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St. Francis tops Wheaton Academy in OT

St. Francis girls basketball coach Mike Phillips said the Spartans had not been in a game like Monday's 59-47 overtime home win over Wheaton Academy, and he was very pleased with how they responded.

"The final score was not indicative of how close it was," he said. "I'm happy. We're making progress."

St. Francis (5-3) responded successfully on two fronts. With 3:28 left in the game, Wheaton Academy (5-3) appeared in control of the game and was trying to eat the remaining clock. The Spartans, though, responded with an 8-0 run that included baskets by Leah Riccolo and Antwainette Walker that started with steals.

With the game tied at 40, about 37 seconds fell off the clock before Regan Kasprak sank two free throws. Then two baskets by Warriors guard Jamie Netzley, who led all scorers with 17 points, were sandwiched around a basket by Kasprak sent the game into overtime tied at 44.

The extra time was all St. Francis. The Spartans outscored Wheaton Academy 15-3 over the four-minute period. It was a big time for the freshman Walker, who scored 7 of her 15 points in OT. Elinor Cycenas scored 5 of her 9 points during the extra time.

Reagan Sproat was top St. Francis scorer with 16. Kasprak had 10.

Neither team got out of the gate in a good way with the Warriors leading just 6-5 after the first quarter and the teams a combined 4 of 31 from the field. Wheaton Academy heated up in the second quarter going 7 of 13 from the field and leading 20-13 at halftime. But St. Francis responded with a respectable 46 percent shooting performance in the second half, including a 19-point burst in the fourth quarter.

"We switched up a bit on offense. We were just trying to get more movement," Phillips said.

While the Warriors were fairly steady on offense most of the night, coach Beth Mitchell pointed to the team's 21 turnovers as the leading cause of the Warriors' demise.

"It was the turnovers. We beat ourselves. Give credit to St. Francis. They played hard to the buzzer. But we didn't make good decisions with the ball down the stretch," she said. "We'll go back to practice and get ready for the next game and we'll learn from this."

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