Girls basketball: Balanced attack lifts Maine West over Maine East despite Silva’s 29
Maine West's girls basketball team headed to Maine East on Friday night enjoying its best start in five seasons.
And the Warriors didn't lose any momentum in Park Ridge.
Using a balanced offensive attack led by junior Alyssa Philip’s 14 points, senior Kaitlyn Nutley’s 12 and freshman Dayliana Rodriguez with 10, the visitors overcame a splendid 29-point performance by Maine East's all-time scoring leader, junior Arabella Silva, to post a 47-41 triumph.
The win kept the Wariors (7-2, 3-0) unbeaten in the Central Suburban North.
"This was a game we really wanted to win so we were going to do everything we needed to get it," said Nutley, who had a double-double with 10 rebounds. "Everyone stepped it up to get the win."
The Warriors really stepped it up in the second half.
After nursing a 23-19 lead at half, West was able to pull away in the third quarter when they outscored East (2-6, 0-3) by a 13-8 margin. They took their biggest lead at 36-22 when Rodriguez hit a 10-footer from the side with 1:33 left.
Two free throws by Silva and a 3-pointer by Heidi Cortez off a nifty outlet pass from Silva got the Blue Demons within 36-27 heading into the final period.
West built the lead back to 43-31 when Philip hit a 12-footer, but the hosts continued to cut into the deficit and closed within 47-41 with 30 seconds left on a pair of free throws from Cumiyah Preister.
"I thought we did a good job fighting," Silva said. "Obviously there are more areas we can step up in but we kept fighting to the end."
The start was quite something for Silva as she scored East's first 18 points of the first half.
She began the game by hitting a 3-pointer and then converting a 3-point play to give East a 6-0 lead less than a minute into the game.
But West came back to tie it at 6-6 on one of Marianna Espinoza's three baskets with 2:15 left in the opening quarter.
"We were motivated to stop Bella," said Espinoza, who was assigned to defend Silva with help from teammates. "During practice, our coach really spent a lot of time with us on trying to stop her.
"With the close game at half, we knew Maine East always comes out strong in the second half so we said if this is going to be our game, we have to stop them and make sure there were no gaps in our defense."
"It was a great team effort," said Warriors coach Deanna Tuttle. "It was defense that was the difference. We had a game plan and they did a good job executing it. They just had the desire that they had to win. They really came together as a team and finished it off."
Cortez finished the first half with a free throw, becoming the first Blue Demon to score in the half other than Silva. She finished with 5 points followed by Preister (4), Marie Matsumoto (2) and Oyin Olurotimi (1).
"At the end, we just tried to go to our leader, Arabella Silva," said Maine East coach Lance Newman, a former assistant for Maine West’s girls basketball program. "We tried to get the ball in her hands and let her create. We cut it down closer. We look forward to seeing them (Maine West) again.
"We're looking for someone to help her (Silva) in scoring and once we find that person, our team is going to look quite different. Bella knows how to play the game. We just need a little help from others to put the ball in the basket."
The Warriors have been getting big help this season from Rodriguez, who had a breakout performance with her 10 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks off the bench.
"It was her best game of the season," Tuttle said. "She has done some great things for us."
Obviously, Silva continues to do great things for the Blue Demons.
"She is a phenomenal player," Tuttle said. "Even though we won, we didn't really slow her down much. She is really hard to play against so we were happy to come out with a win against them."