Girls basketball: Carmel edges Libertyville in possible postseason preview
Got plans for Feb. 26?
The girls basketball teams at Carmel Catholic and Libertyville certainly do. They’d like nothing more than to battle for the Class 4A Rockford Guilford sectional title on that day.
It could happen.
Libertyville is seeded first (in sub-sectional A); Carmel netted the No. 2 seed.
The squads clashed at Carmel Thursday night in the regular-season finale for both.
“We’re not going to show much,” Libertyville coach Greg Pedersen said 20 minutes before the tipoff. “We’ll run a lot of motion.
“I hope you won’t be bored.”
Nobody was. Two of the best teams in Lake County engaged in a highly competitive contest in Mundelein, with Carmel claiming a 39-33 victory after trailing 19-16 at halftime. It featured star power, too — Libertyville junior guard Lily Fisher and Carmel freshman post player Liv Johnson, a pair of 6-foot-1 gifts.
Fisher scored a game-high 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds; Johnson finished with 12 points, a game-high nine boards and 1 banged-up, bloody elbow. She’s fine. Johnson incurred the first-half injury while hitting hardwood hard to secure a loose ball.
Teammates Maliyah Mays and Maron Bowes (5 points, 5 rebounds) also skidded and bounced-bounced-bounced to maintain possessions for the hosts.
“We talked about the importance of coming up with the ball on 50/50 stuff,” said Corsairs assistant coach Tim Bernero, who filled in for Ben Berg (illness). “We did a good job in that area. Liv, she’s so physical, so talented. And Maliyah had some critical steals for us.”
Mays (7 points) opened the third quarter with a trey to knot it at 19-19 and later completed a steal-and-layup sequence, upping the hosts’ lead to 29-24 at the 2:49 mark.
Carmel (21-9) outscored Libertyville (25-5) 17-8 in the third quarter to secure a 33-27 advantage and then limited the visitors to 6 points in the final 8 minutes.
“Our kids executed well at the start of the third quarter,” said Bernero, who coached Division III women’s basketball for 19 seasons before landing his post at Carmel.
Playoff ready?
“Yes, I think we are,” he said.
“This game mattered to us,” added Johnson, who hit a pair of three-pointers. “We showed intensity. The energetic environment helped us, too.”
Fisher and her Wildcats teammates needed to travel only 1.7 miles to face their Rte. 176 foe. Fisher’s driving layup opened the scoring in the fourth frame, and her bucket with 52 seconds left lopped the Corsairs’ lead to 38-33.
Fisher, as usual, played with poise and looked fazed exactly zero times.
“Lily’s presence,” Pedersen said, “gives her teammates confidence and a sense of security."
His take on the game?
"Spirited," he noted.
Carmel senior Josie Hartman tallied 9 points, and junior teammate Grace Booher contributed 6.
Six of Libertyville junior guard KateRyan Castro’s 9 points came from three-point land, while Wildcats junior forward Elle Knight netted 5 points.