Girls basketball: Shots don’t drop for St. Charles East in loss to Mother McAuley
Brooklyn Schilb and her St. Charles East teammates can be forgiven for thinking there was a lid on the basket.
The Saints got plenty of open shots and offensive rebounds against Mother McAuley on Saturday but didn’t have much to show for it.
“I’m pretty content with the way our offense flowed,” St. Charles East coach Katie Claussner said. “We got great looks.
“We couldn’t make layups. We couldn’t make open looks, so that was the biggest thing on offense, was not being able to capitalize on open looks.”
The errant shooting proved costly for the Saints, who fell behind by double digits after one quarter and lost 58-49 at the Coach Kipp’s Hoopfest at Maine West.
Schilb was the star of the show, scoring a game-high 28 points and grabbing a game-high nine rebounds to go with two assists and two steals. But even she wasn’t immune to the shooting woes, finishing 9 of 26. The Saints were 16 of 58.
“I think it was just an off day,” Schilb said. “It’s hard with that kind of thing, but I think we did a great job.
“We stayed in it. We never gave up.”
Indeed, the Saints (13-7) outrebounded the Mighty Macs (16-4) by a 17-11 margin on the offensive glass. Schilb had seven offensive rebounds and Stella Trask grabbed five more. But it didn’t translate into many points.
“I think there were multiple possessions where we got four offensive rebounds and we still couldn’t finish,” Claussner said.
The Mighty Macs had no such problem, hitting 22 of 49 shots. Quinn Arundel sank five 3-pointers, including one from 26 feet, and finished with 19 points and eight rebounds. Fellow guard Delia Sullivan made two 3s and had 10 points.
“The biggest thing was just not executing our defensive plan,” Claussner said. “They have solid players. Like (Arundel) is fantastic.
“We didn’t contain her the way we wanted to. We wanted to connect with her deep and make sure she was always pressured and we didn’t do a good enough job with it.”
Arundel’s shooting was a major reason why the Saints were unable to get the deficit under double-digits until the final seconds. Schilb made five free throws and Kathlyn Bainbridge sank a 3-pointer as St. Charles East ended the game on an 8-0 run.
Bainbridge finished with 12 points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists, while Trask had six points and seven boards for the Saints, who are still looking for a signature victory.
“We play top 10 teams and we’ve been super close with all these teams,” Schilb said. “We just haven’t been able to get over (the hump).
“Once we fix up the little things when our shots aren’t falling, we’ll be able to beat some good teams. We’ll be a great team and we’ll be able to make a good playoff run.”