Hoffman Estates rebounds with victory over Mundelein

The Hoffman Estates girls basketball team rebounded in two different ways Saturday at the Mundelein Christmas tournament.

First, the Hawks bounced back from a 43-39 conference setback less than 24 hours earlier to Schaumburg.

Second, they rebounded on the glass, pulling down a near-season best of 32 in a 52-35 quarterfinal victory over the host Mustangs.

The Hawks (11-2) will face Libertyville (13-0) in Wednesday's 6 p.m. semifinal.

"We had a bad loss the night before," said Hawks senior forward Jada Stotts, who had anything but a bad game Saturday, scoring 15 points with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. "That loss hurt us a lot and we wanted to shake it off."

Sure enough, the Hawks shook free early to a 23-6 lead with Stotts scoring all but 2 of her 15 points.

"Jada came out and set the tone for us," said Hawks coach Mike Nocella. "When she does that, it makes things easier for Destinee (Young) and Precious (Ogunleye) to do their things."

Young scored a game-high 19 points with 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocked shots while Ogunleye tossed in 10 points with 7 rebounds.

"They're a good team, they have great talent and are well-coached," said Mundelein coach Brian Evans. "We knew we had to play extremely aggressive against them because they have so much size and strength. Obviously they did a good job exploiting our weaknesses."

Senior Olivia Dunigan's scored 12 of Mundelein's 16 points in the first quarter. Dunigan finished with 16 points.

Mary Pettit handed out 3 assists for the Hawks while Mel McGinn pulled down 5 rebounds.

"I'm extremely excited about playing Libertyville," Stotts said. "They are a very good team and we are looking forward to it."

"Can we play that game with seven players?" Nocella joked. "Seriously, they are very good. They make sharp cuts and they move their feet well on defense.

"They pass real well and run the floor. It's a tough task. We have to come with our "A' game."