Midrange game lifts St. Charles East over Larkin
Sometimes a simple strategy is the best option.
Bypassing the 3-point shot for a medium-range jumper, St. Charles East's girls basketball team gradually pulled away from Larkin in the second half Tuesday night in St. Charles.
Senior guard Katie Claussner connected on 6 of her 7 second-half field goal attempts - most of them coming on midrange jumpers - while helping lift the Saints (16-7, 9-2) to a 65-53 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory.
After senior guard Quixmia Washington drove down the lane for a layup to pull the Royals (6-16, 2-7) within 54-46 early in the fourth quarter, Claussner answered with 3 consecutive midrange shots as the Saints built their biggest lead of the night at 60-46 with 4:19 remaining.
"We kind of broke down their zone (defense)," said Claussner, who finished with a game-high 20 points, 6 assists and 3 rebounds. "In the first half, we were settling for 3s. We love our 3s but then we started working the ball around more and getting wide-open midrange jumpers. Those started falling way more than the 3s did."
"We found creases in the zone," said Saints coach Lori Drumtra, whose team shot 56 percent (14 of 25) from the field in the second half. "Once we started moving it around a little more, reversing it and looking inside, I thought we did a better job."
Kyra Washington (13 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists), Samantha Munroe (3 points, 5 assists), Katie Robinson and Claussner all connected on early 3-pointers as the Saints grabbed a 22-18 first-quarter lead.
However, the Royals stayed within striking distance thanks to the offensive exploits of sophomore guard Marlee Kyles and Washington.
Kyles, who scored 13 of her team-high 19 points in the opening half, and Washington (17 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds) combined for 21 first-half points as Larkin trailed 34-27 at the intermission.
"Our defense was not there but No. 3 (Kyles) is a good player and No. 20 (Washington) can do a lot of different things," said Drumtra. "They're kind of difficult to match up against."
Larkin fought to within 4 on 3 separate occasions in the second half - the last coming when Washington hit a fadeaway jumper to make it 44-40 with 2:51 left in the third quarter.
The Royals trailed 51-44 after 3 quarters but were limited to 27 percent shooting (4 of 15) over the final 8 minutes.
"We just didn't have the legs there at the end," said Royals coach Ruben Flores. "St. Charles East is a great team. It seemed like everything they were shooting was dropping in the second half."
Freshman Sara Rosenfeldt added 13 points and 5 rebounds while Chloe John had 8 points for the Saints, who stretched their winning streak to 5.
"Offensively, I thought we played pretty well," said Drumtra. "They forced us to play in a half-court offense and that's not our comfort zone. We like to get up and down the floor."
Megan Chwee and Shawniece Colen-Douglas chipped in with 8 and 6 points, respectively, for the Royals.
"The girls are coming together," said Flores. "The effort this evening - I'll take it."