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Conant reaches 20 wins in home finale

After Friday night's hard-fought 52-47 come-from-behind victory over visiting Schaumburg, Deirdre Naughton has started her coaching career at Conant with a 20-win season.

And her eight graduating seniors will end their prep careers with their first 20-win season.

Sophomore Jorie Wachal (17 points) and junior Nireet Dhillon (15) were top scorers as the Cougars finished second in the Mid-Suburban West at 8-2 behind Fremd and stand at 20-4 overall.

The Cougars withstood a season-high 30-point performance by Schaumburg senior Jada Blackwell and erased an 8-point deficit late in the third quarter.

"I'm so excited for these seniors," Naughton said. "They had a really special day for senior night last week and now they go out without losing on their home court in 2015."

The Cougars earned it, too, as they trailed 42-34 with 2:50 left in the third quarter.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Blackwell gave Schaumburg (13-12, 5-5) a 37-34 lead.

Senior guard Brittany Reinhart then scored on a fastbreak layup off a nice assist from Mallory Gerber. Moments later, Reinhart made a steal at half court and went in for another layup for the 8-point cushion..

But like all season, the Cougars were resilient.

They began their rally with a free throw by Katie Lomas, two by Wachal and a 3-pointer from Lexi Zades (6 points) that cut the margin to 42-40 after three quarters.

Conant tied the game on a nifty reverse layup by Lomas (7 points) but Blackwell (19 points in the first half) gave Schaumburg the lead right back when she drove for a layup making it 44-44.

A rebound basket by Tatiana Doroskin increased the visitors' lead to 46-42 before Conant went on an 8-0 run to take command.

The winning rally included 3 free throws by Lomas, one from Haley Anderson, a steal and 6-footer by Wachal and 2 free throws by Dhillon which gave the Cougars the lead for good at 48-46 with 3:33 left.

"They're a really good team," said Dhillon, who also had 3 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assist. "They have a lot of talent. They really came at us. It was tough but we just kept pushing forward.

"We were really looking to help out on Jada (Blackwell). I thought we stepped up defensively in the fourth quarter (allowed only 5 points). We've just got to play like that all four quarters like that."

Doroskin chipped in 7 points for Schaumburg while Geber finished with 6.

"We showed a lot of improvement from the first time we played them," said Saxons coach Curtis Goodwin. "So that's a huge positive. They are in top seed in our sectional (Geneva).

"Getting close, though, isn't good enough. So we have a week and half to keep pushing and getting better. We have some girls with a lot of pride on this team and they want to get after it in the next week and half."

Anderson led the Cougars on the boards with 11 rebounds while Lomas had 6.

"It's amazing - I can't believe the great season we've had so far and we want to keep it going and advance as far as we can in the state tournament," said Lomas, a four-year varsity player. "We know we have a target on our back as the top seed. So we have to come out strong all the time. We were playing as a team in the fourth quarter. Our help-side defense was amazing. We need to do that all four quarters."

Naughton, a former New Trier and DePaul basketball star, called her first high school team a special group.

"Everything has come together," she said. "They've done everything I've asked and stepped up to get 20 wins. That was our goal since the start of the season."

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