Schaumburg 60, Conant 40
Senior night turned out to be a real special evening for Schaumburg's girls basketball team Tuesday.
Special because the Saxons moved into three-way tie for first place in the Mid-Suburban League West Division.
Special because the Saxons have a chance to claim the West Division berth -- through tiebreaker criteria -- in next Wednesday's Mid-Suburban League championship if they win at Palatine on Friday night.
Special because one senior who normally doesn't start, Kaitlin Marchok, got the call Tuesday and collected the Saxons' first bucket and rebound en route to a convincing 60-40 triumph over visiting Conant.
Schaumburg (23-4), Conant (20-5) and Fremd (14-9) are all 7-2 in the West.
Fremd hosts Conant on Friday.
"I was so excited for Kaitlin," said Saxons senior Kylie Castans, who scored a game-high 18 points and added 6 assists and 5 rebounds. "Even coach (Bill) Murmann and coach (Jay) Culloton had a good feeling we were going to win after Kaitlin did that."
That feeling was right on as the Saxons pulled ahead 27-11 midway through the second quarter and then held off a Conant rally that reduced the lead to 4 points late in the third quarter.
After a layup by Michelle Rawleigh (8 points) pulled Conant to within 35-31 with 2:25 left in the third quarter, Schaumburg went on a 17-1 run to take control.
Castans started and ended the burst with 3-pointers, while junior Taylor Kosla had 1 from behind the arc in between.
"We cut it to 4 points, then made too many unforced errors," said Cougars senior guard Ariana Zades. "Losing by 20 was a surprise. But they were ready for us after our first game (a hard-fought 37-30 Saxons win). I think they said that was not going to happen in their gym. But we gave it our best shot."
Lisa Parisi led Conant with 14 points, while teammate Emma Loos added 10.
"We gave up too many points," said Conant coach Dan Travers. "Give Schaumburg credit. They played real well and I don't know if we played as well as we could. We played hard, but you can't just play hard. You've also got to be smart and execute -- and we didn't do that."
Seniors Gabrielle Blackwell (14 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals), Drewann Pancratz (13 points) and Gryte Satas (6 points, 4 rebounds) all clicked on their senior night.
Junior Sarah Kelleymeyer also made it into the scoring column for the Saxons.
"I give Conant a lot of credit," said Pancratz, hoping to participate in her second straight MSL title game along with Blackwell, Satas and junior Sarah McGinn (they played in the MSL volleyball title match last fall). "We really wanted this for senior night. We held our composure when Conant made its run at us."
"Kaitlin (Marchok) did a great job, just like all our seniors," Murmann said. "We just beat a very good basketball team that is well-coached and fights, fights and fights. They are not 20-5 for no reason. They wanted to get us in a trapping game but I thought we did a good job finding the open person."