Rettig, Rosary outmuscle St. Edward in second half
Looks like Jordan Rettig can see pretty well again, especially when it comes to the most elementary part of the game she loves - putting the basketball in the basket.
The Rosary star left Saturday's third-place game at Geneva's Thanksgiving tournament against St. Charles North after taking an inadvertent finger to her eye in the third quarter.
Her doctor cleared her to return to practice Monday, then Rettig poured in 30 points in Tuesday's win over West Aurora.
The 6-foot forward was at it again Wednesday against visiting St. Edward, leading Rosary with 16 points and 15 rebounds in a 59-37 victory.
"She had a nice game Tuesday night, didn't show any ill effects," said Rosary coach Dave Beebe, who complimented St. Charles North's staff for the concern they showed about Rettig since the injury.
The Royals (6-2, 1-0) will need Rettig at full strength Saturday when Montini - the Daily Herald's No. 1 ranked team - comes to Aurora. The Broncos swept Rosary last year, though the Royals played them close in their home loss.
"We are so excited for that game," Rosary senior guard Stephanie Haugen said. "Everybody is talking about Montini and how good they are. We came close last year."
Haugen drilled four 3-pointers and scored 15 points, joining Rettig in double figures. Vincenza Ranallo led St. Edward (4-2, 1-1) with 11 points.
Rosary scored the first 8 points and never trailed, though the Green Wave stayed within 28-23 at halftime.
The Royals' turned their defense up a notch in the final 16 minutes, holding St. Edward to 4-of-28 shooting from the field to break the game open.
"We're only up by 5 at the half, the kids responded," Beebe said. "We were not rebounding, we weren't running much of an offense either."
With Rettig, 6-4 Katie Eckberg and 5-10 Katie Petrando (10 rebounds, 4 assists), the Royals are a handful for most teams on the glass. St. Edward ran into the same problem.
Those three combined for 31 rebounds. Even though Rosary missed its share of shots (24 of 73), the Royals got so many attempts by controlling the rebounding battle.
"We just didn't put a body on them," St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said. "They had too many second chance shots. We weren't as sharp as we wanted, we didn't do a good enough job of pushing them out."
Breann Maryanski led Rosary's reserves with 8 points, while St. Edward also got a lift from its bench from Paige Gannon (6 points) and Alexandria Lee (5 points, 9 rebounds).
"We've got a really deep bench," Dawson said. "I'm really confident with the girls who come in. Everyone is contributing."
Rosary will try to use the lessons it gained from last-second losses to Oswego and St. Charles North against the class of the conference Montini.
"If we come in gym with mentality we can play with them, I think we can," Beebe said. "If we are beaten before we start, we might as well not even show up."