Spiwak, Mickey help Meadows improve to 2-0

Sophomore guard Kyra Spiwak scored 16 points with 7 assists and junior forward Hannah Mickey added 11 points with 7 rebounds for Rolling Meadows girls basketball team in a 50-43 victory at Lake Zurich in the second round of the Turkey Thriller on Friday night.

"Hannah Mickey set the tone for us on both ends of the floor," said Mustangs coach Ryan Kirkorsky. "I was proud of our team's resiliency."

Sophomore center Katherine Nolan added 8 points with 3 rebounds and junior guard Megan King had 6 points and 2 assists for the Mustangs, now 2-0 in the tourney.

Conant 63, Queen of Peace 27: Conant first-year coach Deirdre Naughton earned her first win as Cougars senior center Haley Anderson scored 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Cougars (1-1) in the their second game of the York tournament.

Lexi Zades added 15 points with three 3-pointers and Katie Lomas chipped in 9 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists for the winners.

Nireet Dhillon handed out 4 assists while DeeDee Durr had 9 rebounds.

Fremd 85, Johnsburg 8: Haley Gorecki (18 points, 7 assists, 5 steals), Bryana Hopkins (15 points, 8 steal), Erin Lenahan (10 points) and Grace Tworek (8 points, 6 steals) led Fremd (2-0) to its second win in the Turkey Thriller in Palatine.

Palatine 66, Dundee-Crown 53: It would be way too early to label Palatine's squad a second half team just 2 games into the season.

But in the case of their 66-53 win at the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving Tournament in Carpentersville over the host Chargers, maybe the fact it took Palatine a little longer to switch gears, as head coach Mark Johnson alluded to afterward, had the Pirates in the right spot the entire time.

Palatine (1-1) battled back from deficits of seven points in the first quarter and nine in the second and after walking out of halftime down six, the Pirates used a 16-11 third quarter and a 27-point outburst in the final 8 minutes to completely outwork and dominate the Chargers (1-2) for their first win of the year.

"Dundee-Crown likes to play fast and we like to play not quite that fast," Johnson said. "We still were moving but it was a little bit better tempo and we just started getting better shots."

After shooting just 7 of 21 in the first half, the Pirates went 13 of 23 from the field for a 47.6 clip overall and the key was senior point guard Katilin Conklin. Conklin was held to one 3-pointer on 3 shots in the first 16 minutes but exploded for 17 points in the second half, which included 8 in the third and 9 in the fourth, to finish with 20 points. She and leading scorer Ashley Shapiro (23 points, 11 rebounds) combined for 29 of the Pirates' 43 second-half points.

"Katie was a key in the second half," Johnson said. "She really took over, got the game in our tempo."

Down 29-25 with 5 minutes to go in the third, Shapiro cashed in on a 3-point play to cut the D-C lead to 1. On the subsequent possession, Shapiro gave the Pirates the lead on a putback and then Conklin nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 33-31 Palatine. The run ended on Shapiro's layup off the steal and capped a 12-2 run spanning nearly 3 minutes that got the Pirates back in it. Conklin was perfect on all three of her shots from downtown.

"The third quarter I just started shooting more and found openings," said Conklin, who was 5 of 5 from the foul line and helped the Pirates make 22 of 29 free throws on 24 Charger fouls. "Our intensity just skyrocketed. In the second half we knew we had to pick it up."

D-C, led by Creighton Fed's 12 points, carried a 1-point lead into the fourth but for the second-straight game coughed up a late lead. Conklin's right-wing 3 put Palatine ahead by 6 with 7 minutes left and her dish to Shapiro on the block made sealed matters. The Chargers, who were outrebounded 37-29 and edged in the paint 24-20, saw a vastly different game unfold after they played the passing lanes, forced 8 turnovers and outscored the Pirates 11-4 in the first quarter.

"Even though we didn't do a good job in the first half, we were still up," said Chargers' coach Sarah Miller, who gave credit to Palatine. "We came out with no intensity in the second half; and they did and it was very obvious why they closed the gap. It was very clear they wanted the game more than us. They never gave up."

- Steve Nichols

Cary Grove 50, Elk Grove 34: Senior center Amber Lindfors scored 12 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for Elk Grove (0-2) in its second game of the Turkey Thriller.

The host Grenadiers also received 6 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists from Alex Masnica. Marjorie Sloan and O'Rayn Macavoy also had 4 rebounds for the Grens.

Crystal Lake South 31, St. Viator 28: Great defense and just enough offense.

Those were the ingredients the Crystal Lake South utilized in defeating St. Viator 31-28 at the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving Tournament (played at CL South).

St. Viator had a chance to send the game to overtime but Kayne Stanley's 3-pointer was short and the Gators survived to remain undefeated at 3-0.

"We tell our kids no shot goes uncontested." said South coach Mark Mucha. "We did a good job of putting pressure on the shooter. Our 2-3 defense was active all night and we kept them on the perimeter."

Despite missing all 10 shots in the final quarter and scoring only 2 points, the Gators' defense came to the rescue limiting the Lions (1-1) to only 4 points during the final 8 minutes.

"We had the game at our tempo," said St. Viator coach Paul Missavage. "We didn't want to run up and down the court with South. We got the shot we wanted we just couldn't get it to fall."

In a very slow methodical game the Gators, behind 7 points from Chanel Fanter, got off to a 14-5 lead with 4:22 left in the first half.

The Lions got to within 2, 22-20, on a trey by Stanley with 1:35 left in the third quarter.

- Dave Hess