. Michaela Mueller's baseline jumper gave the Lions their 1-point lead entering the final quarter.

Olivia Solimene's drive had St. Viator up 26-24 midway through the fourth, but the Lions didn't score again. Pruitt sank a free throw, before Giesey (4 points) muscled in the go-ahead basket after good work under the boards by Anna Hoffman.

Leazer and Solimene each scored 7 points for St. Viator, while Clark was held to 5 points.

"(Clark) is good," Perz said. "She's smart. She's athletic. I thought we frustrated her and really stuck to our game plan as far as trying to limit her and take her out of her game."

Dani DeLozier, who also played softball for Raymond, sank a 3-pointer and added 6 points for Carmel, which outscored St. Viator 6-4 in the fourth.

"We closed out well (defensively)," said Perz, whose Corsairs host Loyola on Thursday night. "That's one of our goals on defense - no uncontested shots."