Rosary nips St. Ed; Heiss sets win record

The Rosary girls basketball team came to Elgin Tuesday night knowing full well St. Edward junior Katie Yohn could take over the game.

And in stretches Yohn did just that. But in the end the visiting Royals were able to withstand Yohn's career-high tying 36-point effort to come away with a hard-fought 67-62 Suburban Catholic Conference win.

"I thought St. Edward played great and obviously Yohn played great," said Rosary coach Dave Beebe. "When she's hitting those shots she's really hard to defend. But we got more aggressive in the second half."

St. Edward (7-7, 3-3), which lost for the sixth time in its last seven games, overcame a slow start to grab a 32-27 halftime lead. Yohn was sparkling in the second quarter, hitting 4 of 5 from 3-point range, 2 of them from 25 feet away and the last a buzzer-beater from just inside halfcourt. She scored 14 of her 17 first-half points in the second quarter.

The Green Wave stretched its lead to 38-30 after an Amanda DeBrocke basket with 4:17 left in the third quarter but over the next two minutes, the entire complexion of the game changed as Rosary (14-4, 6-1) went on a 12-0 run to take a 42-38 lead with 2:29 left in the quarter. Senior Colleen Van Bogaert (9 points) nailed two of her three 3-pointers on the night during the run.

"(Yohn) was on fire and it was really hard to stop her," said Rosary senior guard Victoria Alvarez, who had a stellar defensive game with 8 steals to go along with 11 points. "We just picked up our offense and played our game. I don't think we were real happy with our defense in the first half."

St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson pointed to that two minutes as the story of yet another close loss, the fourth time in the six losses the Wave has lost by 5 points or less.

"We played about a 30-minute game tonight," Dawson said. "We took those two minutes off, they got some 3s and got back into the game and we missed too many free throws."

After Rosary's run, St. Edward twice had leads of 1 point and the game was tied at 52 after Celeste VonAhnen (16 points, 10 rebounds) scored with 4:57 to play. But with Yohn on the bench nursing a leg cramp, the Royals regained the lead and were then able to hold the ball, forcing St. Edward to foul. Even though Yohn came back in, the Royals had clearly gained the momentum.

And the free-throw line is where the Royals won the game. Rosary went 13-for-15 at the stripe in the fourth quarter with senior guard Faith Jones (11 points) nailing 7 of 8.

"Faith Jones really stepped up with her free throws tonight," said Beebe. "She shot terribly here last year but tonight she stepped up. And Victoria really stepped up and showed some senior leadership tonight."

Rosary held St. Edward scoreless from the 4:57 mark until there was 1:02 left in the game. During that stretch, the Royals were 7 of 7 from the free-throw line and extended their lead to 62-52.

"They've got a solid all-around team that keeps coming at you," Dawson said of Rosary. "We knew they weren't going to let up."

Sophomore Jordan Rettig scored 12 of her team-high 18 points in the first half to lead the Royals. Other than Yohn and VonAhnen, St. Edward had no one score more than 4 points.

Men's basketball

Waubonsee 91, Elgin 67: Waubonsee's Dave Heiss broke the Illinois Skyway Conference's all-time record for coaching wins with 191. Six Chiefs (6-6, 1-0) scored in double figures as they trounced Elgin at home. Bryson Harden led all scorers with 21 points and was 5-for-5 from 3-point range. Johnny Walker added 15 points and 7 rebounds and Steven McNabb dished out 6 assists.

Women's basketball

Elgin 47, Waubonsee 40: The Chiefs (2-12, 0-1) shot just 25 percent from the field in their home loss to Elgin. Star Robinson scored 15 points and Ashlee Jones added 14. For Elgin (7-5, 1-0), Meaghan Staley-Gamble had 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Rockford 57, Aurora 52: both teams sported undefeated NAC records, but host Rockford (9-2, 5-0) edged Aurora. Lisa McQuade finished with 13 points for the Spartans (7-6, 5-1) and Rachael Blanton added 12. For Rockford, Angie Butler scored 14 and Chelsea Slater grabbed a game-high 8 rebounds.

Boys basketball

Wheaton Academy 70, West Chicago 46:ŒThe most visible number Wheaton Academy recorded on Tuesday was 70: the number of points the Warriors scored in a 70-46 win over West Chicago.

But of a number of important numbers, 37 might be even better. That was the number of shots West Chicago attempted in the game. A killer trio of strong defense, a number of Wildcats turnovers and tough Warriors rebounding helped create the eventual final score in this nonconference boys basketball game.

"The biggest thing we did tonight was that we did a really good job controlling the defensive glass," Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson said. "We limited (West Chicago) to 3 offensive rebounds. We got our running game going and forced them into turnovers. We got some offense out of our defense."

Wheaton Academy (10-2) got its offense rolling as well, though West Chicago (1-15) was still competitive into the late third quarter.

"We have a lot of things that we need to work on," West Chicago coach Kevin Gimre said. "But I was happy with the kids' effort on the floor. Skills and X's and O's, we continue to work on those. But in terms of their effort, it was a much better day."

Wheaton Academy's Benjamin Euler helped take over the game for awhile in the second quarter. After missing his only 2 shots of the first quarter, Euler did not miss in a 16-point second quarter. Importantly, he got 8 of those points through free throws.

"He was getting some open looks and knocked them down," Ferguson said. "He started shooting the ball well, and they started putting pressure on him. He did a nice job adjusting and going to the hoop."

Euler finished with a game-high 19 points.

Chad Driscoll got hot in the third quarter as West Chicago tried to stay close. Driscoll scored 9 of his team-best 15 points in that quarter. At the midpoint of the quarter, West Chicago only trailed 40-31. But a pair of scoring bursts helped put the Warriors ahead by 16 entering the final quarter.

"We had a lot of energy tonight, especially in the second half," Ferguson said. "It's a big week. We have Walther Lutheran on Friday and Wheaton South on Saturday. I thought my guys responded."

West Chicago continued to play well in spots. Tony Quarto hit a trio of 3-pointers. The Wildcats executed back-door cuts frequently in the game. But with only 37 shots, defeating a team that made 25 shots of its own was always going to be difficult.

"We did play well in spurts," Gimre said. "We're just trying to find that time when we can play a consistent 32 minutes. We're looking to limit those mistakes and stay in a game the entire way."

-- Darryl Mellema