Northwest roundup

Palatine’s girls basketball team withstood a fourth-quarter surge and held on to beat host Barrington 46-44 in the Mid-Suburban West on Friday.

The Pirates have won four in a row and upped their conference record to 6-4 (17-10 overall). The Fillies fell to 12-17 and 4-6 in the conference.

Katelyn Mayer scored 19 of her team high 20 points in the first three quarters as the Pirates led 42-29.

“Mayer played a great game,” said Palatine coach Leslie Schock. “They had a hard time matching up with her.”

The Pirates managed just 4 free throws in the final quarter. Laura Schweikert hit 2 of them with :30 left for a 46-42 lead.

A final basket by Barrington’s Nicole Collins (12 points) came with 0.7 seconds left.

“We’ve had some tough games this week with the players logging alot of minutes,” said Schock. “We’ve won four in a row and I can’t ask for too much more than that. Last year a game like this we would have lost.”

Junior Nia Pappas added 13 points and classmate McKenzie Wiedemann had 10 for the Pirates.

Senior Natasha Singh had 10 points (8 in the first quarter) and sophomore Brooke Gunderson netted 8 for Barrington.

“Katelyn Mayer really hurt us,” said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro, whose team celebrated Senior Night. “She had a lot of points in the paint and kind of took over in the paint.

“Our kids played hard. We just didn’t get the job done in th second and third quarters. It was Pink Night (breast cancer awareness).”

Prospect 44, Elk Grove 38: Prospect turned an 8-5 deficit into a 19-10 lead to take control of its Mid-Suburban East game Friday at Elk Grove, and while there were some uneasy moments in the fourth quarter, the Knights hung on for a 44-38 victory.

Prospect (15-11, 7-3) put the wraps on a second-place finish in the East thanks to balanced scoring led by junior Michele Molini’s 14 points.

Freshman Taylor Will and senior Maura Benson each scored 8 for the Knights.

Three Grens (12-13, 2-8) scored in double figures, Diamond Boyd (14), Melissa Solorio (12) and Amber Lindfors (10).

The final minutes saw Elk Grove chip away at a 40-29 deficit.

Solorio scored 8 points in the quarter, including 6 of 6 from the foul line, but the closest the Grens could get was 40-36 with 1:35 left.

Jessica Petrovski, Benson, Will and Molini converted free throws down the stretch for Prospect.

Wheeling 49, Hersey 31: The flying Kuzmanic sisters of Wheeling got the Huskies off to a fast start in Arlington Heights on Friday. The duo combined for 17 points in the first half as Wheeling cruised past host Hersey 49-31.

Leading 8-6 late in the first quarter, Wheeling (9-16, 5-5) scored 8 unanswered points to close out the half on an 18-4 run.

Leah Malsom had 12 points and 9 rebounds for Wheeling while Kellie Kuzmanic had 9 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. Deanna Kuzmanic scored 8 points with 10 rebounds and 5 steals and Hanna Dobrowski added 7 points for the Wildcats.

Maggie Hogen tallied 8 points and 15 rebounds while Sara Bayerle had 8 points to lead Hersey (16-12, 5-5).

Hoffman Estates 40, Conant 36: Hoffman Estates clamped down on defense in the second half, dominated the backboards and used 7-of-9 free throw shooting in the fourth quarter to score a 40-36 Mid-Suburban West win over visiting crosstown rival Conant.

The hosts’ junior-dominated roster got key free throws in the fourth quarter from senior Sara Burns (10 points) and paint-controlling play from juniors Rebecca Stoczynski (14 points) and Destinee Young (12) in rolling up a 39-22 rebounding advantage.

They needed every one of them as Allie Bauch, Conant’s standout senior guard, poured in a game-high 19 points, including a trio of 3-pointers that kept the tenacious Cougars within striking distance. In fact, only senior forward Natalie Kutrumanes (5 points) and slick-shooting freshman Katie Lomas (12 points, off the bench) scored for Conant (8-16, 1-9).

Hoffman Estates wrapped up its West slate at 2-8 and improved to 10-16 overall.