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Anderson, Conant measuring up

Haley Anderson is one of the best inside scorers in the Mid-Suburban League.

"I love getting the ball inside," the 6-foot senior center said. "After a few conversions inside, then that can set up someone to be open outside where they can convert from the behind the arc."

That proved to be the perfect method in the Cougars' 58-25 victory over visiting Hoffman Estates in the Mid-Suburban West contest on Friday night.

Anderson struck for 9 of her game-high 11 points in the first half, and sure enough the Cougars popped in eight 3-pointers to help pull away to their sixth win in eight games.

Their two losses are to a pair of teams (Prospect and Fremd) with a combined record of 20-1.

The Cougars (6-2, 2-1) gave visiting Fremd one of its closest calls with a 46-41 decision nine days ago.

"They're still disappointed about that game," said first-year Conant coach Deirdre Naughton. "One of their goals is to protect their home floor. But at least that game gave them confidence that they have a shot to go after this conference title."

The confident Cougars rolled to a 26-3 lead after one quarter and a 41-11 advantage at the break, with five different girls (Nireet Dhillon, Jorie Wachal, DeeDee Durr, Lexi Zades and Brianna Murphy) connecting for 3-pointers and a sixth (Katie Lomas) fired home one in the third quarter."

"When we have our inside-outside game going, that's when we are successful," Naughton said. "That's when we know we are at our best.

"Everything we've done so far has been as a team. It's been a real good transition so far."

The transition to the first-year coach has been as smooth as Naughton's jump shot with New Trier and DePaul.

Everyone contributed on Friday with Dhillon and Zades netting 8 points apiece and Jorie Wachal, Murphy and Alissa Wachal each collecting 7.

Nine different Cougars scored, including junior Karli Heneghan, who made a nice steal and converted into a layup in the final period.

"We're super deep," Anderson said. "Everyone is confident giving the ball to anyone on the floor.

"This a good way to start senior year, and we have a lot of seniors. Our main thing is to focus on ourselves. No matter what the record of the opponent, we just want to control the things we can do."

The Cougars wanted to control things early Friday.

Sophomore Monraia Wilson and senior Mary Saitta each scored 9 points to lead the Hawks (2-8, 0-3).

"We knew they (Hoffman) had some people who could step up and put some points on the boards," Anderson said. "We didn't want let that happens so we made sure right away that we were playing hard defense."

The Cougars limited the visitors to single digits in each quarter but the third when they scored 10 points.

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