Hendrick makes good for Redhawks

Naperville Central's Kelley Hendrick took advantage of her second chance.

After missing a shot at the end of regulation, the junior guard nailed a 3-pointer to start the scoring in overtime and propelled the host Redhawks to a 46-40 girls basketball triumph over Sandburg on Tuesday in the Tip-Off Tournament.

Hendrick scored 6 of her game-high 18 points in the extra period.

"I felt like I needed to redeem myself," Hendrick said, "so I came out and hit the '3' and that got us going for the whole overtime."

Sandburg (1-3) took a 36-34 lead into the final minute of the fourth quarter, but Naperville Central (3-0) tied it when Hendrick drove and dished the ball to senior center Lisa Lawrence for a bucket with 27 seconds remaining.

Then at the other end, Lawrence blocked Madeline Kish's 14-footer. Naperville Central gained possession after a subsequent jump ball with 3.8 seconds left.

Following a timeout, Hendrick caught the inbounds pass and hustled up the court, dribbling down the lane, but her driving shot missed at the buzzer.

"It's just one of those that you need to make," Hendrick said. "I think that I was just so surprised that I got through everyone to get up there that I just wasn't really thinking about actually putting it in."

No worries, though, as far as Hendrick was concerned. She opened the extra period with a 3-pointer, then split a pair of free throws. Senior forward Erica Carter rebounded the miss and scored, giving Naperville Central a 42-36 edge with 2:39 to go in OT.

From there the Redhawks hit 4 of 6 free throws to seal the game.

"That's a very, very nice win for us," Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. "I felt good about our chances going into overtime. I thought we had some momentum."

Carter, who's coming back from ACL surgery, posted a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Lawrence added 9 points and 6 boards.

Kish's 12 points paced Sandburg.

The home team enjoyed a 14-4 lead before seeing it shrink to 23-20 at the half.

Sandburg closed the third quarter with an 11-0 run to move ahead 31-28 and led by as much as 6 in the fourth quarter before the Redhawks rallied to force overtime.

"I still felt good," Eagles coach Christine Borst said. "But we needed to get the little things done and in overtime we didn't get those done."