Wheaton North doesn't make it easy for St. Charles East

St. Charles East went to Wheaton North looking for a holiday girls basketball challenge. The Saints weren't disappointed Monday.

The No. 5-seeded Saints at the Bill Neibch Falcon Holiday Classic had to be at their best to get past the tournament hosts, defeating Wheaton North 76-62 thanks to a big third quarter.

"They're a very good team. They play very good defense. They put a lot of pressure on you," Saints coach Lori Drumtra said. "It took us a while to get used to it. Foul trouble didn't help us. We had to overcome that as well, but we did a nice job of playing through it.

"I mean, it was a battle, definitely."

The Falcons (4-6) took advantage of that first-half St. Charles East foul trouble and 16 Saints turnovers to take a 31-30 lead into the locker room at halftime.

"I think first half we played pretty well," Falcons coach Dave Eaton said. "The kids were executing the game plan and going right at (Saints seniors Katie Claussner and Kyra Washington) and I think we did a pretty good job. We got them into foul trouble early and got them off the floor. That allowed us to even the playing field a little bit."

The third quarter was Wheaton North's downfall. Freshman Sara Rosenfeldt's basket gave the Saints (10-2) their first double-digit lead with just more than two minutes to play in the period, and they led 56-45 at the end of the third.

"Even though we gave up 26 (points) in the third quarter, which is way too many, we kept it close enough that we were within striking distance all the way down to about a minute left in the game," Eaton said.

The Falcons tried to mount a comeback in the fourth quarter, trimming the margin to single digits again on Emmy Gryna's 3-pointer from the corner with 5:05 to go. But for every Falcons move, the Saints had an answer.

The Saints' shooting was a big part of that answer. They shot 56 percent from the floor for the game, 38 percent from 3-point range.

"That's awesome," Drumtra said. "I don't know if it felt like that necessarily. Actually, we had some games where we missed some easy shots. We didn't necessarily have that (Monday).

"You have to do that against a team like that. For an unseeded team, they're definitely one of the best unseeded teams in this tournament, if not the best unseeded team. We're thankful to get by them. Live to play another day, so to speak."

Claussner and Washington each finished with 21 points, and junior Hannah Vitkus added 12 points.

"You've got to give those kids credit. I think they played really well, especially getting into foul trouble early," Eaton said of Washington and Claussner.

Gryna's 17 points led Wheaton North, with Emari Jones added a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds to go with 5 steals and 4 assists.

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