Streamwood battles past Elgin
It truly was a tale of two halves for the Streamwood girls basketball team against Elgin on Friday night. In the first half points were hard to come by for either side with just 6 total baskets made from the field combined.
It was in the second when the script was flipped for the Sabres, scoring 30 points in the final two frames to down the Maroons 46-28 in Upstate Eight Conference River Division action in Streamwood.
"We had a slow start and the first half was just real sloppy," said Sabres' coach George Rosner. "We played much better in the second half."
After struggling to get anything to fall into the basket, to the tune of just 8 points from the field in the first half, the Sabres (6-13, 4-4) held a tenuous 7-4 lead after the first quarter thanks in large part to their opponents own offensive struggles.
Netting just a basket and 2 free throws in the first quarter, the Maroons (2-14, 0-7) stayed with Streamwood in the second thanks in part to a stifling defensive presence by Alisha Panthier on one of the Sabres' leading scorers, Jenejha Williams.
Panthier held Williams to just 2 points in the first three quarters and got Williams to four fouls, adding to the Sabres' struggles scoring.
"Panthier did a great job defensively on Williams," Elgin coach Dr. Nick Bumbales said. "She got (Williams) into foul trouble early, but unfortunately we couldn't capitalize on that."
It was more of the same for both sides in the second quarter, with the Sabres hitting just one 3-pointer while going 6-of-8 from the free-throw line to build a 16-12 lead.
That is when the floodgates opened. After the Maroons chipped away to within 2 points at 18-16 Streamwood made its run, scoring 16 points in the third quarter alone.
"We made some outside shots and that opened things up for J," Rosner said. "We needed to hit some open shots and we did. Madelin Exline hit a couple 3-pointers and that helped open things up."
Cayla Hawkins was one of the driving forces in the quarter, scoring her final 7 points of the night to finish with 12 for the game, along with Kiana Jeremiah, who was the most consistent scorer all night.
Jeremiah finished with a game-high 16 points, including 5 in the third quarter, but still the Sabres could not put away the Maroons, leading 32-24. That task would be given to Williams in the fourth quarter.
Finally breaking free from the defensive pressure she felt all night, Williams stormed through Elgin in the final quarter with 10 points while her teammates held the Maroons to just a pair of buckets.
"We just struggled offensively tonight," Bumbales said. "We played hard, and our effort was better than the last couple of games, we just struggled.
"We had some unforced turnovers and made some poor decisions on offense."
Abby Pierre-Louis led the Maroons with 12 points.