Murray, Elk Grove dump Wheeling

Elk Grove's girls basketball turned up the volume on Tuesday.

And it led the Grenadiers to 49-34 win over visiting Wheeling in their penultimate Mid-Suburban East contest.

"Recently we've been playing quiet," said Megan Murray, who was hardly quiet on offense with a game-high 16 points, including a nifty around-the-back dribble that got her free to the basket for a fastbreak layup. "Now we are communicating more and it's been good. We are playing together."

The Grens improved to 11-13 and 4-5 in the East, giving them one more win than a year ago in the conference.

"It was definitely a goal to do better in conference," said EG forward Rachel Kandefer, who was credited with a stellar defensive effort by Grens' coach Jen Buxton. "We knew we had a lot of talent and lot of people who can run the floor. Our intensity is better and it even shows in practice when we push each other even harder."

The Grens pushed their lead to 23-16 at half after trailing 9-8 following a steal and layup by Naomi Metellus. Back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomore Isabella Tierney (12 points) gave EG a 16-12 lead. Alyssa Traush (8 points) converted a putback and Murray completed a 3-point play with 1:13 left in the half for the 7-point lead.

"Megan had some good finishes," Buxton said. "She had some good ballhandling. We were able to put some pressure on their guards and that helped because we've wanted to push the ball in transition. That hasn't always been consistent for us so we wanted to get it back to being successful."

The lead grew to 33-20 late in third period, thanks to an alert reverse layup by Kaitlyn Ingebrigsten (7 points) and her free throw 30 seconds later.

"She (Ingebrigsten) is a great player," Buxton said. "She distributes the ball well. I was proud of her for looking to score because sometimes she passes up her own shots for a pass."

Senior Tommy Helms led Wheeling (10-16, 1-8) with 14 points.

"I thought Tommy really stepped up and did a great job of being a leader on the floor," said Wildcats coach Matt Weber. "She had the hot hand on offense and we needed to do a better job finding that hot hand. Credit Elk Grove. I thought they completely outworked us at both ends of the court. I didn't like how we played. We lacked energy and we just have to continue to learn from our mistakes if we want our season to continue into the regional."

Buxton liked the Grens' patience.

"Their 2-3 zone is really active and with the height of (Nosa) Igiehon (10 points) it's tough," said Buxton, who also got 5 points from guard Olivia Masnica. "But I thought we shared the ball and were patient looking for opportunities to cut to the basket or taking shots. So it definitely felt like we were a lot more fluid than we were playing last week."