Wauconda stays on task at Grant
Before stepping on the bus, even before leaving their own building, Hayley Redmann and her Wauconda teammates had a good feeling about Monday's game at Grant.
"When we were shooting in our gym before we left to come to the game, we were all hitting our shots," Redmann said. "We were shooting really well. We were making our shots during halftime of the JV game, too.
"I thought we'd do pretty well tonight."
The Bulldogs didn't hit quite as many shots against Grant as they did when they were shooting uncontested shots during their shoot-arounds. But they did hit just enough to get a 44-35 Northern Lake County Conference win. Their full-court trapping defense, which caused 12 Grant turnovers, helped too.
"We usually do our full-court trap for an entire game," Wauconda coach Greg Dorgan said. "It also helped that we were able to knock down some shots.
"We made sure that we got into our gym early to get some shooting in so that we could get warm and into a rhythm. We didn't want to come out stale in the first quarter."
Ironically, Wauconda (12-12, 4-8 Northern Lake County Conference) actually trailed at the end of the first quarter, 12-6, thanks to some hot shooting by another Bulldog, Grant's Ally Mahinay. Mahinay scored 8 of her 12 points in the first quarter, including two 3-pointers.
"Ally is playing way beyond a sophomore right now and that really impresses me about her," said Grant coach Chris VanAlstine, whose team drops to 11-15 overall and 6-6 in the NLCC. "No matter what I throw at her, I know she can handle it.
"I really think she gives us the best chance to win when she's in."
Mahinay led Grant to a 20-20 halftime tie with Wauconda, but then Redmann got hot in the third quarter, and shot the ball as if she was back at Wauconda during shoot-around.
Redmann scored 6 of her 10 points in the third quarter to give Wauconda a lead (32-24) that it would never relinquish. The visiting Bulldogs went up by as many as 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Wauconda's press wore on Grant as the game progressed.
"We are used to people pressing us," Mahinay said. "We were just making the same mistakes and making passes that weren't there. If we just push the ball more and not just stand around on offense, something better will come out of it.
"We set a good tone early in the game. But when we started making silly turnovers against their press, things started to fall apart."
Grant got a game-high 15 points from center Mallory Harrity while Wauconda was led by Allie Tylka, who finished with 11 points. Mallory Carver added 10 points for Wauconda.