W. Chicago stuns St. Charles East in final seconds

West Chicago's Mary Connolly may have tried to put her team's wild comeback victory in simple words, but there was nothing simple about what took place on the basketball court.

With both the host Wildcats and visiting St. Charles East playing tough, in-your-face defense all night long, baskets and points weren't easy to come by. But the Saints (2-4), who had a size advantage and got the Wildcats in early second-half foul trouble, appeared to take control of the game by moving ahead 40-33 after three quarters.

West Chicago scrapped its way back into the game in the final quarter, but still trailed 49-44 after Kala Sigona split a pair of free throws for East, and the hosts also trailed 51-48 when coach Kim Wallner called a timeout with 30.7 seconds left to go.

But Connolly, who had swiped an inbounds pass and converted it into a key basket with 1:05 left, followed Jessica Baids' basket with 15.7 seconds left to go with a strong inside bucket off an inbounds pass from Izzy Bruce with 5.6 ticks left on the clock for what proved to be the game-winner in Tuesday's 52-51 win by the Wildcats in their home opener.

"She made a great pass and it just kind of happened," Connolly said of the game's decisive play in which Bruce set her up to score the winner. "It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of teamwork and everyone just executed well."

It was some tough luck down the stretch that saw the Saints let this one slip away. Not only did Connolly's steal and basket give the 'Cats hope as they got to within 49-48, but Claire Monroe then followed up her missed 3-point attempt by diving to the floor for the ball to keep possession, which set the stage for Baids' basket that set the stage for Connolly's game-winner. That West Chicago winning shot was set up by a Saints turnover with 8.8 seconds left to play.

"It wasn't looking great, but they never got totally up by 10 or 12," said Wallner, whose team's defense didn't even allow the Saints to get off a potential game-winner in the final seconds. "We were really fighting all night to get back, and that defense at the end wasn't all bad."

For the Saints, it was a tough end to a solid effort. Three players scored in double digits led by 13 points apiece from Lexi Baltes and Jaime Rust.. Kara Schnier had 10 points and Sigona had 7 points and 4 blocked shots, but 6 fourth-quarter turnovers and some rare free throw misses ended up costly. St. Charles East made 20 of 26 foul shots on the night, but did miss three in the final stanza and came up one point short.

"It was just execution and running our offense, but they were tenacious on defense," said Rust, who had a 3-pointer in the first half and hit on 6 of 7 free throws in the game. "It's a matter of finishing. We need to work on that as a team."

Saints coach Lori Drumtra agreed with the team's need to improve on its finishes as the season progresses.

"It slipped away and we didn't execute at the end like I had hoped we would," she said. "They played well. Give credit to them, but we need to hang on to the lead."

Monroe and Baids each led the Wildcats with 12 points while Connolly scored 11 off the bench, including two very big baskets in the final 65 seconds..

"The whole team mentality was up the whole game,' Connolly said. "It was awesome to be a part of."