Carmel takes charge
Carmel Catholic’s girls basketball team earned another win Friday night.
Kathleen Felicelli earned a pair of the coach’s old Carmel basketball shorts.
After taking a charge late in the first half of Carmel’s 62-49 win over Highland Park at Mundelein, Felicelli unleashed a happy scream.
“I have a pair of old shorts that I found when I was getting ready for the season,” Corsairs coach Kelly Perz explained. “So I said, ‘The first girl to take a charge in the game gets the pair of shorts.’ So (Felicelli) was saying, ‘I got the shorts!’
“We’ll see if she thinks they’re cool. (The players) haven’t seen them.”
What’s cool for Carmel is that the Corsairs are 4-0 at Mundelein and will win the championship if they beat the host Mustangs in today’s 6 p.m. tournament finale.
Carmel hit 13 of its first 19 shots in building a 28-14 advantage against Highland Park (0-4), and the Corsairs kept up the solid shooting. They finished 24 of 45 (53 percent).
“We finished really well around the rim,” Perz said. “We did our last game (Wednesday night against Prairie Ridge), too. ... A point of emphasis in our second and third games was to take good, in-rhythm jump shots or get a layup, something going to the rim.”
Felicelli led all scorers with 18 points, hitting 7 of 13 shots. Emma Rappe added 12 points (6-of-8 shooting), and Leah Lach drained all 3 of her field-goal attempts, finishing with 9 points.
Highland Park got 15 points from Grace Quirk and 11 from Lizzy LoGrande.
Prairie Ridge 68, Grant 56: At Mundelein, Sarah LeBeau hit eight 3-pointers, finishing with 29 points, as the Wolves won.
Maddie Drain added 16 points for Prairie Ridge (2-2). Grant (1-3) received 18 points from Kaylie Kanzler, 11 from Deanna Rodriguez (three 3-pointers), 10 from Taylor Drake and 9 from Jasmine Sangster.
Fremd 79, Lakes 27: At Fremd, sophomore point guard Ellie Haviland scored 11 points for the Eagles, who fell to 0-2.
Vikings junior Haley Gorecki led all scorers with 22 points.
“Fremd is a very good team and certainly deserves their high ranking,” Lakes coach Pete Schneider said. “With so much inexperience on the floor, coupled with Fremd’s up-tempo style and size, we were not able to get anything going.
“We burned 4 timeouts in the first half but really had no answers for stopping Fremd. The kids played hard, and I give them credit for not hanging their heads. We will learn from it and move on.”
Sam Ney added 6 points for Lakes, which hosts its Turkey Thriller today.
Antioch 70, Wheeling 66: At Wheeling, the Sequoits improved to 2-0, despite missing 19 free throws, which made the game closer down the stretch.
Paige Gallimore (21 points) and freshman Ashley Reiser (16 points) led Antioch in scoring for the second game in a row. Kelly Johnson chipped in 9 points.
“Our defense forced 30 turnovers, and our hustle in the paint pulled in 30 boards,” Sequoits coach Tim Borries said.
Gallimore added 4 assists and 2 steals, while Amy Reiser had 5 assists and 5 steals. Alexis Duehr also dished out 5 assists and forced 3 steals. Carly McCameron grabbed 7 rebounds for Antioch.