advertisement

St. Viator drops Glenbrook North

Joy Bergstrom spent the last couple of years, as a seventh and eighth grader, playing for the St. Viator feeder team.

Now she's starting as a freshman on the Lions' varsity girls basketball team and making her mark for a team that already has 12 wins on the season.

Bergstrom scored a game-high 14 points Thursday at Viator's Blenner Classic tourney, as the Lions improved to 12-4 by defeating Glenbrook North 57-38.

The freshman said that the experience she gained honing her skills the last two seasons has given a boost to her stellar play so far this year.

"I think the feeder program gave me a really good idea of how high school basketball works," said Bergstrom. "Coaching-wise, they (the feeder team) run the same plays that we run now."

It was balanced scoring all around for the Lions as Aubrey Horbach scored 9 points; Elise Horbach and Emma Morrisey each finished with 7 points; while another freshman, Nora Ahram, hit for 6.

Junior Olivia Kosla led the Spartans with 11 points and 7 rebounds.

"We were really pumped for this game, we've played them (Viator) pretty competitively in years past," said Glenbrook North coach Danielle Fluegge. "They're very disciplined, and tonight we kind of lost our minds out there, if you will, and did some silly things that got us in trouble."

The first quarter was nip-and-tuck as Elise Horbach scored 5 points to give Viator a 3-point advantage.

Then the Lions strung together the first 11 points of the second stanza - led by 3-pointers from Bergstrom and Morrissey - to take a 34-21 halftime lead.

"We talked about how we had to come out stronger in the second quarter," said Viator senior Cara Denten. "Basically just play strong and keep the intensity up."

The Lions went on another run after intermission, outscoring the Spartans 9-0 in the first four minutes of the third to break the game open. Viator closed out the period with a 3-pointer from Ahram, then a steal and layup by Bergstrom to take a 43-21 lead.

"We shared the basketball," added Denten. "Our team does a really good job of getting done what needs to get done."

A rebound and layup from Lions senior Payton McDonnell put Viator up 50-25 late in the third.

Glenbrook North was able to cut into the deficit in the fourth but couldn't get any closer than the final score.

"When they started that (11-0) run in the second quarter," said Fluegge, "I told our team when I called time out that you give this team an inch and they're going to take it and run with it. Against a great team like St. Viator you can't afford to make mistakes, unfortunately we did tonight and they capitalized on it."

Senior Natalie Krause added 5 points to the Viator cause as the Lions were busy from the 3-point line, making 8 of 23 from behind the arc as the freshmen, Bergstrom (three 3s) and Ahram (2) paced the effort.

"We're taking it one game at a time this year," said Bergstrom. "We had kind of a slow start tonight but coach (Jason) Raymond and our captains talked to us about our defense, be more aggressive, and on offense move the ball quicker. That really helped us pick it up and get in the flow of the game better."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.