St. Charles East continues its fast start
It is only a small sample size but St. Charles East's girls basketball team is literally off and running this season.
Seniors Katie Claussner and Kyra Washington combined for 42 points while leading the Saints (2-0) to a convincing 71-55 victory over Rockford Boylan (0-2) in Thursday night's second round of the Schaumburg Thanksgiving Tournament.
For the second consecutive game, the Saints shot out to a double-digit lead early as Claussner and Washington tallied 6 points apiece during their 20-10 first-quarter surge. Washington drained a pair of 3-pointers in the first 8 minutes.
Four more points from Claussner and another Washington 3-pointer enabled St. Charles East to extend its lead to 32-15 in the final minute of the second quarter.
After the Titans responded with a late basket, Claussner dribbled through traffic and dished the ball to sophomore guard Samantha Munroe, who hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer as the Saints grabbed a 35-17 halftime advantage.
"That was a clutch shot by Sam right there," said Claussner. "Any buzzer shot - those are going to be big lifts."
Nursing a strained hip flexor, Claussner continued her assault on the Titans' defense in the third quarter.
The 5-5 guard was seemingly indefensible as she drove to the basket with relative ease, scoring 8 third-quarter points.
"I love fast-paced games - they're my favorite," said Claussner, who is averaging 21.5 points after 2 contests. "That's one of my advantages."
"It's kind of hard to slow her down," Saints coach Lori Drumtra said of Claussner, who finished with a team-high 25 points. "She's got a bad hip so we just tried to give her a break. It's hard to do that because she wants the ball.
"When KC can penetrate, boy, it makes it very difficult for opposing teams," added the coach. "Having Kyra standing out there on the 3-point line is kind of nice, too."
Washington connected on 5 3-pointers during her 17-point performance.
"Kyra is one of the most unselfish players I've ever seen," said Drumtra. "She'll find the open person."
Juniors Hannah Vitkus and Kelly Rinker chipped in with 8 and 7 points, respectively, as the Saints avenged last year's 79-63 loss to Rockford Boylan (the Saints trailed 21-1 in the first 5 ½ minutes).
St. Charles East has already surpassed last year's 1-4 tournament mark at Schaumburg.
"Very good start to the year," said Drumtra. "I can't remember when we started out this well."
Allie Zimmerman and Kayla Steward finished with 13 points each for Rockford Boylan while 6-1 center Halle Stull added 12.
St. Charles East will look to make it 3 wins in a row Saturday morning against Evanston (0-1).
"We want to come out of here with a winning record," Drumtra said of the 5-game tournament. "If we get past Saturday (with a win), I'll probably start thinking a little bit bigger."