Girls basketball: Libertyville builds big lead, holds off Hersey

Libertyville's Elle Pawelczyk is hoping to study business management at the University of Tennessee, which was the home of legendary women's basketball coach Pat Summitt who won 1,089 games.

On Saturday afternoon at Buffalo Grove High School, the Bison welcomed their legendary girls basketball coach Tom Dineen (coached BG to the 2000 Class AA state title) who was at the Libertyville/Hersey tourney game.

Dineen, the winningest coach in Mid-Suburban League history with a 678-229 record in 29 years at BG and a total of 810 including six years at Stevenson, was honored prior to the game which is part of the Tom Dineen Classic played annually at Thanksgiving time.

Dineen's visit back to his old gymnasium allowed him to see an exciting game between two of the top teams in the area.

Pawelczyk ended up with two of the most important points of the game.

With her team nursing a 45-43 lead, the senior guard calmly hit a pair of free throws with 39.2 seconds left to help Libertyville secure a 49-43 victory over Hersey.

"I just took some deep breaths," Pawelczyk said of her clutch free throw which gave her 7 points for the game, including a 3-pointer. "I feel like being a senior now I really have to step it up and that's what I tried to do."

"Elle hit some big free throws at the end," said Libertyville coach Greg Pedersen, who has lost three of his top six players (standout senior guard Sophie Swanson and freshmen Grace Rasmussen and Nellie Dajka) to ACL injuries, both ruled out for the season.

Wildcats junior standout Lily Fisher hit several big shots, finishing with a game-high 26 points before fouling out with 1:44 left in the game.

"What was even more special about this team is that Lily missed a lot of minutes and our kids still got it done," Pedersen said. "A couple of them hit timely shots when we needed it, Caitlyn Griffith took a big charge when we needed it. We had some key box outs and rebounds when we needed it."

Pawelczyk said she loved how the Wildcats got what they needed from everyone.

"I thought we had players come in and step up," she said. "Jenna Stowe handled the ball really well against No. 11 (Hersey standout Kate Donovan, a New Jersey Institute of Tech recruit). The whole key was stopping their major players. Their big (Sadie Marks, whose mother was coached by Dineen at BG) and point guard (Donovan) are really good. Then our best player (Fisher) fouled out and we tried to step it up without her."

It was the second game for Libertyville (2-0) this season.

It was the first for Hersey.

"I think we benefited from Hersey playing its first game of the season when we already had one," Pedersen said. "Because in the first three minutes at the end of first quarter we really got a run going (7-0). We got out to a 19-point lead at one point. We just took advantage of them not having played a game yet. Then we had to brace ourselves because Hersey is a really good team, really competitive and very athletic. They play with lots of energy and they gave us their shot. You can see how good they're going to be."

The 19-point lead came on one of Fisher's three 3-pointers to make it 31-12 with 4:31 left in the first half.

But Hersey came back to within 33-21 by half and then tied the game at 40-40 with 5:41 left in the game when Donovan tossed a nifty pass out to Lexi Miyares at the top of the key. Miyares then drove the middle for a bucket that tied the game.

But Libertyville persevered in the final five minutes after Marks had fouled out (6:08) and Donovan picked up her fourth foul with 3:11 left.

Elle Knight added 9 points for Libertyville while Kateryan Castro had seven.

What I like about our team is that Hersey gave us a shot right square in the jaw (to come back and tie the game)," Pedersen said. "And then our kids just maintained their composure and fought back and with Lily in foul trouble."

Marks, a junior, led the Huskies with 13 points while sophomores Miyares added 12 and Etta Fischer 9.

"I feel if this wasn't our first game of the season that it would have been a very different game," said Hersey coach Courtney Ludois. "It took about a quarter and a half to settle down and the third quarter was what I expected from our team, which is really fun, fast-paced basketball.

"We eventually settled in. We have six sophomores and we're putting them in tough positions and they're going to rise to the occasion.

"We were down 19 points and fought our way back. I told them I couldn't really be mad at them because they didn't hang their heads. They never stopped believing. And I don't know what more you could ask of our kids. Their effort was unbelievable. They did a lot of really good things and we'll learn from this. We don't have much time to bounce back. We have games on Monday and Tuesday."

Pedersen liked what he saw from his team, too.

"We learned we could play with a really good team," he said. "Hersey is going to be a rock solid team this year, a top 25 team. So I'm sure our kids are really ecstatic that they pulled this one out."