Glenbard South picks up the defense in third quarter
Against a good team like Glenbard South, one bad quarter can be devastating.
Trailing by 4 points at halftime, IC Catholic Prep scored just 5 in the third period and lost to the Raiders 58-46 Friday night in a Metro Suburban Conference West Division girls basketball game in Glen Ellyn.
"We started slow, made a couple of poor decisions, but that's going to happen," Knights coach Aubree Schuett said of the third quarter. "I thought they showed resiliency in fighting back."
A three-point play by junior guard Payton Carli late in the third quarter gave the Raiders (13-3, 5-0) their first double-digit lead of the night.
"We just knew we had to pick it up because they were sticking with us," Raiders guard Ivana Markovic said. "We didn't do as well as we thought we would."
"The third quarter was by far our best quarter," Raiders coach Julie Fonda added.
The Knights (9-7, 2-4) trimmed the margin to 6 points with 2:07 left in the game on Anjella Farmer's basket, but Markovic made a pair of free throws and Sarah Cohen and Alex Laponte made a free throw apiece to give the Raiders a double-digit lead again going into the final minute.
The first half was tight throughout, with six ties and three lead changes. ICCP freshman Claire Gibler hit all three of her first-quarter 3-point shots to give the Knights a boost. She finished with 13 points and 6 rebounds. Farmer led ICCP with 16 points.
Markovic did her part in the first half for the Raiders, scoring 13 of her game-best 18 points.
"I was just being aggressive on offense and it went in, so good," she said.
Carli added 14 points, and the Raiders made 19 of 41 shots from the field, 18 of 25 at the free-throw line.
"That's good to see," Fonda said of the field-goal shooting. "Also free throws came through for us. That's quality. I'll take that."
It was the Knights' first game since the Oswego East tournament ended Dec. 27.
"There were some things that came out of those games that would have been game-changers, so we've spent the last two weeks of practice time basically focusing on those things, and they did that tonight," Schuett said. "So as far as getting better and taking steps forward, I thought it was great."
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