Gallagher's shot drops Hilltoppers

The holidays became a little more merry for the Benet girls basketball team thanks to Annie Gallagher.

With her team trailing by 2 and the clock winding down, the junior guard heaved a 3-pointer at the basket. The ball swished through the hoop with two seconds left, lifting the host Redwings over Glenbard West 38-37 in the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament on Thursday in Lisle.

"That wasn't the plan for the last shot, but it worked well," said Gallagher, who was hugged by her teammates after the final buzzer officially ended Benet's seven-game losing streak.

Glenbard West (6-8) had rebounded a Benet miss but traveled to give the ball back to the Redwings (4-9) along their baseline with seven seconds remaining.

Katie Dunn inbounded the ball to Gallagher along the right side of the arc. The plan called for the home team to try to tie the game with a 2-pointer, but the Hilltoppers' tight defense bottled up Gallagher on the wing and she was forced to heave the ball.

"I had been dribbling for awhile, so it was, like, now or never for the 3-point shot," Gallagher said. "I, like, catapulted it from my shoulder."

"It's a shot that Annie will remember for the rest of her life," Benet coach Peter Paul said. "We needed a little bit of help and the ball went into the basket."

The heartbreaking loss was a statistical mixed bag for Glenbard West. The Hilltoppers shot 61 percent from the field but negated their accuracy by committing 24 turnovers.

"It's been our Achilles' heel all year," Glenbard West coach Mike Hofland said of the turnovers. "That's been our weakness."

Yet with the game tied at 35, Glenbard West patiently worked the ball around the perimeter for a minute until Kara Stack passed the ball into Kathryn Lux, who hit a turnaround 8-footer to give the Hilltoppers a 37-35 lead with 36 seconds left.

But Gallagher had one more shot to complete her heroics. She scored 9 of her team-high 11 points in the fourth quarter.

Nikki Bell contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds for Benet. Jessica Pavlinec sealed the victory by intercepting a Glenbard West pass just before the buzzer.

"We're just glad we got a win," Gallagher said. "We really needed this one."

Lux finished with a game-high 16 points and Nicole Hazemi added 10 in the loss.