Wrap: Laird, Bazany lead Rockets
Melanie Laird and Corey Bazany worked well together. For that matter, all the Burlington Central Rockets did as the Rockets downed North Boone, 51-39, Friday night on Rocket Hill.
Laird scored 22 points and Bazany contributed 15 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists as the Rockets prevailed in Big Northern East girls basketball action in Burlington.
Often assisting each other, Laird and Bazany scored 10 of the Rockets' 12 points in the second quarter. That's when the Rockets broke the game open by outscoring the Vikings 12-2.
Briana Conran added 6 points and 8 rebounds, and Jordan Maisto scored 6 points on a pair of first-quarter 3-pointers for the Rockets.
Laird also grabbed 7 rebounds, and Taylor Colby had 5 as the Rockets (11-4, 2-0) out-rebounded the visitors from Poplar Grove, 35-20.
"I think our team chemistry is really, really good right now," said Burlington coach Darlene Guyett. "It showed again here on the court tonight. The kids are playing real well together."
The Rockets opened their biggest lead of the game at 43-20 on a Conran putback late in the third quarter before the Vikings (6-5, 1-1) staged a mild rally. They closed the game on a 10-4 run, but never seriously threatened.
Ashley Mulholland scored 7 first-quarter points to keep the Vikings close. But she left the game in the second quarter after apparently hitting her head on the floor in a scramble for the ball. She returned in the second half but scored just 2 more points. Nikki Goeddeke came off the bench to lead North Boone with 11 points.
"Our defensive effort (was key)," said Guyett. "The kids came out early in the third, got some defensive stops early and set the tone."
After scoring the last 8 points of the first half, the Rockets scored 6 more in a row after intermission. After Cara Crull's 3-pointer stopped the Rockets' run at 14, Central proceeded to score 6 more in a row before the Vikings began to find the range.
Waubonsie Valley 61, Elgin 30: Rachel Bostick made her doctor look at her like she was crazy Friday afternoon.
After the Waubonsie Valley junior was cleared to play 6 games after she had dislocated her shoulder twice, she could not contain her excitement in the doctor's office.
Host Elgin also had trouble containing Bostick's excitement as she finished with 7 points in the Warriors' 61-30 Upstate Eight Conference victory at Chesbrough Field House.
"It feels good," Bostick said of her shoulder. "I was a little nervous at first. There were a couple of jump balls where I looked up at my mom in the stands and she looked like she was going to cry."
Elgin (0-17, 0-5) was without center and leading scorer Ellen Holton, who had surgery on her jaw. Holton's absence allowed the Warriors (16-1, 6-0) to dominate in the paint.
Forward Brittany Upshaw finished with a team-high 10 points. Bostick scored 6 points and LaTisha Morgan added 4 in the fourth period.
Despite the advantage down low, Elgin was within 26-13 at the end of the first half and both teams exchanged buckets to kick off the second half keeping the Warriors' lead at 13 (30-17).
Elgin remained stuck at 17 for the next 6 minutes, 30 seconds as Waubonsie Valley scored 18 unanswered points. The Warriors went 8 of 11 from the floor in the third quarter and were an amazing 73.6 percent (14 of 19) in the second half.
Waubonsie Valley finished the game with 8 players with at least 5 points and had all 10 players score. Senior Alexis Delgado finished with 5 points and 2 assists in the fourth quarter and Anna Gault added 7 points, 3 assists and 2 steals.
"Our game plan is always to have balanced scoring," Waubonsie Valley coach Kris Kalivas said. "I was much happier with the way we came out in the second half."
Elgin sophomore Brandi Hernandez led all scorers with 11 points, despite leaving the game for a huge portion of the third period after hitting her head. The point guard scored 5 points in the second quarter, including Elgin's lone 3-pointer. Hernandez's 3-pointer with 6:25 remaining in the second quarter brought Elgin to within 14-9.
"She's starting to get some more composure," Elgin coach Angie Hudson said. "She did a really good job. She's starting to get a little more confidence. She needs to look for her shot a little more."
Hernandez's 3-pointer was met with a pair of buckets from Bostick which extended Waubonsie Valley's lead to 18-9.
-- Matt Stacionis
St. Charles East 46, Bartlett 37: You never know when opportunity may come your way.
Take St. Charles East's Katie King, for instance.
Pressed into action after sharpshooting guard Tasha Lalos rolled her ankle early in the fourth quarter, King grabbed hold of the opportunity and literally ran with it Friday night.
Playing from behind the entire way, Bartlett tied the score at 34 on a pair of Nicole Beck free throws with 6:29 remaining in the fourth quarter.
That's when King went to work, hitting a cold-blooded 3-point basket during her personal 6-0 scoring spree while helping the Saints (11-6) remain perfect in Upstate Eight Conference girls basketball play (5-0) with a 46-37 victory over Bartlett (5-12, 1-4) in St. Charles.
"I don't hope that my teammates get hurt so I can go in," said King, "but the chance to step up was nice and I'm glad that I rose to the challenge."
After splitting two free throws, King drove the baseline for a layup that stretched the Saints' lead to 40-34.
"I'm laughing because I'm telling her to slow it down and she's just going right for the basket," said Saints coach Lori Drumtra. "When she made that power layup, I was yelling, 'Slow it down, slow it down -- OK, take it.'
"She did a real nice job for us, which was good to see."
On the Saints' next possession, King grabbed a defensive rebound and raced downcourt before setting up Jaime Rust's three-point play that extended the lead to 43-34 with 5 minutes left.
"I wasn't real concerned with where the game was (upon entering in the fourth quarter) because then I'd get really nervous, so I just tried to take it play by play and execute to the best of my ability," said King.
Tara Sigona (7 points), Ashley Miller, Stephanie Roan and Lauren Joyce also contributed off the bench for the Saints, who were hampered with foul trouble throughout.
"We had to play with a few different lineups," said Drumtra. "It's been awhile since we've had that many people in foul trouble."
Before her injury, which Drumtra didn't feel was "too serious," Lalos scored a team-high 10 points with three 3-pointers, while Lexi Baltes added 7 points and 6 assists.
Bartlett, which misfired on its first 8 shots from the field, also went cold down the stretch, making just 1 of 10 fourth-quarter field goal attempts.
"We had our chances -- we just missed a lot of shots," said Hawks coach Denise Sarna. "It wasn't because we were taking bad shots."
Freshman Jacki Gulczynski scored 13 points to lead the Hawks.
"I'm getting tired of calling this team young," said Sarna. "We've had some tremendous experiences in some of the games that we've played and we've played some great teams, but it's time for us to turn the corner.
"I'm not going to make excuses for these guys anymore. We need to gut it out. It's got to start now. We've got to do better."
-- Craig Brueske
Montini 69, St. Edward 32: Knowing what's coming doesn't mean a team can stop it.
St. Edward girls basketball standout Katie Yohn played AAU ball last summer with Montini stars Michala Johnson and Allison Seberger, so she and the Green Wave knew full well the steep challenge the league-leading Montini Broncos presented in Friday night's Suburban Catholic Conference game in Elgin.
With talent at all five starting positions and a bench that runs 10 deep if not deeper, Montini blitzed the Wave -- whose talent pool this season is shallower by comparison -- with a 14-0 lead to open the game on the way to a 69-32 victory.
Montini's full-court pressure and hounding man-to-man defense forced 25 St. Edward turnovers and limited the Green Wave (7-6, 3-2) to 23-percent shooting for the game (11 of 47).
"We needed to run our offense," said Yohn, who led St. Edward with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. "I don't think we ran our offense once tonight. We just kind of freelanced everything."
Montini (12-4, 4-0) built its 14-0 lead on the strength of 2 buckets from Johnson -- the leading scorer in DuPage County last season as a freshman -- 2 jump shots from the top of the key by junior Chrissy Fletcher, Cootie Leeberg's 3-pointer, a free throw from Seberger and a transition basket by Kiki Wilson.
However, St. Edward stabilized after a timeout.
Yohn sank a 3-pointer to get St. Edward on the board before she singlehandedly broke the Montini press to trim the deficit to 14-5 after one quarter of play.
Megan Pozezinski and Celeste Von Ahnen scored early in the second quarter to cap a 9-2 St. Edward run that pulled the Wave within 16-9.
"I guess we were ready at the beginning, but then we forgot about it and stopped," said Leeburg. "We didn't give up, but we stopped playing as hard as we were and they kind of came back. We let Katie Yohn shoot a lot, which wasn't our goal."
Montini outscored St. Edward 17-16 after its initial surge to take a 31-16 halftime lead, which wasn't satisfactory to Broncos coach Jason Nichols, whose standards for success are stringent.
"I thought offensively we were terrible," said Nichols, whose Broncos shot 53 percent for the game (28 of 53) and sank 9-of-17 3-point attempts. "I don't look at the score to judge the effort. I'm going to judge the effort by the product I see, and tonight it just wasn't the greatest."
Girls basketball
East Aurora 45, Streamwood 28: Buried by seven 3-pointers from East Aurora, Streamwood (2-14, 0-5) dropped this Upstate Eight Conference game. Freshman Emma Schmidt led the Sabre offense with 12 points. Krissy Kunavich added 7 points.
Cary-Grove 63, CL Central 33: Behind a 16-point effort from Jamie Kuhl as well as double-digit offense from both Tori Sandstrom (10 points) and Danielle Smith (10 points), Cary-Grove (13-3) earned this Fox Valley Conference crossover win against the Tigers.
CL South 52, Prairie Ridge 38: Tied after one quarter, Crystal Lake South (11-5) held Prairie Ridge (6-11) to just 2 second-quarter points while scoring 10 and never looked back in this Fox Valley Conference crossover. Carly Juliano led the Gator offense with 10 points getting help from Jessica Taldone (9 points), Michelle Gaede (9 points) and Katie Burton ( 8 points). Anna Patras led the Wolves with 9 points.
Johnsburg 57, Dundee-Crown 35: Robyn Staudenmaier had 15 points to lead D-C (7-9) in this FVC crossover loss. Michelle McDonald scored 26 for Johnsburg.
Hampshire 54, Richmond-Burton 41: Chrissy Heine (12 points), Alex Dumoulin (12 points) and Mallory Koster (11 points) combined for 35 points to lead Hampshire (8-6, 1-1) to its first Big Northern East Conference victory of the 2007-08 season.
Women's basketball
Judson 94, Indiana University-Northwest 26: An all-around strong performance by Judson (5-9) happened at the Savannah Center in Gary, Ind., Thursday night, with a 94-26 win over Indiana University-Northwest.
Alicia Rovertoni had a career-night with 22 points and 21 rebounds to lead all scorers. It was her third double-double of the year and the fifth time that she has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in a game this season.
Also having a career night were Heidi Rosenbaum and Jaime Schaufel. Rosenbaum canned six 3-pointers and hit seven shots from the floor for a career-high 20 points while Schaufel had a career-high 17 points. Adding 10 points was Devonaye Henderson.