Wachal heats up as Conant tops Buffalo Grove

Conant sophomore Jorie Wachal shook off the cold temps outside to heat up the Cougars' gym Tuesday night against visiting Buffalo Grove.

Wachal, the only soph on Conant's roster, nailed four first-half 3s - three of them coming late in the second quarter - to break open a close game en route to a 56-33 Mid-Suburban League crossover victory over the visiting Bison.

Cougars coach Deirdre Naughton enjoyed Wachal's offensive output but said she was more impressed with the guard's defense.

"Jorie does a nice job on both ends of the court," said Naughton. "She's not only a great shooter but she usually guards, as she did tonight, the opposing team's best player."

Senior Dee Dee Durr came off the bench to give the home team a big lift, scoring 7 points but more importantly grabbing 8 rebounds.

"That's the kind of kid Dee Dee is," said Naughton. "She's an incredible player and she comes out of nowhere to do a great job on the boards."

Wachal's first 3 came midway through the first quarter and gave Conant an early 10-point lead, but BG fought back behind consecutive 3s from Maddie Welter (8 points) to close the gap.

"We know that BG is a good shooting team," said Durr. "We had to come out and protect the arc."

The Cougars (11-2) did just that as the Bison (12-4) would not hit another 3 until late in the fourth, and Conant kept capitalizing on the offensive end as well, taking a 35-21 lead with two minutes left in the first half.

Wachal's three consecutive 3s led the Cougards to a 16-point halftime lead.

"I spent a lot of time working on my shooting over the summer," said Wachal, "but tonight we knew we had to concentrate on 'D' because Buffalo Grove is one of the best teams on the other side of the conference.

"Even though we had a big halftime lead, coach always says to come out in the second half like the score is 0-0, and that's what we did. We kept up the intensity and played hard."

The third quarter had a slow start to say the least as the first points of the stanza for either team didn't come until 2:19 remaining, on 2 free throws from BG's Bri Kolbus.

"We didn't score," said Naughton of the long drought, "but they (BG) didn't score either, and that was important."

A drive and 3-point play by junior Nireet Dhillon near the end of the third quarter gave the Cougars a 46-24 lead, then the fourth quarter turned into mop-up time as both teams emptied the bench.

Senior Katie Lomas scored 11 points for Conant, while Dhillon had 8 and Haley Anderson scored 7.

Alissa Wachal pitched in with 7 points for the Cougars while point guard Danielle Engelbreit added to the strong defensive effort.

Karli Heneghan and Andrea Palazzo contributed with points off the bench in the fourth quarter as the Cougars finished 16 of 21 from the free throw line.

"I thought we gave a strong effort across the board tonight," said Naughton. "Buffalo Grove is one of the toughest teams we've played all year, but the kids did a great job even though it was the first game after the Christmas break, when everyone's usually a step slow."

"We want to get as many wins as we can," said Durr, "especially since we've only got four more games at home. That's especially important for the seniors."