St. Francis frustrates IC Catholic
IC Catholic Prep's second half of girls basketball wasn't as good as St. Francis' first half on Monday in Wheaton.
The Spartans took advantage of an uncharacteristically bad start for the Knights, holding IC Catholic scoreless in the first quarter and putting up a 22-7 halftime lead.
In the second half it was the Knights who outscored St. Francis, 19-11, and even cut the lead to 5 points with 3:19 left in the game before falling 33-26 as time ran out.
"That was, I think, a case of not getting off the bus," said Knights coach Aubree Schuett. "We were absolutely 100 percent prepared. We knew exactly what they were going to do and we didn't execute. That's what it is, bottom line."
The Spartans scored the game's first 16 points through the 4:11 mark of the second quarter with some suffocating defensive pressure and good play down low from freshman Antwainette Walker and junior Sloane Baumgartner.
The duo had 6 points each in the half with Walker doing her work from the high post while Baumgartner had a couple nice drives to pair with her work down low. They each finished with 9 points in the game.
"I think we really came out with a strong effort," Baumgartner said. "Before pregame we were just like, we need to work the ball, work as a team, really work the ball because we have the speed and I think we used it to our best ability."
After being held to just 1 field goal in the first half, the Knights came out in the second half the way Schuett expected them to in the first.
IC Catholic forced some turnovers with its high pressure that helped give the Knights some momentum leading to a 28-23 game with 3:11 left to play.
The Knights cut the lead thanks junior Anjella Farmer's 9 points. Farmer scored IC Catholic's only field goal in the first half.
Despite struggling at the free-throw line in the final three minutes - going 5 of 16 - the Spartans held on and gather a 33-26 victory.
"They're a pretty good team," St. Francis coach Mike Phillips said. "We knew talking about it at halftime that it wasn't the team I was expecting in the first half and they showed us what they had in the second half. We knew they were going to battle and so did we."