Libertyville stands tall against Grayslake North

Normally the saying is, speed kills.

Well, in the case of the Libertyville varsity girls basketball team, it's the height factor that's going wreak havoc with plenty of opponents this season.

Case in point was on Monday morning when the Wildcats used that size advantage to power past Grayslake North 50-27 in the opening round of the Mundelein Holiday tournament.

The win was Libertyville's 10th already, matching the total number of victories from a year ago.

"It's kind of nice we have a 1-2-3 punch," Wildcats head coach Greg Pedersen said after his team improved to 10-3 overall. "We had the size inside and knew it would come down to a battle of wills. We also had a lot of good post touches, which opened the lanes up for driving."

And speaking of the post, the Knights had troubles with containing the likes of sophomore forwards Carol Frea and Claire Keefe, and senior center Becky Deichl. The three combined for 35 of Libertyville's points with Frea leading the charge with 15. Deichl and Keefe each chipped in 10, while Keefe also crashed the boards with 17 and Deichl grabbed 9.

"We have three great post players but we're always ready for the 3-pointer," said Keefe. :We're just taking it game by game."

Keefe's layup opened the game and the Cats were never really threatened from that point on. Grayslake North hung around with Maggie Fish scoring all of her team's 11 points in the first half. After Fish hit 4 free throws to open the second quarter and draw Grayslake North to within 10-9, Libertyville went on an 11-0 run to add some distance at 21-9. Frea scored seven during the run, which was started by a free throw by junior guard Maggie Piazzi and culminated with a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Riley Weis (8 points).

"We had too many breakdowns on defense," said Grayslake North coach Rob Nicoletti, whose team slipped to 4-7. "Libertyville played well. They had lots of energy whereas we were not moving real well on offense."

Libertyville added more distance in outscoring the Knights 19-10 in the third.

Frea, Keefe, and Deichl all scored four in the quarter for Libertyville, which held a 27-16 advantage on the boards and only turned the ball over 9 times as opposed to 14 for Grayslake North.

Libertyville will play the winner of Lake Park-Conant in the second round at Mundelein at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.