Cary-Grove 66, Woodstock 58
Danielle Smith had every reason to smile.
Smith's 16 points, with 9 coming in the fourth quarter, helped the Trojans to a 66-58 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win over Woodstock in Woodstock Friday Night.
The victory gave the Trojans (23-3, 9-0) the Valley Division title outright. Cary-Grove, the 10th ranked team in Class 4A, shared the conference crown with Crystal Lake South in 2006.
"We didn't want to share the conference championship this season," said Smith, who was a sophomore on the 2006 team. "It feels great to win the conference. That was one of our goals when the season started. We started out well in the first quarter and then we stopped playing as a team. But we were fired up in the fourth quarter and played as a team.
The Trojans, who squandered a 16-point first half lead, actually trailed 51-49 after Woodstock's Molly Whiting hit a 3-pointer with 5:59 left.
That is when Smith took over. The lanky senior connected on a mid-range jumper, buried a long 3 from the left corner, and scored on a layup off a nice feed from freshman Claire Jakubicek.
Smith's 7 points gave the Trojans a 56-51 lead with 4:11 left. Woodstock couldn't get any closer. Cary-Grove's biggest lead was 64-53 after a 12-footer by Breanna Smith with 1:58 remaining.
"It is an awesome feeling to win the conference," said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert, whose team can close out an undefeated league season with a win over CL South today.
"Starting two freshmen I wasn't sure what to expect, but Meg (Straumann) And Claire have fit right in with the seniors. Danielle and Jill (Cole) played very well tonight. Breanna hit a big shot. Jamie (Kuhl) just couldn't stay out of foul trouble tonight. But the chemistry on this team is very good and the kids got the job done."
The Trojans got out of the gate fast in the first quarter. Holding a 10-6 lead with 2:20 left in the quarter, the Trojans ended the first quarter on a 14-2 run. During the pivotal run, Cary-Grove made 7-of-7 shots from the field and forced 6 Woodstock turnovers. Cole, who led Cary-Grove with 17 points, tallied 6 points and the Trojans led 24-8 after 8 minutes.
But the Trojans let their guard down in the second quarter. The Blue Streaks roared back behind 11 points from Whiting and outscored the Trojans 24-12 in the second quarter. The Trojans' big lead was whittled down to 36-32 at halftime.
"Welcome to girls basketball," said Saffert. "We just don't have the killer instinct to blow teams out. That concerns me."
Straumann was the third Trojan in double figures with 10 points to go along with 5 assists and 3 steals.
Another concern of Saffert is free throw shooting. Cary-Grove made only 15-of-31 from the charity stripe for 48 percent.
"Our free throwing shooting was terrible tonight," said Saffert. "We have shot 32,000 free throws this season in practice so shooting as bad as we did tonight is unacceptable."
Whiting led Woodstock, which committed 30 turnovers, with 21. Bailey Brown added 10.