Cary-Grove gaining confidence, grabs fourth consecutive victory
A young Cary-Grove team may have lacked confidence at times last season, but the Trojans certainly don’t have that problem anymore.
Led by their defense, the Trojans earned their fourth straight victory in Fox Valley Conference play on Wednesday, holding Prairie Ridge to single digits in all four quarters for a hard-fought 39-28 win.
Cary-Grove coach Tony Moretti has seen his team mature a lot this season after a 2-3 start in conference.
“One of the big things we talked about at halftime was staying confident,” Moretti said. “There were times last year where we’d get down and we wouldn’t come out with any confidence. We needed to change that.
“We talked about not letting [Prairie Ridge] go on a run in the second half. I told the girls to never get down on themselves. Just keep playing ball, and that’s what they did.”
Cary-Grove (12-8, 6-3) and Prairie Ridge (11-8, 4-4) were tied at 16 at halftime, but it was all Trojans after that.
Cary-Grove started the second half on a 9-1 run to pull away from Prairie Ridge, which struggled to handle the Trojans’ pressure defense.
Junior forward Ellie Mjaanes and senior guard Emily Larry each made two free throws, followed by a 3-pointer from Sam Skerl. Malaina Kurth then had a steal and layup to go up 25-17 about halfway through the third quarter.
Cary-Grove outscored Prairie Ridge 33-20 over the final three quarters and forced the Wolves into 18 turnovers.
The Trojans took a 6-point loss in their final FVC game of last season against Prairie Ridge, a game they thought got away from them.
Wednesday’s win was a wonderful way to end the first half.
“Last year, our last conference game was here and we lost a really tough game,” said Larry, who was awarded the game ball after a perfect 10-of-10 shooting performance from the free-throw line. “We just really wanted revenge on them. It felt so good to win tonight.”
Larry finished with a team-high 12 points and 6 rebounds, and Mjaanes tossed in 9 points and 9 rebounds. Sophomore guard Kennedy Manning chipped in 9 points and 5 steals, and Skerl had 6 points on two 3s.
Larry said the Trojans work tirelessly in practice on defense, which paid off Wednesday.
“I feel like denying the ball and being aggressive on defense really helped us get going in the second half,” Larry said. “In practice that’s all we do is work on aggressive defense and denying the ball. It really puts a lot of pressure on the other team.”
Moretti felt the Trojans’ speed was a big factor.
“We put a lot of pressure on the ball,” Moretti said. “Both teams missed some gimmes, but we were able to speed up the tempo and turn them over a bit. The goal was to get them to turn it over and I thought we did an effective job of that tonight.”
Manning, who played on varsity last year as a freshman, has been one of the catalysts for the Trojans on both ends of the floor.
“Kennedy is a wild card for us,” Moretti said. “She can really stretch a defense and make them work, and I think she did a good job of that tonight.”
Prairie Ridge was led by Addie Meyer with 12 points and 9 rebounds. Zoe Nanos added 6 points and 7 rebounds, and Maia Cassin came off the bench and scored 5 points, hitting a 3-pointer. No one else on Prairie Ridge had more than 3 points.
Prairie Ridge coach Tim Taege said his team is still looking for answers on offense.
“They took us out of being able to get into our floor and being able to get into our action,” Taege said. “Ultimately, we just didn’t execute. We kind of froze and left the girl with the ball on the island and we didn’t play great team basketball on the offensive end.”
Manning said this year’s team has been able to handle adversity a lot better.
That’s something the Trojans will look to continue in the second half.
“Last year, whenever we lost, it would kind of bring our team down,” Manning said. “But if we take a loss, we’ll just get right back up.”