Lisle completes perfect conference season
Lisle can call itself Interstate Eight Conference champion.
A 38-30 win over Peotone on Thursday evening not only secured the Lions the outright title, but it completed an 11-0 conference record.
After the two teams went to overtime in the conference tournament semifinals Jan. 14, the Lions held off a second-half rally by the Blue Devils and won the game in regulation this time around.
“We’ve got three seniors in Skyler Tomko, Kristina Fernette and Kelly Urban,” Lisle coach Dan Murray said. “They’ve been in a lot of big games over the last three years, and I think they showed a lot of maturity tonight. They’ve been great leaders and great role models for the younger players.”
Down 8-7 midway through the first quarter, Lisle (22-5, 11-0) went on a 12-2 run that was started by a Sarah Mogensen 3-pointer.
Lisle’s half-court defense forced 11 Peotone turnovers in the first half, and the Blue Devils were also held to just one second-quarter field goal by Caitlyn Crawford with 3:28 left in the half.
“We always have to remember to keep being aggressive and keep attacking,” Urban said. “Our press was forcing turnovers, and I think our intensity had a lot to do with that.”
Peotone began to chip away at the 11-point halftime deficit as Brittney Campione scored the Blue Devils’ first five points of the third quarter, cutting the Lions’ lead to 20-14.
Having overcome a pair of one-point losses earlier in the year, Murray felt that those hardships helped his team down the stretch against the Blue Devils.
“We lost by one in the Christmas tournament and we lost by one to Plano in the conference tournament,” Murray said. “I thought it helped us tonight because we kept our intensity and our focus.”
Lisle’s lead was down to four on two occasions, including the fourth quarter when a layup by Peotone’s Caitlyn Crawford cut the lead to 28-24 with 6:35 left.
However, Urban answered when she took an inbounds pass at the baseline and drilled a 3-pointer to put her team up 31-24.
Urban’s biggest basket came with 1:07 left and her team preserving a six-point lead. As the Lions broke the Blue Devils’ full-court press, Fernette found Urban all alone under the basket for an easy layup, after which Peotone would get no closer.
Urban finished with 9 of her game-high 14 points in the fourth quarter.