St. Edward falls to Riverside-Brookfield
The final seconds at St. Edward on Saturday pretty much summed up the night. The Green Wave had a chance to tie it with 6 seconds left, but missed a 3-pointer and after a long struggle Riverside-Brookfield's Allie Kucera battled for the rebound to secure a 62-59 Metro Suburban West win for the Bulldogs after the Green Wave had rallied back from 14 points down at the start of the fourth quarter.
The Green Wave (8-7, 2-3) struggled from the perimeter all night hitting just 1 of 12 3-point attempts, while R-B dominated the boards with a 45-27 rebounding advantage.
With the win the Bulldogs (12-7 overall) stay even with Glenbard South at 5-1 atop the MSC West. Samantha Bloom led R-B in scoring with 19 points. Jessica JnoBaptiste added 14 and Lyndsey Hoyd had 13.
The Bulldogs came out on fire hitting five 3-pointers in the first quarter to build a 23-14 lead. JnoBaptiste had 3. Bloom and Hoyd had 1 each.
"This is a tough gym to play in so it's huge to get off to a good start," R-B coach Dallas Till said. "We gave them a day off practice (Friday) and they seemed to be fresh today. We are a perimeter shooting team so it's always good when we can hit some early to get us going."
The Bulldogs extended the lead to 38-24 by halftime and looked well on their way to victory with a 14-point lead heading into the final quarter.
R-B had a huge 17-6 rebounding advantage on the offensive glass resulting in 16 second-chance points.
"Rebounding is always a point of emphasis for us," Till said. "We are not a big team so we always have to try and outwork the other team. I thought as the game went on we did a real good job of boxing out and battling."
The Green Wave defense kept them in the game and sparked the fourth quarter rally. St. Edward forced 22 turnovers. Madelyn's Spagnola's transition layup off a steal with 25 seconds left capped an 8-0 run that pulled the Green Wave to within 61-59.
"Sure would feel a lot better if we would have had one more 3 or they would have had one less," St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said. "We kept fighting the whole way, but give (R-B) credit. They were lights out at the start and got the big lead and we just couldn't quite overcome it."