Mazza, St. Francis make themselves at home

St. Francis junior Mia Mazza knows all about Glenbard West's Biester Gym.

"All my siblings went here, and we have a long history of Hilltoppers fans and all my family have been big Hilltoppers fans, so it's something of a rivalry," she said.

Mazza scored a game-best 12 points and added 4 rebounds and 4 steals in the Spartans' 49-31 nonconference victory in Glen Ellyn.

"This is a little bit of a home game for her," St. Francis girls basketball coach Mike Phillips said. "The rest of her family went to school here. I know she was pumped up. We put her on their best player to start the game and she did well with that on defense."

The Spartans did well throughout the game, leading start to finish.

"It's a good way to get some momentum going into the regionals," said Phillips, whose team likely will open with Nazareth on Tuesday at the Class 3A Nazareth regional.

The Spartans needed a feel-good game after Monday's loss to archrival Wheaton Academy.

"We wanted to get a good mentality going into the playoffs because Wheaton Academy really set us back," Mazza said. "We wanted to get this win before we go play Nazareth next week."

The Spartans got out to an 11-5 lead after the first quarter, 25-12 at halftime.

"We didn't shoot the ball real well tonight," Hilltoppers coach Karen Persinger said. "Then we started pressing a little bit on the offensive end because (the shots) weren't falling for us. And then it kind of snowballed from there."

Freshman Antwainette Walker scored 7 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Spartans.

"She's a young kid and she's finding ways to get into it on a consistent basis, and she's done a great job all year," Phillips said of Walker. "We're counting on her to bring that to regionals."

Seniors Kassie Buchholz, Ellen Daniels and Ashley Black led Glenbard West with 6 points apiece.

The Hilltoppers will open Class 4A St. Charles North regional play Monday night against Glenbard East.

Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz