Girls basketball: Maine South’s strong finish overwhelms Grayslake Central

A lot of times in a season opener, it might take a team a while to get going.

That seemed to be the case for Maine South's girls basketball team in its first game of the Tom Dineen Classic on Thursday night at Buffalo Grove High School.

Nursing a 24-23 lead with 5:27 left in the third quarter, coach Jeff Hamann's Hawks scored six unanswered points and proceeded to outscore defending Northern Lake County Conference champion Grayslake Central 34-5 in the final 13 minutes for a 58-28 triumph.

"Our coach called a timeout (with five minutes in the third quarter) and we talked about what wasn't working on defense," said junior guard Hayden Fahy, who scored a game-high 18 points, including four 3-pointers. "We have three injured players and they also helped in the timeout. We all agreed collectively on what we had to do and we did it."

Junior Phoebe O'Shea (11 points, two 3-pointers, all in the second half) came off the bench and hit 2 free throws to make it 26-23. Two more free throws for Maine South made it 28-23 before Ally Seurynck scored on a fast-break layup for a 30-23 lead with 1:09 left in the period.

Rams 6-foot-1 junior Peyton Hoffman, already receiving Division 1 offers, hit a 3-pointer to make it 30-26 but Maine South closed out the quarter on an 8-0 run, getting 3-pointers from O'Shea and Fahy to lead 38-26.

"In the third quarter, we said 'OK, it's time to put a little pressure on them' and we did," Hamann said. "Unfortunately we couldn't do it a little earlier because we were in a little bit of foul trouble and with some injuries we have, we lack a little bit of depth at this point. But that pressure was effective for us in the third where we kind of regrouped and said 'OK, now it's time to crank it up.' "

Fahy cranked it up offensively in a one-minute stretch in the final quarter when she scored seven unanswered points with a 3-pointer from the baseline, a long drive and layup and 2 free throws for a 45-28 lead with 3:53 left in the game.

"It was close in the third quarter but I think they made a few shots and we missed a few and we turned the ball over a couple of times and things just kind of spiraled," said Rams coach Steve Ikenn. "We've got younger kids in roles that they haven't played before."

Hoffman led the Rams (0-1) with 8 points and 7 rebounds while teammate Ava Henne also had 8 points with 5 rebounds and a 3-pointer. Mosey Drevline added 7 points with a 3-pointer. Other key contributors were Betsy Bailey (6 points), Lucy Otoo (4 points, 6 rebounds), Addison Thomas (2 points, 2 assists) and Autumn Aliff (3 points).

The Rams rallied from a 9-3 deficit to lead 13-9 and 17-13 with 3:17 left in the first half thanks to a driving baseline shot by Thomas.

"Credit to Grayslake Central," Hamann said. "They're very well coached and they've got some really good players over there so they weren't going to fold."

"I just told our kids we can compete," Ikenn said. "You're never as good as your best or as bad as your worst. We've got to go back and work tomorrow on the things we struggled with. There were a lot of good things we did and we've got to make sure we don't lose focus on that because the final score wasn't a 30-point game until the end."

Gianna LaVecchia added 6 points for Maine South followed by Seurynk and Addie Kopf, who each had five. Amelia Fernandez, Emily Currey, Mia McNeill, Evelina Sotos, Lena Chaplin and Nellie Ossmo all scored for South.

"It's our first game so things are going to be sloppy and we expect that," said Hamann, who won his 165th game in eight seasons against only 50 losses. "Neither team shot the ball real well. With our stature of lacking size we're going to have to play at a certain pace with a certain defensive pressure and we've been practicing that a lot.

"It wasn't pretty but we'll take a win any time against a quality program."