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St. Charles East falls to Evanston in OT

Win or lose the St. Charles East girls basketball team is picking some valuable close game experience at the Schaumburg Thanksgiving Tournament this week.

After a 1-point win over the host Saxons on Tuesday the Saints battled a bigger, physical and talented Evanston team right down to the end on Thursday before coming up short in overtime 35-30.

The Saints let a 7-point lead early in the fourth quarter slip away as Evanston scored the final 7 points in regulation to force the OT.

"I was really impressed with the way we were able to hold our own against a team that was much bigger and very physical," East coach Lori Drumtra said. "But we just need to execute better down the stretch. We didn't take care of the basketball and had way too many turnovers. Give credit to them because they had a lot to do with that. With the lead we wanted to take more time off the clock every possession, but they were very aggressive in forcing us into mistakes."

The Saints were fortunate to have even been close after the first half. East trailed 17-6 at one point. However despite shooting just 2-of-22 (8 percent) from the field in the first half the Saints fought back to trail only 17-14 at halftime. They converted on 7-of-12 free throws in the second quarter.

"They were having their way with us early on," Drumtra said. "But I thought we did a great job of buckling down on defense and just battled for everything we could get on the offensive end."

The offense woke up in the third quarter as the Saints scored the first 6 points. Samantha Munroe capped the run with a 3-pointer to put the Saints up 20-17.

Munroe hit another 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter and had an assist on a basket by Ashley DiCrio to push the Saints' lead to 28-21.

However, Evanston answered back with 7 straight points and tied it up at 28-28 on a basket by Leighan-Amori Wool with 44 seconds left. Wool scored Evanston's final 6 points of regulation and then the first basket in overtime. She finished with 12 points.

"She is a very good player," Drumtra said. "They started getting in inside to her more at the end and we had a tough time stopping her."

East never had the lead in the OT and was outscored 7-2.

Munroe led the Saints with 12 points.

"We played hard right to the end." Munroe said. "Give Evanston credit. I didn't think we gave the lead away - they played great and took it from us. Sometimes that happens. They were physical, but we came prepared for whatever they had and we played them tough."

  St. Charles East's Sara Rosenfeldt battles for the basket among Evanston's defense in the first half of the girls varsity Thanksgiving Tournament at Schaumburg High School on Thursday. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
  St. Charles East's Sara Rosenfeldt battles for the ball with Evanston's Krystal Forrester in the first half of the girls varsity Thanksgiving Tournament at Schaumburg High School on Thursday. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
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