Daleske guides Lake Zurich past Maine West

Lake Zurich senior forward Elly Daleske called it about a one-hour drive for her girls basketball team to arrive at Maine West High School for Tuesday's nonconference girls basketball game.

Once in Des Plaines, it was Daleske's turn to drive - to the basket.

And she made it pay off by getting fouled and sinking 6 of 7 free throws en route to a team-high 12 points which helped the Bears to a 46-36 victory over the host Warriors.

Daleske's play was just an extension of her recent hot streak in which the multi-sport athlete has averaged 15 points in her last six games.

"Elly has been playing real well," said Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett of his three-year varsity player who has also logged many miles on the soccer turf, where she has been a four-year varsity player. "Elly had a nice game."

Daleske was one of five Bears to score in the first quarter which finished with the visitors holding a 13-1 lead.

Although it never built its advantage to more than 15 points, Lake Zurich did not let Maine West get any closer than 7 the rest of the way.

"We didn't put them away," Daleske said. "But we didn't let them get too seriously close, either."

The Bears went ahead 27-14 when Daleske spun her way for a layup with 4:48 left in the third quarter.

The Warriors (4-13) closed to within 7 when freshman Catherine Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left in the third quarter.

But Lake Zurich (8-9) answered with a 6-0 run on two driving bank shots by freshman McKenna Zobel (one for a 3-point play) and a free throw by Abby Pirron for a 36-23 lead with 4:10 left in the game.

"McKenna had a very nice game," Bennett said of his 5-foot-11 rookie forward. "She had a career-high (9 points) and she had 2 assists."

Maine West never got within double digits the rest of the game as the Bears got the lead up to 15 when Daleske's 3-point play made it 45-30.

"I thought we had two very good possessions midway through the fourth quarter where we made a lot of passes," Bennett added. "It always nice when you can make someone play defense for 35 or 40 seconds and then finish with a layup (Rachel Dawson with 4:30 left and Vanessa Divincenzo with 3:15) ."

Dawson finished with 8 points while teammates Rachel Kuehr had 6 and Pirron 5.

"We couldn't put them away," Bennett said. "We were trying to get the lead to 12 or 14 but it seemed like it would always go back to 8, 10 or 12. We couldn't pull away."

Pulling a lot of the scoring weight for the Warriors were freshmen Johnson (12 points) and Allison Pearson (11).

Monica Liwag, Jessica Riedl, Eliza Palarz and Jordan Hart also had baskets for the young Warriors.

"It's always nice to come back to this gym," Bennett said. " I have a lot of great memories here (including postseason successes for the Bears). You always know their matchup zone will be tough to play against and it always gives you trouble. He (Maine West coach Derril Kipp) has some nice players and they're going to be a good team."

Johnson also had 3 rebounds while Pearson had 2.

"We just couldn't overcome that opening deficit," said Warriors assistant coach Kim de Marigny . "We didn't have good shot selection at times and some nights the ball just doesn't fall in the basket. But we're young and we'll have nights like this.

"Hopefully Friday night (against Niles North, which like West is 4-1 in the Central Suburban North) the ball will go in the basket for us. But we have a lot to work on before we get to that game."

As usual, Bennett went deep into his bench. His rotation saw 10 girls make it onto the floor in the first half and eight Bears ended up in the scoring column by game's end, including Frankie Nasca and Theresa Baumann.