Westminster nips Elgin
Briana Hamilton and Porsche Griggs bring out the best in one another.
The best friends and former teammates played together on varsity when they were freshmen and sophomores at Elgin, but Saturday found themselves on opposing sides.
Both seniors, Griggs transferred to Westminster Christian, which was hosting the Maroons in nonconference girls basketball action.
The only thing that overshadowed Hamilton’s 31-point, 13-rebound effort was Griggs nailing a wide-open layup with 2.7 seconds left to give the Warriors a 51-50 victory.
“We bring out the best in each other,” said Hamilton, who notched her second straight career-high game after scoring 30 points in a win over Larkin on Thursday. “I’m happy for her to come back from so many injuries, I don’t know if I could do that.”
Hamilton had given Elgin, which was looking for back-to-back wins for the first time since January of 2009, a 50-49 lead when she drove the length of the court and burned the Westminster defense for a layup with 1:05 left to play.
The score would stand until Griggs found herself with a wide-open look at the basket and a chance to seal the win for the Warriors (13-5).
Sophomore Courtney Gnan could not connect on a 3-pointer from the left corner and Maroons’ sophomore Tamara Milosevic came up with the rebound. The ball bounced around before a surprised Griggs had the ball and then made a layup. “I didn’t even know (where the ball was), I had my back to the basket,” Griggs, who finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds. “It just landed in my hands.”
The teams exchanged the lead 6 times in the fourth quarter after Elgin (1-17) trailed by as much as 38-26 with 6:08 left to play in the third quarter.
Elgin then went on a 15-3 run finally tying the game at 41. Hamilton scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, but went 0 of 6 from the free-throw line. She did finish with 15 of the Maroons’ 23 field goals and scored the final 8 Elgin points.
“We had to do a good job on Briana and keep her off the boards,” Warriors’ coach Ken Flickinger said. “We got a little rattled. She’s going to make a lot of tough shots. She got on that little run where she was hitting a few.”
Westminster built its early lead with a 23-point second quarter. Sophomore Claire Speweik scored 10 of her 15 points in the second quarter shooting 4 of 8 in the period. Sophomore Kinsley Donahue added 4 of her 9 points in the second quarter and Gnan added 3 steals and forced 2 jump balls.
“That second quarter stole a little of our energy,” Elgin coach Dr. Nick Bumbales said. “Things just didn’t go our way at the end. We didn’t take care of the ball and missed some free throws.”