Sproat, St. Francis tip IC Catholic
IC Catholic Prep celebrated senior night before Monday's girls basketball game.
But once the opening whistle blew, it was the St. Francis defense that took center stage.
Forcing the Knights into 35 turnovers with a variety of full-court presses, the visitors pulled away to a 64-50 victory in Elmhurst.
"We've been averaging forcing over 25 turnovers a game," St. Francis coach Melissa Taylor said. "That's kind of been the norm for us. Our energy comes from our defense and we feed off that."
Reagan Sproat had 6 of her team's 20 steals and also finished with a game-high 19 points.
"We played good defense," Sproat said. "We got a lot of tips and with those tips, we got into transition. Our offense is based off our transition."
St. Francis led 16-8 after the opening eight minutes and extended that margin to 28-19 by halftime. But the home team fought back after halftime, going on an 8-1 run to begin the third quarter. IC Catholic pulled within 2 points on three more occasions before an 8-0 spurt by the Spartans increased the advantage again, with Sproat knocking down a 3-pointer with one second left in the period.
"We have spurts where we look amazing, where we are taking care of the ball, playing good defense and passing to everyone," IC Catholic coach Kelsey James said. "And then we have spurts where it looks like our first day. We don't really want to make excuses, but we are a very young team and they've had to step up in different situations that they are not totally used to."
Claire Gibler scored 18 points to lead the Knights (10-15), 10 of which came in the third quarter. The sophomore added 4 steals. Anjella Farmer tallied 10 points and Sophie Zanoni contributed 10 rebounds.
Shelby Winkelman had 14 points for the Spartans, Antwainette Walker totaled 12 points and 6 rebounds, Isabel Bettag scored 8 points and Sloane Baumgartner produced 7 points and 5 steals.
St. Francis has won nine of its last 11 contests to improve to 18-8 on the winter.
"We've been doing a lot of team bonding and things like that," Sproat said. "All of that teamwork is really bringing us up and making us play well together."