Conant pulls away from Addison Trail

Conant's seniors knew all about Addison Trail.

The teams play each other in their summer league, and they meet each year during the high school season.

"It's kind of a rivalry game," Conant forward Lindsay Fillingim said.

It was a one-sided rivalry Tuesday night in Addison, particularly in the second half after the Cougars came away with a 50-29 nonconference victory.

The first half was nearly even, with Conant leading just 19-18 at the break.

"We didn't come out as strong as we wanted to, but we did the things that we talked about: rebounding, playing hard on defense and making our free throws," Conant guard Hailey Andress said. "So we knew we had to keep it up in the second half."

They did, and then some. The Cougars opened the third quarter with an Alyssa Rawleigh 2-point basket, a Rawleigh 3-pointer and a Kelly Lomas 2-pointer before Addison Trail could tally a free throw. A Rawleigh 3-pointer with 2:22 left in the third gave the Cougars (12-6) a 31-21 lead, their first in double digits, and the margin was 8 going into the fourth.

Then the Cougars really tuned up their pressure defense, forward Jenna Heneghan said.

Conant scored the next 17 points before MeShaundra Donald's basket broke the Blazers' drought with 2:20 to play. By that time Conant had forced 6 Blazers turnovers in the period, including 4 steals.

"The first half wasn't that good either," Blazers coach Rob Schader said. "We just got lucky that we were even close at that point. We made no effort to run an offense, 23 turnovers killed us, and we kind of gave up in the fourth quarter."

Lomas led both teams with 15 points, and Rawleigh had 13 points and 4 steals.

Senior guard Jazmin Little led the Blazers (10-9) with 12 points and 6 rebounds.

"We weren't that aggressive offensively whatsoever," Schader said. "We didn't attack the basket. We didn't attempt to run anything offensively."