St. Edward tops Harvest, clinches Elgin City title
Having a cozy home court, sometimes St. Edward needs one or two quarters to adjust to more spacious gyms.
That was the case Wednesday night when the Green Wave played at Harvest Christian Academy for its third round game in the Elgin City Classic.
St. Edward led 27-22 at the half but would have had a much larger lead if more shots had found their mark.
The Green Wave finally acclimated to the Mitchel Swaback Athletic Center in the third quarter, exploding for 22 points to break the game open en route to a 67-46 win over the Lions.
With the victory, St. Edward clinched the Elgin City Classic crown with a 3-0 record.
"We've never played in this gym before. Not making excuses but it takes some getting used to," said Green Wave coach Michelle Dawson. "We felt like we were getting the shots we wanted in the first half, they just didn't all fall."
Samantha Ottinger's hot 3-point shooting kept St. Edward (7-14) in the game during the first half. The junior drained back-to-back treys to score the first six points of the game.
Ottinger added three more baskets from beyond the arc in the second quarter. She scored 17 of her game-high 24 points in the first half.
"She was on fire in the first half so that was exciting to see," Dawson said. "And that carried us through."
"My shot was just connecting today," said Ottinger. "And I had some great passing from the team."
Trailing St. Edward 10-4 after the first quarter, Harvest Christian (10-5) outscored the Green Wave 18-17 in the second quarter.
Ottinger opened the third quarter with her sixth and final 3-pointer of the night. Abigail Semerau drained her second trey of the night to pull the Lions within 32-29 with 5:31 left in the period. A Brooke Biggins (17 points) free throw ignited a 17-3 run to end the quarter with St. Edward up 49-32.
"They come out in the third quarter and the first shot is a step back 3 and it rolls around the rim and goes in," said Harvest Christian coach Jeremy Burke. "You are playing really good defense and that still happens, you're kind of like 'umph.' We've got to get better in our rotations defensively."
Dawson credited her team's defense for containing the Lions' offense.
"I'm really proud of them. We kept up the defensive intensity which what we wanted to do," the St. Edward coach said. "We forced a lot of turnovers."
Maddy Martin led Harvest Christian with 17 points. Teammate Melissa Fuja scored 16.