Leneau's big finish helps Warren top Wheeling

Warren's Alexis Leneau started out slowly, scoring only 2 points in the first half on Saturday night.

But she finished with a flourish, ending up with a season-high 18 points to lead the Blue Devils past visiting Wheeling 49-41 in the first round of the 2010 Blue Devil Classic.

"I felt I needed to step it up," said Leneau, who canned 2 3-pointers in the third quarter. "I wasn't playing bad in the first half, but in the third quarter, I started to play smart with the ball, get lots of touches and we kept working the ball around until one of us was open to take a good shot."

Warren led 22-19 at the half, but the Wildcats came out with the hot hand to open the third quarter. Wheeling produced an 8-4 run to lead 27-26 with 4:45 left..

In the last three minutes of the quarter, Jessica Prince (13 points) scored 5 points and Leneau scored 7 in a 12-7 run to to give the Blue Devils a 38-34 lead at the end of the third quarter.

"I had been working all week on getting the ball in the basket," said Prince, who fouled out in the middle of the fourth quarter. "We got a good win against a pretty good team, and I am happy with that."

Amanda Barger chipped in 10 points and 7 assists for Warren.

"You can't ever been unhappy with a win," said Warren coach John Stanczykiewicz, whose team improved to 4-7. "We're still inconsistent defensively, and we have to play better interior defense.

"I thought we responded well in the third and early fourth quarters. We got the ball inside where we wanted to and got the shots that we wanted and Alexis hit them."

Wheeling's Leah Malsom led all scorers with a career-high 21 points while Kellie Kuzmanic scored 13 points and led with 12 rebounds.

"I think we worked really hard tonight," Kuzmanic said. "We gave up too many turnovers and we were trying to push it up too much and we got too ahead of ourselves."

Wheeling fell to 2-8.

"It was a tough loss, and we are getting closer and closer," Wheeling coach Julissa Hernandez said. "Once we get over that hump, hopefully it will give us the confidence to come out and play a full game."