Girls basketball: Fahy scores 22, Maine South takes down Prospect
After suffering its most lopsided loss of the season to Class 4A No. 4 ranked Nazareth (18-3) last Saturday, No. 12 Maine South was ready to get back on track Wednesday at Prospect.
"We said the Nazareth game (50-27 loss at the Kipp's Hoopsfest at Maine West ) was just one game and our girls are resilient," said Hawks coach Jeff Hamann. "I love this team. We wanted to come here on the road and play better basketball and we did. "
The Hawks (18-5) did it behind a game-high 22 points from junior Hayden Fahy (12 in the first quarter), 12 from senior Emily Currey, 8 from senior Amelia Fernandez and 7 from junior Theresa Sladky off the bench to take a wire-to-wire 62-46 triumph over the Knights in the Jean Walker Field House in Mt. Prospect.
Fahy hit a pair of 3-pointers and Currey put up a rebound layup to give Maine South an 8-0 lead less than 1:10 into the game.
"We just really wanted to play good defense and start out strong because in the Nazareth game we let them get ahead early," said Currey, who also grabbed 4 rebounds. "So we just needed to come out with as much energy as we could and we did that. It was honestly just good defense and boxing them out. They have some really good tall girls so it was just important to get rebounds (Fahy and Addie Kopf each had six and Fernandez 5)."
Fahy added a fastbreak layup and Currey hit a 14-footer to make it 12-4 with 5:48 left. and the Hawks never looked back.
A 3-pointer by Zoe Black (8 points) got Prospect (13-9) to within 12-7 but South went on a 10-4 run to close out the peri\od.
Sladky's 14-footer and a rebound bank shot by Kopf put the Hawks in front 24-11 after one period.
"We had a great first quarter and that really kind of set the tone," Hamans said. "But credit Prospect. They came back and made it a little closer."
Maine South took its biggest lead of the half when Fahy hit a pair of free throws with 5:35 left for a 28-13 cushion.
A couple of 3-pointers from Ella Daly got Prospect to within 30-21 and the Knights trailed 31-23 at the break thanks to Black's fastbreak layup just before the buzzer.
"At halftime, we said we wanted to extend the lead in the third and I thought we did," added Hamnan, whose brother Jim coached the Prospect girls golf team to two state crowns and one runner-up. "I'm really proud of our kids. They moved the ball pretty well against their 1-3-1 which is very difficult with their length all over the place and we don't have much length. But we executed the offense game plan well."
The Hawks led 45-34 after three quarters, getting 3-pointers in the period from junior Gianna LaVecchia and Fahy.
South started the fourth quarter on a 10-0 run with Currey's 17-footer, a fastbreak layup by LaVecchia and back-to-back 3-pointers from Fernandez.
"Defensively we're scrappy and we played hard," Hamann said. "I'm proud of our effort on both sides."
Fahy did not play the fourth quarter.
"She has a little bit of a back injury that she's been bothered by the last week and half and with the score where it was, we felt we were OK and we kept her out of the fourth quarter."
The Hawks, like Prospect, have one of the toughest schedules in the state.
"Playing a really tough schedule,we've been competitive in every game except obviously Saturday," Hamann said, "I'm so proud of the kids."
Murray State pledge Alli Linke led Prospect with 18 points.
"We let them dictate the pace in the first quarter and we just had a hard time recovering after that," said Prospect coach Matt Weber. "So we just have to learn that we can't let another team control how we want to play. We have to play at the pace and speed that makes us the most successful.
"I thought we did that in the second quarter, We started moving a little better defensively but we just never really recovered from the slow start."
Maine South is 7-0 in the CSL South with a big game scheduled for Friday at Glenbrook South (16-6, 5-2).
" Congratulations to Maine South, " Weber added. "They play hard and they do a good job defensively. They really play aggressive and we just had a hard time matching that."
The Knights unfortunately lost junior guard Black to a head injury late in the third quarter. The junior guard was coming off a program record 42 points and 11 three-pointers on Saturday against Phillips.
"It's tough," Weber said. "We've kind of gone through this (injuries) throughout the season. It's tough losing Zoe. That was a tough blow for us to recover from."