Baumgartner's drive propels Addison Trail past West Chicago

Senior guard Marie Baumgartner and her Addison Trail girls basketball teammates resumed school Monday, but they never really had a break from working hard.

During that stretch Baumgartner personally focused on attacking the basket more aggressively.

"The last couple of games I've been doing a lot better than before because I've been practicing with it. Our coaches are pushing us harder at practice," Baumgartner said.

On Tuesday Baumgartner's key basket on a driving layup with 2:56 left initiated the final push that carried the Blazers to a 57-47 nonconference victory over West Chicago in Addison.

The Blazers (9-8) scored the final 8 points after the Wildcats (6-12), who never led after the first quarter, closed to 49-47 with 4:06 to play.

"Our team mind was to get back out there and show what we've been doing the last couple of games," Baumgartner said. "We've been practicing the last two weeks really well so we just wanted to prove to everybody that we can go out there and get the 'W.' "

Both teams were minus one regular starter, but a balanced attack boosted Addison Trail. Seniors Diamond Pikulyk and Alyssa Pham each had 13 points, junior Nicci Scorza and Baumgartner each had 10 and senior Diana Graciano had 9. Pham had two 3-pointers, Graciano and Pikulyk had 11 and 9 rebounds, respectively, and Baumgartner and Scorza had 7 and 4 steals, respectively.

West Chicago junior Sierra Koenig scored 21 points, 12 in the first half, with 6 rebounds. Junior Sofia Radice and senior Delaney Doell each had 8 points with Doell adding 4 steals.

Scorza, playing with four fouls the final 4:06, followed Baumgartner's layup by stealing a cross-court pass. Graciano and Pham each sank a pair of free throws the next two possessions.

"The whole motivation kept going and then the whole game just turned around after that," Baumgartner said. "We got the lead and then the bench helped out, cheering for us, and everybody just kept going."

The Blazers continued the momentum from Saturday's 52-45 home loss to conference power Proviso East.

Addison Trail's Rob Schader has beaten the Pirates once in 11 seasons as coach.

That game the Blazers also were without senior starter Jasmin Mehmeti, who is still on vacation, and key reserve Vincenza Zaccaro, just back from vacation.

"To keep it under 10 against them, and we had a chance at the end. We missed a bunch of free throws and turned the ball over three straight times," Schader said.

"We were very balanced (Tuesday and Saturday). It's good to see that balance at this time of year, especially when they're keying on a kid like Diamond (Tuesday). If a couple of other kids step up, they'll help you out."

West Chicago kept coming after three 2-point leads in the opening quarter, the last at 14-12.

The Wildcats scored 6 straight points for a 40-40 tie late in the third quarter. After the Blazers answered with a 7-0 run for their biggest lead to that point with 6:37 left, over four straight possessions Radice scored 5 points and passed to Maddie Brotnow for an inside basket.

The Wildcats didn't score again.

"I've been trying to tell the team that we need to raise our level in the fourth quarter. That's when teams figuring out you've got to rebound and play (defense)," West Chicago coach Kim Wallner said.

"We have a hard time playing defense. We didn't stop them. We almost tried all of the defenses that we play to try to get some stops. They did a nice job of controlling the game."

Pikulyk had 11 points in the first half. Scorza had a team-high 8 points in the second half.

The Wildcats played without starting junior Sam Wiegele, who was ill. That affected their ballhandling especially because Addison Trail opened with a box-and-one defense on Radice and usually used Scorza to defend her. The Blazers revisited the defense at various times, including down the stretch.

"She's their best player and obviously (Koenig) is very good too," Schader said. "Only when we see someone who's really good will we try that out. We just left (Koenig) open and she hit a lot of shots in the first quarter."