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St. Viator bounces back

St. Viator's girls basketball players were disappointed with their performance on Saturday night against Resurrection.

“We had something to prove (Monday),” said Lions senior guard Taylor Skala, who was playing in her third game after missing five weeks with a bad ankle sprain. “We wanted to show that we were a better team that we were against Resurrection (45-31 loss in Chicago).”

The Lions succeeded and Skala showed she is back to her old form as the senior tossed in 15 points with 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal in a 58-37 victory over Riverside- Brookfield.

The Lions (11-9) improved to 2-0 in pool play of the Season's End tourney and will face Hersey (15-3, 2-0) at 7 p.m. next Monday.

Skala's 3-pointer gave the Lions a 5-0 lead early and they never looked back.

“Mr. (Tom) Blenner (assistant to Lions head coach Paul Bjerkness) told us in warm-ups that if we could get the early lead, the game could be ours and we did that,” said Lions 6-foot-1 junior center Lauren Rooney, who also scored 15 points with 11 rebounds, 4 blocked shots, 1 steal and 1 rebound.

“We started out with a lot of energy and we were moving the ball much better than we did against Resurrection.”

Skala had two nice back-to-back assists on baskets to Rooney and Kim McAvoy which gave the Lions a 14-6 lead after one quarter.

The lead grew to 27-12 by half as junior Katie Gavin started out the second quarter with 3-pointer.

Gavin finished with 6 points while Morgan Hess, McAvoy and Tracy Supergan each chipped in 4.

“Composure was the key,” added Skala, who will play for Rockhurst University in Kansas City next season. “I felt we had more movement in our offense this game. We needed to settle down after that last game.”

Riverside-Brookfield (6-11) will face Latin (11-7) next Monday at 5:30 p.m. at Hersey.

“Taylor Skala was the difference,” said Huskies coach Larry Rocco. “We didn't think she would play (ankle injury) so we wanted to take No. 10 (Gavin) out of the game.

“We should have gone to man-to-man defense earlier in the game and we should have pressed earlier.”

The Bulldogs were led by junior Danielle Peco's 17 points, including three 3-pointers.

The 5-6 guard was 7-of-10 from the field.

“But as a team, we shot 27 percent from the field,” Rocco said. “You can't beat anyone when you do that. We have to shoot better.”