Streamwood shakes off slow start, St. Charles North
A 2-week layoff between games might have contributed to Streamwood’s slow start against St. Charles North Friday night.
Whatever the case, the Sabres (15-4, 6-1) certainly made up for lost time.
Trailing 12-10 after the opening quarter, Streamwood enjoyed a 40-15 run in the final 3 quarters during its 50-27 Upstate Eight Conference River Division girls basketball victory over the North Stars (5-14, 2-5) in St. Charles.
“The first quarter was slow,” admitted Sabres coach George Rosner. “All I can tell you is that we didn’t play for two weeks. It’s not an excuse but it has to be. We just haven’t played.”
North Stars senior guard Alex Silverman tallied 8 of her team-high 13 points in the first quarter on 3-of-3 shooting from the field, including a pair of long-range 3-pointers.
“Silverman got some nice looks and they made us dig down,” said Rosner. “They made us play hard.”
St. Charles North held its last lead at 16-15 with 5:22 left in the second quarter on an inside basket by freshman Morgan Rosencrants (8 points).
From there, the Sabres pitched a shutout over the next 4 minutes and scored 8 unanswered points to take a 23-16 lead, highlighted by a pair of transition buckets by Chicago State-bound senior Jessica Cerda.
Streamwood, which led 24-19 at halftime, closed out the final 5-plus minutes of the third quarter on a 10-2 run to extend the margin to 36-23 after 3 periods.
Cerda, who finished with 17 points, 7 steals, and 5 assists, and 6-foot junior center Hannah McGlone (13 points, 7 rebounds, 5 blocked shots, 5 assists, 5 steals) scored 9 of the Sabres’ 12 third-quarter points.
McGlone found Cerda for a reverse layup to open the third quarter, and Cerda returned the favor a little more than a minute later when she delivered a pass to the post for McGlone’s inside basket.
“She’s just a great post player,” Cerda said of McGlone. “It’s easier to work with a post player who knows that they’re doing and is a little more experienced. She reads what I see. It’s easier to call things on the court when you have a little more feel for it.”
The Sabres’ terrific trio of Cerda, McGlone, and senior guard Deja Moore (12 points) combined for 42 of the team’s 50 points.
“It’s just playing together — the three of them,” said Rosner. “They’re so used to each other and they feed off of each other. I’m happy to have that veteran type of play.”
Defensively, the Sabres held St. Charles North to 18 percent shooting (6 of 33) over the final 3 quarters and just 8 second-half points.
“Everybody picked it up after halftime,” said Cerda. “We said in the locker room that we needed to pick up our defense, pick up our intensity and make things on offense. We all took part in making things happen.”
Sophomore Nicole Davidson added 5 points and a team-leading 7 rebounds for the North Stars, who host cross-town rival St. Charles East this afternoon.
“The last couple games our shooting percentage has been really down,” said North Stars coach Colleen Backer. “We still got shots off but they’re just not dropping.
“When your shots aren’t falling and theirs do, you see that point difference start expanding,” added Backer. “Then your shots get even worse because you’re thinking about it too much.
“For the second time this year, we have Streamwood and (St. Charles) East back-to-back. Let’s move forward. We left our conversation very short so we can focus on tomorrow.”