Girls basketball: Fisher scores 32, reaches 1,000 points in Libertyville’s win over Prospect

In becoming the 13th player in program history to reach 1,000 points, Lily Fisher of Libertyville did it with a bit of flair on Tuesday night at the Jean Walker Field House in Mt. Prospect.

Her game-high 32 points in the Wildcats' 58-51 win at Prospect tied the record for the third most points scored in a single game by a Libertyville girls basketball player behind Mary Munsch (46 in the 1979-80 season) and Peggy Boyes (39 in 1974-75), tying teammate Ella Pawelczyk, who also scored 32 last week against Waukegan.

Fisher hit the magic number of 1,000 when she hit her third of four 3-pointers with 1:20 left in the third quarter to give the visitors a 38-27 lead. She scored 21 points in the second half to help lift the Wildcats to 15-3 against a Prospect team which is 11-8.

"She's a special player,“ said Prospect coach Matt Weber. "We knew about her and that she had the ability to shoot and get to the basket. And she did a great job late in the game putting her team on her shoulders and saying 'I got this guys'. So congrats to her for reaching her milestone."

Fisher is hoping to add several more miles to her totals in the next season and a half.

Her sister Emily, now at Nebraska, is the program's all-time scoring leader with 1,330 points.

"One of my goals was to beat all her records," Lily said. "Our biggest goal this game was to stop No. 23 (Murray State-bound Alli Linke who had a team-high 18 points). She is a good player.

"It feels really good getting this (1,000th point). It was definitely a goal of mine and it's nice to have done it."

The Knights came back to tie the game 45-45 with two free throws by freshman Ashley Skelton with 2:40 left in the game.

"We just needed to stay strong as a team in the end," Fisher said. "Because they were getting some momentum."

Libertyville did exactly that, going on a 7-0 run which began with Fisher's big take to the basket between defenders followed by a 3-pointer from Pawelczyk and 2 free throws from Fisher with 1:35 left.

The Knights never got closer than 5 the rest of the way.

Fisher became the seventh 1,000-point scorer for Wildcats coach Greg Pedersen in his 14 seasons.

"When she came as a freshman she was already such a great athlete and had tremendous ball skills," Pedersen said. "She was already able to drive and attack. She was working on her finishing moves but now that she's a junior, she's added an outside component to her game and that just makes her a complete player. She is tough to stop. It often takes two people to try and stop her."

Ella Daly's 3-pointer staked Prospect to a 7-2 lead in the first quarter and Linke's step-back 3-pointer made it 10-6 in favor of the Knights with 1:34 left. But Libertyville answered with a 3-pointer from Pawelczyk and a 3-point play by freshman Addie Casey with 16.4 seconds left to lead 12-10 after one period.

Zoe Black's back-to-back 3-pointers to start the second quarter got Prospect back in front 16-12. But Libertyville regained the lead with a 3-pointer from Pawelczyk (10 points, three 3-pointers) and an 8-foot bank shot by Fisher to lead 17-16.

The Wildcats trailed 22-17 but closed the half on a 10-0 run, including back-to-back 3-pointers from Fisher and Jenna Stowe (7 points, two 3-pointers) to lead 27-22 at the break.

"It was a great win," Pedersen said. "Our zone was the biggest key. We've been working hard at it and we have a bunch of different concepts and responsibilities in it. Prospect had layups against it in their first two possessions. The tough part for me was to remain loyal to the team and trusting that they could get it done and they did by making their adjustments. You could see It got better as the game went on."

"They like their zone, too. And I don't blame them because they're so long and athletic."

Black (three 3-pointers) and Skelton (5-of-5 free throws) each had 12 points for the hosts while Daly had nine with three 3-pointers.

"Congrats to Libertyville," Weber said. "They are a very well coached team and I thought they did a really nice job of extending some possessions by getting some offensive rebounds and that really made a difference in the first half and then we were playing catch-up from there. I thought we did a good job clawing back and then we just got a little careless with the basketball in some of the situational moments in the game.

“That is another team in which all we can do is learn about our mistakes and continue to fight for the next game."