Mogensen powers Lisle to tourney victory

Lisle senior Sarah Mogensen might not be a 6-footer, but she is mighty comfortable in the paint and is making a habit of coming up big.

The Lions' 5-foot-8 center powered her team past Latin 43-23 in first-round action of the Lisle Holiday Cage Classic on Friday night. Mogensen scored a game-high 21 points and joined forwards Kate Twaddle and Leah Reeves in helping Lisle (9-5) control the boards.

With an emphasis on getting the basketball inside, the Lions fed Mogensen early, and she delivered, scoring 8 points in the first quarter and 14 in the first half, each time equaling the team total of the Romans, who fell to 8-2 on the year.

"My team was making some really good passes to me in the post," said Mogensen, who recorded her season high in points and also pulled in 7 rebounds. "We shared the ball really well. Everybody was passing the ball and no one was being selfish with the ball."

Lisle, which will take on top-seeded Antioch in Saturday's quarterfinals, led 16-8 after one quarter and 24-14 at the half before growing its lead to 13 early in the second half. But the Romans, who were led by freshman Jade Edwards' 11 points, scored three straight baskets to close to within 27-20.

But the Lions stayed the course, using strong defense and rebounding and delivering continued scoring in the paint. Just when it appeared as if Latin would make things tight, Lisle countered with a pair of Twaddle putbacks sandwiched around a Mogensen layup and closed the quarter with an 8-0 run for a 35-20 lead.

The fourth quarter brought more of the same. Lisle held the Romans to three points, ending the game on a 16-3 run over the final 1½ quarters of play.

"We always focus on defense and rebounding and I think we did that really well tonight and that's what won it for us," said Mogensen, who has plenty of experience operating close to the basket. "I've just been playing that (post) throughout my whole high school career. I feel pretty good when we get the ball down low."

Latin coach Max Rouse was not surprised that the Lions went inside so much, he just wished his team could have done a little more to change the results.

"We talked about guarding Mogensen," he said. "She got great position down low. We talked about fronting the post and we just couldn't get around her. We talked about it a lot and we talked about it during timeouts, but credit goes to them for keeping it going."

Lisle coach Nick Balaban said Friday's game was one of the team's best so far this year. Even with Tyann LeGrand-Melton slowed all night by foul trouble, the Lions gained a 38-21 rebounding advantage and Kelsey Kretman provided a spark off the bench.

"For the most part we did a good job on both ends," he said. "We rebounded well and Mogensen, she was all-conference last year as a junior and she provides great leadership. She lets her playing do the talking and the kids look up to her."