Palatine hangs on to down Glenbrook North
Coming off a tough 39-34 homecourt loss to Barrington on Friday night, Palatine's girls basketball team was right back at it on the road Saturday afternoon.
"That's what we talked about in the pregame," said Pirates coach Mark Johnson. " How are you going to handle the adversity?
"It's a Saturday afternoon game and we wanted to make sure Glenbrook North had to match our energy. That was our whole pregame goal."
It turned out Glenbrook North had a ton of energy in the final eight minutes, getting a season-high 28 points for one quarter to make things interesting after trailing by 21 points.
But the Pirates' spirited effort for the first three quarters was enough as they held on for a 56-50 nonconference triumph in Northbrook.
Junior Kayla Miotk struck for a career-high 21 points and sophomore Madi Stark chipped in 16 as the Pirates got back to .500 (12-12).
Palatine enjoyed one of its best eight-minute stretches of the season when it came out of the locker room to outscore the Spartans 16-5 in the third quarter.
The Pirates took their biggest lead at 41-20 when senior Olivia Radtke tossed home a 3-pointer with 1:06 left in the third period.
"We had a tough game (the night before) so we wanted to come out with some fire in our hearts to get back to .500," said Radtke, a three-sport athlete (golf and soccer).
Radtke's 3-pointer capped a 16-2 run to open the second half.
Radtke also had a 3-point play to start the big rally, which included a pair of 3-pointers from senior Julianna Mandarino and two buckets from Miotk.
"Kayla had a nice game," Radtke added. "She made the shots we needed this game."
The hosts began to get back on track when sophomore Brooke Blumenfeld scored in the final seconds of the third quarter to spark an 11-0 run.
"We had every piece of momentum going our way toward the end of third quarter and we felt good going not the fourth quarter," Johnson said. "But then all of a sudden we got a little soft. We weren't putting on as much pressure and they took advantage. They started making shots and next thing you knew, it was a basketball game."
The Spartans got to within 49-46 when junior Ellie DeZonna hit a 3-pointer with 1:08 left and they closed to 52-50 on a 3-pointer by senior Jamie Joseph with 8.6 seconds left.
But Stark converted 2 free throws with 7.4 seconds left to make it 54-50.
The Pirates then forced a turnover and Stark added two more free throws with one second left to seal the deal.
"The night before we missed a lot of free throws and that cost us," Johnson said. "This time we made them so that was a big reason why we got the win."
Palatine set the tone grabbing a 9-2 lead.
"We didn't want to be the ones chasing their energy" Johnson said. "And I think we did that by getting ahead early.
"But they (GBN) are resilient. Nick (Capalbo, Spartans head coach) is doing a nice job and he has nice group. He has a great asset in Steve Weissenstein (former Glenbrook South Hall of Fame coach who serves as an assistant coach). He is really going to help. It was just a great basketball game."
Johnson called his seniors his emotional leaders.
"Our three starters, Olivia, Julianna and Melanie Simon are great leaders not to mention our seniors on the bench (Breanna Wiseman, Monfloyea Davis and Yunah Shin). They are all doing their jobs."
Blumenfeld (19 points), Joseph (14) and DeZonna (11) all reached double figures for Glenbrook North (11-11). DeZonna and Joseph each had three 3-pointers.
"Our press worked really well in the second half," Capalbo said. "We had 28 points in the fourth quarter so we tripled our first three quarters (22 total). We played awesome in that fourth quarter, probably our best for the season. We just came out a little slow at the start and that No. 33 (Miotk) is a good player."