St. Edward falls to Rockford Lutheran
Basketball coaches preach all the time about the importance of playing a full 32-minute game.
St. Edward girls coach Michelle Dawson felt like her team needed a full-blown sermon after Monday's game in River Forest.
The Green Wave fell behind Rockford Lutheran 21-10 after one quarter at the MLK Basketball Classic at Concordia University before eventually getting back in the game, only to falter at the end and lose 48-44.
With online seeding meetings for the postseason scheduled for Wednesday, the loss will likely cost the Green Wave the No. 1 seed in next month's Class 2A North Boone regional, a tag Rockford Lutheran will now likely earn based on Monday's win.
"You have to play 32 minutes," lamented Dawson after Monday's setback. "We didn't. We played 24 minutes today. You just can't bury yourselves like that. It takes a lot of energy to get out of a hole like that."
St. Edward (14-7) did, though, and the Green Wave even held a 44-41 lead with 3 minutes to play, but the Wave would not score again as Rockford Lutheran's final push was enough to regain the lead and earn the win.
"St. Ed's is a great team and we expected them to come back," said Crusaders' coach Joni Carlson, whose 19-7 team has lost to the likes of Montini, Moline, Downers Grove South, Hononegah and Peoria Richwoods.
"They didn't execute the way I'm sure they wanted to in the first half but we knew they'd come back because they're a great team."
St. Edward was its own worst enemy in the first half, making just 6 of 31 shots and missing 15 shots in the paint to fall behind 27-19 at halftime. Meanwhile, Lutheran hit on 8 of 15 in the first quarter, including canning 3 3-pointers, before cooling off and going just 9-for-39 the rest of the game.
"We started out strong and shot well in the first quarter, which was nice to see because we're not really a great shooting team," said Carlson. "But then we shut down defensively in the third quarter."
And that's when St. Edward got back in the game. Making 7 of 15 in the third quarter, the Green Wave finally forged a 36-36 tie by the end of the period. The Wave then took the lead for the first time, 40-38, on 2 free throws from Alex Lee with 5:50 to play. That was part of an 8-0 run that had the Wave up 44-41 after 2 free throws from Maddie Kerr with 3 minutes to play. But in the final 3 minutes, Lutheran got 6 points from junior Rachel Konieczki, regaining the lead at 45-44 on her pull-up jumper in the lane with 1:25 left.
St. Edward made only 1 of 7 from the field in the fourth quarter and turned the ball over 8 times, allowing the Crusaders multiple opportunities to catch up and then regain the lead, and eventually the win. St. Edward's shooting woes included at least three low-percentage shots with the lead.
Kerr led the Green Wave with 12 points, while Lee had 10 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 42 seconds left in the game. St. Edward also got good efforts off the bench from senior Kelly Tripicchio (5 points, 7 rebounds) and sophomore Katie Swanson (6 points).
Metro East Lutheran 55, Westminster Christian 48: McKaila Hays had 13 points to lead the Warriors (13-6) in this loss at Concordia. Liz Meschewski added 9 points and Claire Spiewek had 8 for Westminster.