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Strong start pushes West Aurora past Rosary

Even if West Aurora's press didn't force a single turnover Monday night against Rosary, Blackhawks coach Connie Siljendahl knew it would work to her advantage by forcing the Royals to play at a faster pace.

West's press did just that, and it also was awfully effective early at rattling the Royals. West Aurora forced 11 turnovers in the opening quarter, quickly jumped ahead 6-0 and never led by less than 5 points the rest of the way in a 48-36 victory between the neighboring schools - both fielding extremely young squads this winter.

"Any time you play a school next to you you get fired up," Siljendahl said. "They were really excited for today. We've been working on our presses and we felt we could use them today. We know people are going to break our press but we want to keep the game moving fast."

After splitting free throws to open the game, Ashley Williams scored on a fastbreak layup and Skylar Doby swished a 3-pointer. Doby capped West Aurora's fast start with a runner that made it 13-7 after one.

Rosary (2-3) did settle down and only committed 5 turnovers the rest of the game. But 4-of-20 shooting from the field in the first half put the Royals in a 25-11 halftime hole.

"First half we were scared," Rosary coach Jessie Terrell said. "They put pressure on us. Second half we played our game with confidence and good things happen when you attack."

Rosary showed that while winning the third quarter 17-8. Megan Conlin did most of the damage with 10 of the points, and Mary Kate Bakala followed her own miss with a putback just before the third-quarter buzzer to bring the Royals within 33-28.

Williams helped West Aurora regain a double-digit lead early in the fourth quarter with a drive for a basket and a 3-pointer to make it 41-28.

Williams led the Blackhawks with 17 points and 8 rebounds. Her fellow co-captain Carley Frauenhoff canned three 3s and scored 11 points.

"We have a lot of responsibility because we have no seniors," Williams said. "The fourth quarter we just had to step it up."

West Aurora (2-3) won despite making just 13 of 28 free throws and 13 of 44 shots from the field. Doby added 9 points in a game filled with bodies diving on the floor for loose balls.

"We look forward to playing Rosary, there's a little bit of a rivalry," Frauenhoff said. "There was a lot of grabbing. We definitely need to calm down a little more."

"What I liked was their character tonight," Siljendahl said. "They battled hard out there. We made some mistakes but we are still young. We'll live with those mistakes."

After a halftime pep talk from her coach, Conlin scored 17 of her game-high 21 points in the second half to lead all scorers and also grabbed 9 rebounds.

Playing her first game of the season, point guard Quincy Kellett had 5 steals and 4 assists.

"There's still a comfort level we need to get to," Terrell said. "Slowly but surely we're getting there."

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