Quaranta helps Lakes past Wauconda
A strong finish by the Wauconda girl's basketball team couldn't out-do an even stronger start by Lakes.
The visiting Eagles raced out to a nine-point lead by the end of the first quarter and then rode out a fourth-quarter flurry by Wauconda. Lakes eventually pulled away for a 53-40 North Suburban Conference Prairie Division victory.
"It's been an issue for us where we come out strong and then we start slowing down and the other team comes back," Lakes sophomore forward Isabella Quaranta said. "But I feel like as we grow up, we'll play full games strong."
Quaranta, who scored a game-high 13 points and also pulled down 6 rebounds, is one of two sophomores who started for Lakes, which improved to 8-7 overall and 3-2 in Prairie Division play. Classmate Sarah Zellmann, another starter, added 6 points, on 2 three-pointers.
Meanwhile, the first three players off the bench for Lakes were also sophomores. Forward Natalie Pawlak had 9 points, guard Natalie Iacopetti finished with 4 points and guard Shannon Hurlbut had 2 points.
"We've got five sophomores out there and we'll start four a lot of times," Lakes coach Pete Schneider said. "They're learning and tonight, they lost their composure a little bit. We're going to go through that. That's why we're 8-7 right now. But we've played a tough schedule and that's been good for us.
"These kids also play with a lot of heart. There's nothing wrong with heart. They played hard."
Quaranta kept the vital signs for Lakes pointed in the right direction when 6-foot-3 senior forward Olivia Pawlak (9 points, 7 rebounds) was forced to leave the game with four fouls late in the third quarter. Quaranta took over the paint, scoring 11 of her 13 points in the second half.
"She's a great soccer player. She's got athleticism like crazy," Schneider said of Quaranta. "She was a big boost."
And yet, Quaranta's burst almost wasn't enough to keep Wauconda (6-6, 1-4 Prairie) down.
The Bulldogs, down by 18 points just seconds into the fourth quarter, suddenly went on an 11-1 run that cut their deficit to 46-40 with about three minutes to play.
The run was capped when senior guard Natalie Harding hit a huge 3-pointer and senior forward Jessie Wood followed with a jumper. That forced a Lakes timeout.
"We played hard and we came back," Harding said. "We were finally hitting our shots. We played hard defense and got some stops that helped us get back in the game. Our press was good and we broke their press. That helped.
"We just need to start out strong and play hard right away so that we don't get down so far. We need to be focused earlier on."
Harding finished with 9 points, all on 3-pointers. Katherine Rossetti led Wauconda with 12 points and Hayley Redmann added 6 points.
"I put my starters in for another push in the fourth quarter and I said 'If we're going to do it, we've got to do it now,'" Wauconda coach Jaime Dennis. "I asked them for some inspired play and unfortunately it took us until the last six minutes of the fourth quarter before we got that. It was too big of a hole for us to get out of. We were not ready until the fourth quarter. That's kind of the story of our season. We've started slow."