Girls basketball: Palmer leads Wauconda over Crystal Lake South to win Northern Illinois Holiday Classic

Whenever Crystal Lake South’s Gaby Dzik made a big shot Thursday evening, Wauconda’s Sarah Palmer had an answer.

The fourth-year varsity player confidently made three of her game-high four 3-pointers in a wild fourth quarter as the Bulldogs held on to top the Gators 54-50 in the Northern Illinois Holiday Classic championship.

Palmer’s last 3 at the top of the key with a minute left broke a 50-50 tie, and the Bulldogs (11-0) earned their second straight title at McHenry Community High School.

“We expect her to do those things,” Wauconda coach Jaime Dennis said of Palmer, who tallied 12 points. “The nice thing is we have a lot of people who can contribute, so she doesn’t have to do that all of the time. When she doesn’t feel that pressure, she tends to play a little better.

“She knows she’s got teammates behind her.”

Palmer was one of three Bulldogs to score in double figures. Joining her was leading-scorer and senior Kelsey Piehl with 15 points (three 3s) and 10 rebounds, and junior guard Alessandra Rodriguez with 14 points and six rebounds.

“It feels like what we were meant to do,” Palmer said of the tournament victory. “We were meant to be here. We were meant to do this.”

After Wauconda held South (9-3) to two points in the second quarter and took a 18-17 lead right before halftime on a nifty, acrobatic shot underneath the basket by freshman Sophie Giles (seven points), the Gators came out firing in the third quarter.

Junior guard Makena Cleary got South going with five points and a 3 in the third, while senior guard Laken LePage, a St. Xavier commit, scored seven points – her first points of the game – in the last 48.2 seconds of the quarter. Wauconda led 41-35 going into the fourth.

That’s when Dzik got going. The 6-foot wing tossed in 11 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, including three 3s. After Dzik brought the Gators to within 47-46 of the Bulldogs with 3:30 left, Palmer answered with a 3 on the other end.

South had a few chances to tie or take the lead late, but they stepped out of bounds on an inbounds play. Junior forward Tessa Melhuish later came up with a clutch steal, but a corner 3 by Cleary banged off the front rim with less than five seconds left. Wauconda’s Alexia Manalo grabbed the defensive rebound, was fouled and sank 1 of 2 free throws to clinch the victory.

South coach Mark Mucha was proud of his team for sticking with it on offense after a cold, 1-of-10 shooting performance in the second quarter. South had led 15-7 after the first quarter.

“They just needed to keep shooting. Gaby turned up a bit, Makena turned it up a bit and Laken was able to attack as well,” Mucha said. “We didn’t change much. We just tried to instill a little more confidence in our kids.

“Wauconda is a great team. Their kids have been in situations like this before. We’re still kind of young and haven’t been in a lot of situations like this. We’re kind of learning how to close out games. We’re still taking that step forward.”

Dennis said South has been the Bulldogs’ biggest challenge during their undefeated start.

“They’re a heck of a team and that’s by far the best team we’ve played all season,” she said. “We knew it was going to be a challenge. Every time we challenge this group, they step up.”

For South, Laken LePage added eight points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists. Gracey LePage and Cara Schoeder each scored four points.

Cleary said the tournament, especially Thursday’s final, will give her team more confidence.

“I think it was good for us to face some good competition and know how to play in situations like this, when we’re down,” Cleary said. “These past few games our shots have been off. We’ve been working on moving the ball if one shot isn’t working for us. I feel like we worked the ball around very nicely. Once our shots started to fall it brought us up as a team.”