Streamwood falls to McHenry
The Streamwood girls basketball team was on the verge of opening up a double-digit lead on McHenry in the game’s first six minutes Friday night.
And then a complete 180 occurred at The Swamp in Crystal Lake, as the next 26 minutes for Streamwood were a different story. The Sabres were the ones starring at a double-digit deficit instead of the ones commanding it.
McHenry changed to a zone defense, caught fire on the offensive end and the Sabres couldn’t keep up defensively in McHenry’s 60-28 thumping at the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving Tournament, hosted by Crystal Lake South.
Streamwood (0-2) led 11-3 with 2 minutes left in the first quarter but was outscored 25-9 the rest of the half. The Sabres managed to make just 2 shots in the second quarter and netted their first shot of the quarter with 2:40 remaining while McHenry was 9 of 13 from the free-throw line and 5 of 9 from the field in the quarter.
“The game was over in the second quarter,” said Streamwood coach George Rosner, whose team was also outscored 32-8 in the second half. “They went on a (17-0 run) and we scored two points. They went on an 11-0 run (in the third). Game over.”
Kiana Jeremiah led Streamwood with 10 points and 4 rebounds. Freshman Jenejha Williams, who was double and triple-teamed at times, scored all 6 of her points in the first quarter and corralled 8 boards. Foul trouble and defenses plagued her throughout but the Sabres went 2 for 8 in the second quarter and then went ice cold in the second half, managing just 8 points on 1 of 25 shooting. Six points came on free throws in that span as 15 came from the line alone.
“We took some bad shots,” Rosner said. “We’re still playing without (injured) Hannah (McGlone) so it’s a tough situation but we have to get through it.”
McHenry (1-2) received balanced scoring as Sawyer Lay led the Warriors off the bench with 12 points and Lindsay Skinner, Katlyn Sena and Alex Martens each chipped in 8. Ten Warriors registered in the scoring column and after shooting just 2 of 10 in the first quarter, McHenry did a 180 as well shooting at a 60 percent clip (24 of 40) in the final 3 quarters.
“We put a new offense in this year and (at halftime) one of our players, Greta Taylor, said ‘well let’s try the old one’ ” said McHenry coach John Dehn, who went to a screen roll. “And the kids executed it great. We got some nice looks and some easy layups and again, playing with confidence, I felt they really took off after that.”
McHenry benefitted from 8 offensive rebounds, 8 steals and 17 Streamwood turnovers. The Warriors won the boards battle 30-22.
“I think we just lost confidence in ourselves,” Williams said of losing the lead in the second quarter. “We could have done a little bit better on the help (side defense).”